Key to Happiness.

The end for which we are all toiling, struggling and doing everything we do in this life is a search for fulfillment, in other words, a search for happiness. Everyone wants to be happy. We may have chains of desires and aspirations but the whole purpose of it all is to have a fulfilled and happy life at last. We go to school to study, to get good jobs and get money and thus, live a good and happy life. We want to marry someone we love because we will be happier with them. We enter the religious life because we believe our aspirations to give ourselves entirely to God will give us happiness.

Nevertheless, many have a wrong understanding of happiness. Some have a hedonistic view of happiness, where it is all about pleasure. To Some others, it is all about things going our own way. To many more, it is a life of no worries, no stress and freedom from any manual engagements. A deep look into all this will reveal the flaws in them. A happy life cannot be a search for pleasure because when pleasure is sought for its own sake, we end up becoming slaves to it and thus, loose our freedom. Even though, good pleasure would come along with a happy life. Nor are we to predicate happiness to things going our own way. If all of us wants things to be done our own individual ways, then, there would be chaos and no peace. More so, if we ascribe happiness to a life of rest and no labor, then happiness will be only for the rich and lazy.

O DEATH WHERE IS YOUR STING?

            The apostle asks, “O death where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting” (1Cor. 15: 55). Every day we continue to experience the sting and many victories of death around us. The sorrows, the pains, the nights of weeping and the painful thoughts that assail us daily, as we remember our loved ones, whom we cannot see or touch. We remember the happy memories, and even the bitter memories leave us with desire to see them again. Sometimes, we laugh and form to be strong outside but in the loneliness of our rooms we shed tears of hopelessness. How, then, can the apostle ask O death where is thy sting or thy victory? Is it not obvious in the immense pains and sorrows death causes us daily? Look at the little orphans that go through hell on earth because of death. Look at the widows maltreated daily because of death. Look at the youth who have to go through many troubles in catering for their families because of death. Can we not obviously see the stings of death all around us?

ST. BENEDICT OF NURSIA.

 

       The scriptures are always there for our nourishment and sanctification. However, very few pay attention to its dictates or try to obey it without compromise. Just as Jesus mentioned in the scriptures, that the road that leads to damnation is large and many follow it but that which leads to life is narrow and only few finds it. To the glory of God, the great father of western monasticism, St. Benedict, who we celebrate today, was not just among those who found that rugged path but he taught many thousands of souls after him to follow that path, and he continues, even till today, to teach it to many.

ST. VERONICA GIULLANI

St Veronica Giullani was born on the 27 December 1660, originally named Ursula. It is told that at the age of three years Giuliani had already began to show immense compassion for the poor. She would set apart a portion of her food for the poor, and even part with her clothes when she met a poor child scantily clad. In 1677, at the age of 17, Giuliani was received into the monastery of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Citta di Castello in Umbria, Italy, taking the name of Veronica in memory of the Passion. 

St. Veronica Giullani. The Holocaust of the Will

        "I have found Love; Love has let himself be seen! This is the cause of my suffering. Tell everyone about it, tell everyone!" These were the last words of the Capuchin Poor Clare Nun, St. Veronica Giullani. Her life was that of a total dedication to God, especially to the passion of Christ. We have a grasp of her spirituality from her 22,000 pages’ diary. The diary does not contain a well ordered and articulated writing for publication. She only wrote freely about her experience in religious life and her encounters with her divine spouse according to the advice of the Bishop.

Her life, simply put, was a life offered to God as a holocaust. It was spent in love of God, in dedication to the passion of her divine spouse, in love for the blessed Virgin, in love and obedience to the Church despite the seemingly harsh treatment and in an outburst of love for her neighbour.

Her love for her neighbour is visible in the many ways she acted with immense charity towards those around her. One day, Christ appeared to her with a pair of Golden shoes, to thank her for the gifts of shoes she gave to a beggar. But her love was more visible in how much she prayed for the conversion of sinners. In an outburst of her love for sinners and desire to see them saved, she cries out "O sinners... all men and all women, come to Jesus' heart; come to be cleansed by his most precious blood.... He awaits you with open arms to embrace you".  She spent a great part of her life praying for sinners; she would say "We cannot go about the world preaching to convert souls but are bound to pray ceaselessly for all those souls who are offending God... particularly with our sufferings, that is, with a principle of crucified life"