austraLasia

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love.”

                                                                                                                                                                  (John 15:9)

To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek Him, the greatest adventure;

to find Him , the greatest of all human achievements. (St. Augustine)

FALLING IN LOVE WITH GOD

Nothing is more practical than finding God.

That is, in falling in love with God, in a quite absolute way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination, will affect everything in your life – your desires

and motivations, your BEING and your DOING, your comings and your goings.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,

and what you will do with your evenings.

It will decide how you will spend your days for the rest of your life.

It will clarify your vision and mission in the Church and in the world.

It will decide how you will respond in love and act in love in every way

despite your human limitations and weaknesses.

It will decide what you will choose in freedom, consciously and joyfully to be,

what values you will live by, Who and what truly animates your life.

It will decide how you will serve others in a selfless way,

even to the of point of laying down your life for them.

Your daily dying in love will decide how you will spend even your leisure time -

what you will read , what music you will listen to and dance to,

 what songs you will sing , what movies and TV programs you will watch,

what will catch your attention in the internet and connect to  ,

and even the places you will go ;

how you will spend your free time responsibly and well;

who your companions are and your conversations.

It will decide your friendships and the people you are sent to serve.

In our case as VDB - Salesians - most especially the young;

what gives you joy and what makes you grateful, what breaks your heart as well.

Most amazing, in spite of your sinfulness, humbly aware that you are a redeemed sinner

  trying your best with God’s grace to overcome your faults and sinful patterns,

your life is transformed little by little day by day in every way

without you being conscious of it .

Till one day you will be caught by surprise that someone in all simplicity

will recognize the Christ in you.

Grace will make you humbly claim with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live;

it is Christ living in me”.

Falling in love with God is a grace and a miracle.

It is the greatest freedom - the freedom to love, the freedom to be

and to see God in everything and in every one.

Fall in love with God. Grow in love with God. Stay in love with God like Don Bosco and

Don Rinaldi

And it will decide everything, till eternity .

 a paraphrase of FALLING IN LOVE WITH GOD by Pedro Arrupe S.J., by a VDB

based on her Salesian experience of falling in love with God in the spirit of the ‘da mihi animas’ , DMACT +AMDG

FALLING IN LOVE WITH GOD

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

(former Superior General of the Society of Jesus)

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is , in falling in love,  in a quite absolute way

.What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings,

how you will spend your weekends, what you will read, who you know, what breaks your heart,

 and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love; stay in love and it will decide everything.     

DMACT + AMDG