Learning to co-operate is not easy. We have different opinions and I have been using my veto too many times in important decisions. Getting back to clear waters after that always takes time and corrections, which in turn means that I procrastinate and hesitate to put things into practice. Unfortunately (yes, I know that freedom is the basis of love and God knows that we need it, and therefore saying “unfortunately” is just my fallen human opinion) it is I who have the right of veto – but fortunately He is the better politician.
Does God manage my life? I stop to think about the English word “manage”. I quite like it. A manager sounds like someone in charge, management can be the board, the people in power in a company. But “to manage” also has a more everyday connotation to it. You can manage to walk from Hanko to Utsjoki, which means that you made it even if there was plenty of hardships. How is that supposed to work? Well, it’s easy when we want the same things: our joint project is flourishing to the full! Easy in theory, that is, but in practice it’s another thing.
Learning to co-operate is not easy. We have different opinions and I have been using my veto too many times in important decisions. Getting back to clear waters after that always takes time and corrections, which in turn means that I procrastinate and hesitate to put things into practice. Unfortunately (yes, I know that freedom is the basis of love and God knows that we need it, and therefore saying “unfortunately” is just my fallen human opinion) it is I who have the right of veto – but fortunately He is the better politician.
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On the Feast of the Good Shepherd our brother Andreas Bucksrucker received his Admission to the Holy Orders at Stella Maris. Bishop Teemu Sippo SCJ celebrated the Holy Mass and blessed him. Last weekend it was the May Youth Weekend at Stella Maris, Andreas shared his testimony with us as the theme for the weekend was the Priesthood. What did I conclude from Andi’s story? That the Plan of God is always much better than ours.
Of course, these things go hand in hand, or they should, in order to retain balance and the harmony, happiness and wellbeing of humanity and the rest of the created world. However, our culture and this society do seem to follow some other agenda these days. Life is 24/7, and moving about by foot or on skis, after a ball or among trees has given away to cars, shopping malls and gyms where people can watch their perfected selves in advertisements or next to them in the mirror at yoga class. We are invited to make unhappy comparisons between ourselves and the others that we might find better or worse, and so easily we are lured into feeling envy about the former and something between encouragement and pity about the latter.
Advertisements tell us to strive to be more beautiful and more successful and to keep more busy. In fact, 90% of the people I know respond to the question “How are you?” with “Busy”. One day we had an interesting conversation during our lunch time at University, it was about something romantic. Before reading the rest of this post, please think about the most romantic thing that ever happened to you.
I am quoting from the lyrics of a song that we usually sing in Stella Maris during the youth weekends. I was inspired by today’s Gospel (Matt. 5:43-48): “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”.
Pope Francis invited us to pray for persecuted Christians recently, but I should really say that I also feel persecuted in my daily life in Finland (or Spain/Europe/everywhere!). We are not persecuted physically, but always, psychologically and spiritually. Did you understand what I mean? I am so disheartened that there are women who are pondering abortion as a right and an opportunity; I am so disappointed that people are creating genders; I am so frustrated I defend the Truth, but people avoid accepting it. This is my second Lent as a Catholic, at the beginning of my conversion, I don't really understand why Catholics are “looking for” sufferings. But in the past few days, I have just come to realise a new meaning of Lent. The True Meaning of Freedom
In my notes, these famous words from Saint Therese of Lisieux summarize the January One Body in Christ Youth Weekend outcome. The whole purpose of life is to find out how God can live in you and through you in the way that He planned from the beginning, from the time before you were even a twinkle in your earthy father’s eyes. God is love (1 John 4) and we all are made in the image of God. We praise God to be more like Him. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). This is how we are to inherit eternal life. Each of us is an instrument and only God can play that instrument the most beautiful way, as Fr. Gianni taught us. Or with St Irenaeus we can trustfully believe that the glory of God is the human person fully alive. By all means we should fight against the modern atheist idea that God would be in competition with humanity and praising God would somehow decrease the freedom of humanity.
By now we have had 4 Youth Weekends at Stella Maris. If you have taken part in more than one of those weekends, you will have noticed that we changed the poster after the November weekend. At first we had no idea about what the name or the theme for the weekends we were going to have together. Then one day in October Andi wrote to us about this inspiration: One Body in Christ. That’s why later on in November, that name started appearing on the posters for that month's weekend gathering.
Last weekend for the first time, I attended a “One Body in Christ” Youth Weekend at Stella Maris and, if God wills, it will not be my last.
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5&2This is a blog about being young and Catholic in Finland.
BloggersYiran ChenYiran, or Maria Micaela. Born in China but baptised in Spain (2015), student in Turku. Participant of the Youth Weekends at Stella Maris. Cooking, running and photography are my hobbies.
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