5 Virtues Study Guide

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National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City

November 20, 2009; 22000 youth in procession with Christ the King

Incorruptibility

Laugh is contagious. You will not resist!

Act Eucharistically!

"Through the Eucharist God changes us as surely as he changed the elements of bread and wine into himself. He forms us as living stones in the temple of his Church. He builds up a eucharistic culture to replace the culture of death. "Think globally? Act eucharistically. It's the sacrament that renews the earth!”

The Safest Place!

A study on accidental death occurrences shows that (a) 20% of all fatal accidents occur in automobiles, (b) 17% of all accidents occur in the home, (c) 14% of all accidents occur to pedestrians on streets or sidewalks, (d) 16% of all accidents involve traveling by air, rail, or water, (e) 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals, and (f) only .001% of all deaths occur in church during worship services. According to this study, therefore, the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is not in your car, or in the home or in the hospital but in church!

The incomprehensibility of suffering is part of the incomprehensibility of God.

With these words, the great theologian Karl Rahner invites us to reflect on suffering which is shrouded in profound mystery. We should seek the meaning of suffering in our life and in the life of the other, exactly like we can and should reflect on God, and always do so with a profound respect for the mystery. We are confronted with something incomprehensible although it is a reality that can be felt, experienced.

When we succeed we accept suffering as a mystery we can deal with the failure of not being able to fully understand it.

Then suffering could even help us give God a place in our life. For, as Rahner states, the incomprehensibility of suffering is part of the incomprehensibility of God. We conclude that not everything in life can be understood, that there lies something more behind the visible and tangible reality, that we are part of a greater mystery. And when we are confronted with suffering, we enter the mystery of God himself. Why has God created man as potential bearers of suffering and why did He make mortality a perspective? Could He have created man differently, without suffering? Our answer is yes and no.

Yes, in his omnipotence God had the possibility to create an entirely different man, one who did not have to suffer and who would not die and who would live in complete harmony with God from the onset. It would be heaven on earth; earth and heaven would be one. Apparently, God wanted it otherwise, and set harmony between God and man as a target. By doing so, God gave man something great, i.e. his freedom and independence. Maybe this is exactly that divine aspect that is planted in our hearts: the fact that the dynamics of seeking God have been placed in our hands.

As a consequence man is en route towards completion, which is to be found in harmony with God and which we call eternal life. By becoming a man himself and by revealing eternal life through suffering and death God showed us that eternal life is not a fantasy created in the mind of man. He particularly indicated that love should be the central to our journey to God. And love is only humanly possible when it can grow freely. Love remains an invitation until the last day of our life, the love for God and for the concrete neighbour.

Our mission is to develop the earth in a good way, and the many ecological problems show us how we failed to do so. We must try to improve the life situation of our neighbours and we must make the most of our talents. Yet, at the same time, we should continue to realise that we did not create the universe but are merely co-workers and administrators of what God has temporarily placed in our hands. Every form of suffering that comes over us or that we are confronted with in our environment (cataclysm, famine) is a salutary memory of this. It prevents us from wanting to create heaven on this earth and thinking ourselves God.

Suffering cures us from these delusions and puts us on our way towards the true heaven and the one God. For this is what we should desire in life and not cling to what is tangible and visible. The earth is good, all earthly things are temporarily in our hands, we should dedicate ourselves to improve these earthly things, we should keep open the perspective of the resurrection in this temporality but we should realise that the here and now can only be about a perspective of the resurrection.

Jesus has reached his divine destination through suffering and death. Suffering and death are God’s mysterious ways that lead us to the full life. Suffering and every confrontation with death should remind us of the fact that we do not have permanent residence here. Therefore, we need suffering and death to break the persistent myth of earthly certainty.

In the life of Jesus we can see what great part suffering plays: suffering which He does not seek but which comes over Him and which He accepts. Not suffering but the love of Jesus saved the world. Jesus did everything with and starting from love, even the acceptance of his unjust suffering and his untimely death. The life of Jesus is not what we would consider a successful life. He was not acknowledged by his own people, he died abandoned by virtually everyone. His love made of Him the ideal man. Love was the only main theme in the life of Jesus: love for his Father, which translated into love for the neighbour, love that was stronger than the worst of suffering and the cruellest death.

Did Jesus answer the question about the meaning of suffering? He showed us that suffering is a part of life, and that suffering loses its hopelessness in the light of the resurrection and of eternal life. No, He did not unveil the mystery of suffering; He left it in the mystery of God. He just showed us that even the worst agonies of suffering or an apparent complete failure of life according to human norms never have the final word. The only thing that matters is love: from and because of God’s love we came into this world, we are called to live increasingly in this divine love so as to eventually be fully immersed in God’s love.

Bro. René Stockman, f.c.

He made it!!!

Born illegally from a slave, Martin, thanks to his dedication, was admitted to serve the Dominicans, and later full member of the order. Collecting the alms in the city, serving the poor, the sick (even if animals) he became great in the eyes of God, of the Church and of man because he did all his menial tasks with God. He teaches us powerfully that whatever great works we do,if not done with God, in prayer and humility, they are nothing!

Kunchi- The Key

Our Drug rehabilitation Center in Indonesia.

Maurice Zundel We do not have to bother for our salvation but about the crucifixion of God. We risk nothing from God. Would a mother sacrifice her child ? No she would take its place and die for it ! Would God be less than a mother ? This is impossible ; God is infinitely more mother than any mother. We do not risk anything from God, it is He who risks everything from us because we can close ourselves, we can refuse, reject, get distracted, be absent and He is without defense against us.
This is why the christian has not to bother for his salvation ; the point is not to save ourselves but to save God from us, to save God from our darkness, our limits, our rejections, our absences, our distractions, as St Paul puts it, « de ne pas éteindre l’Esprit ». God is Love. God is only Love. He cannot do anything else than love and when love is not loved, it dies. This is what happens to God. Anyone can kill Him and this is how Graham Greene could say in « The Pover and the Glory » : « To love God, it is to protect Him from ourselves. To love God it is to protect Him against ourselves… !
(translated from :
Il ne s'agit donc plus de trembler pour notre salut, mais de trembler pour la crucifixion de Dieu. Nous ne risquons rien du côté de Dieu. Est-ce qu'une mère va supplicier son enfant? Non, elle va prendre sa place. Est-ce que Dieu est moins mère, moins mère qu'une mère humaine? C'est impossible, Il est infiniment plus mère que toutes les mères. Nous ne risquons rien du côté de Dieu, c'est Lui qui risque tout de notre côté, car nous pouvons nous fermer, nous pouvons nous refuser, nous pouvons nous distraire, nous pouvons nous absenter et Il est sans défense contre nous.
Et c'est pourquoi le chrétien est déchargé du souci de son salut: il ne s'agit pas de se sauver mais de sauver Dieu de nous, de sauver Dieu de nos ténèbres, de nos limites, de nos refus, de nos absences, de nos distractions, afin, comme dit saint Paul, de ne pas éteindre l'Esprit. Dieu est Amour. Dieu n'est qu'Amour. Il ne peut qu'aimer et quand l'amour n'est pas aimé, il meurt. C'est ce que Dieu fait. N'importe qui peut Le tuer et c'est pourquoi Graham Greene a pu dire dans La Puissance et la Gloire: «Aimer Dieu, c'est vouloir Le protéger contre nous-mêmes. Aimer Dieu, c'est vouloir Le protéger contre nous-mêmes...»

Provincial's Circular letter

St. AUGUSTINE PROVINCE / AFRICA

Circular Letter to the Brothers and Associate members
ROM1
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Dear Brothers and associate members,
Here's to bring to your attention that; since October 10 I moved to Abidjan as Provincial of St. Augustine Province/ Africa.
I want to thank Brother Dieudonné Munkonkole for the three years he worked as Provincial Superior. I had to wait for the appointment of a new Regional Superior for Rwanda before leaving for Abidjan.
If my installation took a little more time; it was because of multiple functions that I accumulated in Rwanda.
There I was not only regional superior but also the Legal Representative of HVP Gatagara.
During Brother General’s Visit in Rwanda mid September Brother Deogratias Rwabudandi has been appointed as Regional Superior. Brother Charles Nkubili replaced me as the legal representative of HVP Gatagara and Brother Kizito Misago as the local superior of our community in Butare.
Being now in Abidjan for a moment I want to communicate the following information:
Email Address: vanhyftefc@yahoo.fr
Mobile Phone:
In Rwanda + 250 (0) 788825813
In Côte d'Ivoire: + 22549218942
My tentative schedule subject to possible adjustments:
October 10th to 27th: Ivory Coast
October 27th to November 4th: Rwanda
November 5th to 7th: Bukavu (DRC)
N.B. November 6th there will be a Perpetual Profession of Brother Justin Bashombe and Ghislain Wilondja in Bukavu
November 8th to 12th: Rwanda
November 13th to 15th: Bujumbura
November 16th to December 6th: Tanzania
December 7th to 10th: Rwanda
December 10th: Abidjan
While waiting to meet you personally, I ask you to reflect on the following three questions:
1 Do I find joy in my personal and communal prayer?
2 Do I find joy in being a member of my community?
3 Do I find joy in serving the poor, children, sick, disabled ...?
Indeed the religious life as a Brother of Charity should give us great joy.
This does not mean that there are neither difficulties nor sufferings.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta asked her sisters to radiate happiness and why not we, too?
This is the best testimony to the value of religious life.


1 Do I find joy in the personal and communal prayer?
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As religious we have the privilege to start and finish the day with a communal prayer followed by daily Mass. But do not forget moments of personal prayer.
An self daily conscious evaluation at the end of the day has been recommended in religion.

2 Do I find joy in being a member of my community?
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As a community we must ask what my contribution for the welding of my community is? A pleasant and welcoming community is the glue that united us day after day.

3 Do I find joy in my ministry?
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As a member of an apostolic community I must find my joy and fulfillment in an apostolic valued service. That is why the Congregation made invest a lot in the formation of our young brothers in order to prepare them for the apostolate.
Don’t wait until my visit to your community to reflect on these three issues.
I believe these issues can also be used as topic for several community meetings, in preparation of my visit.

In the meantime I pray for all our brothers in St. Augustine Province that they find joy in Jesus, which can be radiated in the collaboration with our colleagues and in our apostolate.
I prefer that you could contradict the words of St. Augustine, saying: "Lord before the sooner I knew you, the sooner I loved you and found the joy of serving You.”

Abidjan October 12th, 2009

Brother Romain Van Hyfte, fc

Provincial Superior

New Website of BOC in the Americas

New Look of the BOC Website

Copy link and Listen to

http://www.maniacworld.com/humans-out-sheep-the-sheep.html

Open letter

Dear Bro. Donald,
Thank you for your birthday wishes filles with prayer so that the Lord help me to carry his message in the head of the novices. During this month of the Rosary I reread the famous encyclical of Pope John Paul the Second on the Rosary in order to share it with the novices. This xtraordinary encyclical contains a real profound summary of the story of salvation and shows the role Mary and ourselves are invited to play. I read even the old encyclical of Leon XIII inviting to recite the rosary in front of the Holy Sacrament exposed. We fear speak to Mary and sing to her during our Friday Adoration not to make Jesus jealous!... It might be an influence of Taizé that knows no marian song.
I am rereading the conciliar documents to “refresh” my memory and better present the Church doctrine in my lessons. These documents inspired the famous CCC. I enjoyed your “coverage” of the celebrations in DR’ville and printed the message of Alexandre Cusson for the novices. It was great and this was surely tanks to Alexandre. His witness is really strong. With my better wishes extended to your valiant students for successful intellectual and spiritual progress. Abrazo fraterno. Pepito.

On Stress Control

"The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles." - Anonymous

Why Go To Mass?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting their time.

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals But I do know this.They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. Likewise, if I had not gone to church, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing..... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!

BROTHERS OF CHARITY
R.S. 41

Baguio, 27 September 2009

Beloved Confreres and Associate Members,
On this day, 27 September 2009, feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, patron saint of our congregation, and also opening of the jubilee year on the occasion of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the death of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise de Marillac, I would like to extend my best wishes to you all, Confreres and Associate Members, from Baguio. Indeed, we are in Baguio, the Philippines today where we have come to consecrate a new community house. The theme of the ceremony was Saint Vincent and we started this day with a beautiful morning prayer in the new chapel of the house. We placed a relic by the statue of Saint Vincent to intensify his presence in our midst.
Saint Vincent is a saint who continues to inspire. We have thoroughly considered it, we have written and spoken about it during the past year, which was focused on our preferential option for the poor in line with Saint Vincent’s spirituality. It was an incitement to continue to be inspired by Saint Vincent and his incarnated spirituality. He has a true message for our congregation, for all brothers and associate members, and for all who work in our apostolate.
“The poor are our masters whom we must serve with love and respect.” Even to this day, this phrase causes quite a stir. After 350 years it is still very unusual to consider the poor as our masters, to listen to them and to truly serve them as our masters. Maybe this phrase is too easily uttered or repeated without realising what is actually involves. It is still quite revolutionary and vital at the same time for our life and work as Brothers of Charity, who wish to continue in Saint Vincent’s footsteps. Constantly assessing whether we indeed serve the poor with love and respect is a requirement; whether we bow down for them and go far with our love. This task can only be realised when we link it to Saint Vincent’s other phrase: “The poor are the icons of Christ”. Here, we can hear the invitation to see, meet and love Jesus in every poor person – actually, in every one of our neighbours – who crosses our path. This is the key of our service to the poor, which must become true service of love; charity. The difference between our social commitment to the poor and truly loving them lies in the encounter with Jesus, in the realisation of that ultimate message of Jesus himself: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). The encounter with Jesus who is alive in every single person is exactly what makes the difference between philanthropy and charity, so aptly described in the encyclical letter ‘Deus Caritas est’ by Pope Benedict XVI. We must continue to underline the difference in our many apostolic works all over the world and try to live it as an example to our staff members. In places where the congregation is just present as an administrator of facilities, every bit of attention should be spent on this difference, if not our dedication to the administration is useless and it might just as well be taken over by others. With those many staff members the congregation shares the care for the neighbour, however the congregation should persist in sending a continuous invitation to the many staff members to adopt divine love as their first and ultimate inspiration. Without this divine inspiration, our care for our neighbour is still valuable yet nothing more than philanthropy. When the name ‘Brothers of Charity’ continues to adorn the entrance of our facilities, this should be tangible in the concrete love that is put into practice there as a reflection of that divine love, which will also have a positive effect on overall professionalism, which we strive for.
“We must love the poor and serve them with humility and simplicity” is another one of Saint Vincent’s stirring expressions. This involves the basic attitude with which we approach our neighbour and from which we develop our care for the poor. Humility and simplicity were the most important virtues for Saint Vincent, which he found in the life of Jesus, who, as God, humbled himself and took the form of a man, of a slave, and died on the cross (cf. Phil 2:6-11). This is known as kenosis; Jesus who emptied himself in order to follow and fully realise the Will of the Father in his life. Emptying oneself, humility or simplicity are not exactly popular concepts in today’s society. Terms such as self-realisation, self-manifestation and pushing oneself to the forefront are more frequently heard nowadays. But the evangelical message remains very radical and recalcitrant, paradoxical: “Whoever wishes to find life must lose it; whoever wishes to be first must take the last place; whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Saint Vincent rightly gave humility pride of place and proclaimed it queen of all virtues. Again, this urges us to question our own life. Are we approachable, do we enjoy sharing life with simple people? Are we approachable to staff members, to those whom we serve as those in charge of our apostolate works, or do we hide behind our executive titles, are we more like managers than actual leaders. A leader in the spirit of Jesus is a leader who serves, which must be reflected in our approachability, our service, our simplicity with which we go to the other, in the way in which we lead the way for our staff members in our care for the poor. Do we dare make an evaluation of our time investment to see how much attention we have for our neighbours, our staff members, for the poor whom we serve? It is about prioritising and reducing the numbers of meetings and bureaucratic activities in order to make time for our neighbour. In this, we will have to express and give shape to our leadership in service. Saint Vincent – as well as Father Triest – was a man who revealed great organisational skills, yet he always made sure that he continued to see the face of the poor man. He still wanted to know who he served.
“Love is and remains the motive for all of our activities.” This phrase might sound logical and even trivial, yet it remains the essence of every single one of our activities. For Saint Vincent, it meant realising the commandment of love: “You shall love God above all else, and your neighbour as yourself” to express it in brief. Every act of love towards the poor was continuing the love of and for God. He stated that our prayer in the chapel should be continued in our prayer for the poor. When we see Jesus, meet him and love him in the other, this becomes quite logical: Jesus, who we meet in the tabernacle and who we leave to go and serve the poor, is found in these poor and therefore our service of love becomes prayer in its purest form. “Leaving God for God” as Saint Vincent said, the ground of his incarnated prayer. It is a message which provides an answer to our concern of letting our entire life develop into prayer. As brothers and associate members, living and working in a Vincentian congregation, this probably is a very strong point which we must try to fathom even more: our service to the poor, which we can consider to be prayer, provided of course that it results from prayer, in a spiritual life. Only spiritual people will be able to experience this unity: everything becomes prayer, everything becomes an expression of God’s love, our life becomes God’s love. Therefore, let us put a great deal of energy into becoming these spiritual people, in the places where we live and work, and in our time. The image that we have of Saint Vincent surrounded by abandoned children or supporting a poor elderly person must be combined with the image of Saint Vincent at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome; Saint Vincent holding the cross in his hand. We chose this combination for the statue of our own founder Father Triest, which adorns the garden of the regional house of the Saint Mary region in Eindhoven. May this be the image that people have of us, graphically phrased by one of our confreres: let us be brothers with our head in the sky and our feet on firm ground.
“Davantage – ever more” is Saint Vincent’s final word that we wish to present to you as a memory and as an incitation. He uses this expression in a time when the queen of France praised him for the many good things that he had done. Humbly, he thought that he had done very little and that he had slept too much. He only slept for four hours every night and still he shouted: “Davantage – ever more”. Is Saint Vincent not overreacting a bit, or even a lot? However, when we take a look at the previous phrases, and the last one in particular, when he says that everything has to do with love, we can understand his davantage. When love is involved, there is never enough; we can never say that we have loved enough. “The measure of love is love without measure,” Saint Bernard said. When we let our human love be the result of divine love, as indicated by the commandment of love, it takes the shape of divine love and it become unconditional, radical, infinite, measureless. That is what Saint Vincent is trying to say: once we have entered the mystery of divine love, when our human love is inspired by God’s love, when we truly become spiritual people, with our head in the sky and our feet on the ground, we can and must go very far in our love for the poor. Love knows no time and is like our own Father Triest said when he was talking about service: “Call me whenever you think fit, and do not spare me. Do not fear to disturb me. I am happy when, according to the example of Jesus Christ, my master, I can sacrifice my rest, my health and even my life for you.” This was Father Triest’s davantage and it makes us understand why he is so easily referred to as the Belgian Saint Vincent de Paul.
Beloved Confreres and dear Associate Members, let us start off this year in celebration of Saint Vincent in great solidarity with those many Vincentian congregations and movements that continue to live and work starting from Saint Vincent’s passion. Let us remain faithful to and fulfil our original name Hospital Brothers of Saint Vincent and let us say the prayer especially composed for this occasion together with all who are favourably disposed towards Saint Vincent and Saint Louise de Marillac:
“Lord God Almighty, Father of the poor, you give us the grace to celebrate this year the 350th anniversary of the death of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise. We thank you for this immense grace. Through their intercession grant that we allow ourselves to be transformed more fully by the Spirit you gave them. May the Spirit of Charity so fill our hearts and minds that our love for our brothers and sisters, who are marginalised and rejected by society, be gentle, attentive, compassionate, pro-active and inventive unto infinity.
Make us rediscover the audacity of Vincent and Louise, the diligence and sweetness of an ever-renewed love of the poor that may help them change their lives in earnest.
Help us make our faith strong and humble in a world that seems so far away from you yet that thirsts so much for you. Make us become a sign of hope for many, as were Vincent and Louise, companions in life.
Grant that we do not back down in the face of difficulties but be ready to dirty our hands in favour of the poor, our masters. Help us learn from them to become your true sons and daughters, worthy heirs of the charism you have entrusted to Vincent and Louise for the good of the Church and of all humanity.
May this jubilee year be for our Vincentian Family a year of grace and conversion, and for those we love a year of many blessings. Amen.”

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Bro. René Stockman
Superior General
Brothers of Charity