Thursday, February 23, 2012

Ash Wednesday

When you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door,
and pray to your Father in secret (Mt 6).

Prayer usually is not easy for us. Therefore, Jesus gives us some advice how to do it. First of all: one praying needs to go to his/her 'inner room'. This inner room is a special place somewhere inside us. There one can meet God. This place should be closed for noises coming from outside. So one ought to close his/her ears not to listen to anything else but Him. Moreover, God is not an abstract Being but Father waiting to love His children. From that reason, one do not need to worry nor be scared but just trust completely. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Women's work

It is very clear and evident that women work more than men in their homes. I know that from my experience in my native country. And what is very interesting that I have never thought about the reasons of that situation. But now when I am writing, I realize that it is very complicated and there is not a simple answer. One idea which comes to my mind is that women in my country usually do their domestic work voluntary and do not seem to treat that as any disadvantage. Moreover, often in our Polish families husbands spend more time in their steady job and come home later than wives, so they simply cannot do these works. Furthermore, the truth is that mothers usually want to dedicate their free time to their small children and find it satisfying. However, if the members of family really love each other and are responsible persons, they divide their task evenly. And in such families it does not matter if you are a woman or a man, but both of them treat each other as an equal. This condition is ideal, but I personally know many families where the things are like that. So in my opinion undoubtedly everything depends on people and their awareness of the Biblical message that they are created as men and women in God's image. Consequently, they both represent the same value and have the same rights and duties.            

Monday, February 13, 2012

Missing Peace

You could give me a lasting peace
I need, I dream, I miss most
You could give me an inner peace
For heart, my soul and body.


Please, Friend, grant me your peace
From forests, seas and sky,
Please, Friend, grant me your peace
Of deers, dolphins and doves.


You could give me a peace of mind
As I walk alone on earth
You could give me a peace of blood
As I sleep under the clouds.


You could give me a hidden treasure
Which no one can buy from others
This pearl beautiful to admire
But too expensive to acquire.


Where can I find my gold
In ocean, mountains or village
When will I able to achieve
Your gift prepared in Heaven. 







Monday, February 6, 2012

The Prayer of Quiet (St. Teresa)

The Prayer of Quite is a supernatural state, and we cannot reach it for ourselves; for it is a state in which the soul enters into peace, or rather in which the Lord gives it peace through His presence ... The soul is now very close to its God and if it were a little closer, it would become one with Him through union (The Way of Perfection). 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Domine doce me iustificationes tuas (Ps 118:12)

Salomon: Lord, teach me your statues!
Lord: Come away by yourself to a deserted place,
and ask something of me and I will give it to you.


Very often we have still the same problem - the problem with prayer. We usually say: I do not know how to pray and what to ask. But if only we let him teach us, he would invite us to a desert. To a place where our soul is just with him. There, our Beloved gives us possibility to talk. We can speak what we like and ask anything. He is always ready to listen to us and to answer our prayers. Even if he does not give us exactly what we wanted, he always changes slowly our hearts to be 'wise and to understand' that real and true treasures are already given to us. These graces are divine peace, happiness, and love. Are we ready to follow him and to receive that wisdom?

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Presentation of the Lord

Small boy crying in mother's arms
His father silent and patient
Words are not important in love.


Pious prophet praying in the temple
And old Anna with wisdom of heart
Grace of Heaven is abundant.


People in a hurry seeing nothing
Bread, chatter and lack of time
Family is in the shadow below.


Only sunshine flowing down the face
Of child makes him smile
Sonata of wind and chirp of birds:


Alleluia, Amen, Word becoming flesh!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Cor unum et anima una in Deum (St. Augustine)

Whenever God is, there is Heaven. However quietly we speak, He is so near that He will hear us. We need no wings to go in search of Him. The Lord is within us and we should be there with Him - in this little Heaven (Saint Teresa, The Way of Perfection).

What a wonderful image! So often I am looking forward to God. Sometimes even I am sitting in the chapel waiting for Him and thinking I am alone. But it is totally wrong. Only think I need is a Prayer of Quite. In the silence of my soul I can find the most presious treasure - God himself. I do not have to do anything special to meet Him. I am able to live 'in little Heaven' already on the earth.