04_Today, I discovered heaven: Module n.4

Love like Jesus and pray always like He did (For you)

 

A) For the assistants. Ideas from Chiara’s themes: When you love, you are Jesus, therefore, you are continuously in prayer. – “For you”

1) When you love, you are Jesus, therefore, you are continuously in prayer.

How should we pray?  Speaking to the focolarini in 1998, Chiara remembered how, “from an early age,” she and the first focolarine had strongly felt this invitation from the Holy Spirit: “You must pray always.” And how to do it: […] to be able to pray always, it would be enough to be Jesus, because if we are Jesus, He is always in front of the Father, He is continuously in prayer.  And the Holy Spirit taught us: to be Jesus, it is necessary to love.  […] when you love, you are Jesus, therefore, you are continuously in prayer.  So, this command to pray always, which is then present in the Scriptures, was our command: and you must pray always. […]”  [1]

• “For you” --

And here are some suggestions given by Chiara in order to “Pray always.” We find them, for example in the talk given in 1988 on “Prayer in the family”: “[…] Jesus, in teaching to pray, said two things which seem contradictory, but it is not so.  He affirmed: “When you pray, say a few words (cf. Mt. 6:7) and then: “it is necessary to pray always” (cf Lk 21:36). Every family also needs to follow these two guidelines. Say a few words.  When? There are various moments of the day that, more than others, require some prayer in the family.  […] In the morning, upon waking up, in immersing ourselves in the supernatural world in which we were inserted in baptism, with short prayers to the Holy Trinity, to the heavenly Father in particular, to Mary, to our guardian Angel… it would be good to offer to God our day with everything that it entails, as said in that prayer which many know: “I offer you the actions and the sufferings of my day.”  God, in fact, must be loved, and to love means to give.  So, every morning, let us give our new day to God. It will be good to think of God also before breakfast, lunch, dinner. […]”  [2]

And here is another excerpt of the talk given by Chiara to Muslim friends in 1999, mentioned more often in these modules: “[…] For us, one way to “pray always” is that of offering to God every action that we do during the day, beginning it with short expressions of love, like: “For you.”  Even children know how to do it, and they do it with much love. They say they make of each action a well-wrapped little package to be sent to Heaven, to God, with a “for You.” In doing so, all our actions are transformed into a sacred act, and the conversation with God continues throughout the day. […]  [3]

B) Objectives of the Gen 4 Meeting

-To discover how, by loving, we can live “like Jesus,” and “speak” always with God the Father

-To discover the secret of doing everything “For You”

C) Gen 4 Meeting Contents: drops of light with the Sacred Scriptures and with the Spirituality (answers of Chiara)

Sacred Scriptures:

- first part of the episode of the call of the apostles: Jesus came on earth to teach us to live as it is in Heaven, to be like Him always, in dialogue with God, His father and our Father (Attachment C1)

Spirituality:

-Answers of Chiara (Attachment C2)

-on the dice: How can we become like Jesus – to live here on earth as it is in Heaven

 A gen4 girl: “I want to be like Jesus! How can I do this?” [4]

Chiara: She wants to be like Jesus, and she asks “How can I do this?”

We must do what we have been saying, we must love. But be careful. Let’s see if you’ll be able to remember what I’m going to tell you now. […]

First we have to love everyone. For example, when you go home you might say, “I love Mom, I love my little brother, I love Dad, but not my aunt.” This is not loving. Or you might be at school and say: “I love my teacher, I love my friend, that other friend ... but I don’t like that other girl.” This is not love, it’s not true love, and you can’t become Jesus if you do this. We must love everyone, make ourselves love everyone. This is what we did when we were young, when we were just beginning to live the Ideal. We have to make ourselves love everyone.

Second, we must be the first to love, which means, not second, but first. We are the ones who have to begin loving. When we go home we might find our sister with a long, sad face because she’s bored, fed up or not interested in anything; she doesn’t want to play, she doesn’t want to study ... Don’t wait, don’t wait for her to start loving you. You have to begin, you have to love first, and say: “Are you feeling ill? How is everything going? Do you have a problem? Would you like to tell me about it? Do you want us to go outside? Shall we play a game?” You have to be the first to love.

So the first point is to love everyone.

The second is: be the first to love.

Third point: we have to see Jesus in everyone; in everyone, everyone, everyone, even in someone who is ugly, even in a person who wears torn and raggedy clothes[…].  We must see Jesus in everyone, because Jesus is there in everyone. He said: “Whatever you do to others, you do to me.” So Jesus is there in every person.

[…] The fourth, which is also on your cube, is to love others as we love ourselves, as if it were me, as if it were me. I wouldn’t be happy if someone threw stones at me. So I can’t be happy if someone throws stones at anyone else; I have to love that person as I love myself.

So, do what is written on the cube and you’ll learn how to love. This is the answer to the question of the Gen 4: “How can I become like Jesus?” By living what is written on the cube; the cube also says that we have to love one another.

That cube is important, remember it. Remember that Chiara, (that’s me), that I also live what is written on that cube. I might not have the cube in my hands, even though I really like it very much. I know that it says: love one another, make yourself one, love Jesus in the other person, love everyone, even an enemy; be the first to love. All this is on the cube – hold on to it; don’t let anyone destroy it.”

-on “For you”: so that my whole day may be love, as that of Jesus

 A gen4 girl: “Chiara, what do you tell Jesus when you wake up?’ This question comes to you from Anna in Brazil, who is five years old.” [5]

Chiara: Five years old. Anna, a Gen 4 in Brazil, asks me, “What do you do when you wake up in the morning?” The first thing I do is to tell Jesus: “Everything I will do today is for you, it’s all for you. I offer you everything. I offer you everything.”

This morning, too, I told him: “The Gen 4 meeting is for you. My breakfast is for you. Going there by car is for you. My prayers are for you. It’s all for you....for you... everything is for you!” That’s what I tell Jesus as soon as I wake up.

Then, during the day, before each thing I have to do, if I remember, I tell Jesus: “This is for you, too, this is for you, this is for you.”

In this slide, you see a Gen 4 boy who just woke up and says, “Jesus, I offer you everything. Everything is for you. My whole life is for you. My whole day is for you.” And instead here is a Gen 4 girl. Before starting her breakfast, she says, “I also offer my breakfast to you; it’s for you.” And here is a Gen 4 helping her mother, and she says, “Helping my mom is for you, Jesus – for you, for you!” (Applause)

 

D) Ideas and other material for the conduct of the meeting (Attachment D)

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[1] C. Lubich, Castel Gandolfo, December 24, 1998, to the focolarinos, “V° tema della spiritualità collettiva – III° aspetto: 'L'amore eleva'".

[2] C. Lubich, Faenza, April 10, 1988, to the families, “La preghiera in famiglia”.

[3] C. Lubich, Castel Gandolfo, October 25, 1999, meeting of Muslim friends, “La preghiera, la meditazione e l'unione con Dio”.

[4] C. Lubich, Castel Gandolfo, June 7, 1998, Gen4 Congress, answer no.5.

[5]  C. Lubich, Castel Gandolfo, June 18, 1988, Gen4 Congress, answer no.10.

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