Other Experiences of an English Language Teacher

  Man and woman have always been thirsty after happiness, peace, love, tranquility. And now more than ever before perhaps – I’m referring to western man, but I could say the same about any man.  Ultimately (and primarily) man and woman are thirsty for God, and no less than that.  And we are so fortunate, for we have access to him, for instance by prayer. That one is also a gift from God. At prayer – in a church, in the countryside, alone in my room, before the ocean, on the street – we can talk to him. We can talk with him too, because he certainly responds. You’ll perhaps not hear a physical voice, yet he can reply in your interior maybe.  Thus prayer is an encounter, a peaceful one, with God. And he has incarnated to become true God and true man, Jesus Christ.  A lot of people – Chistians for example – have a grand experience of prayer, and also they’ve had for many centuries. Better said, man and woman have always turned to prayer, since they were man and wom...

  As it’s well known, two great writers of the Spanish sixteenth century were Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross, also well known after their Spanish names, santa Teresa de Jesús and san Juan de la Cruz.  And it’s so great to read what they wrote, just tremendous. Also because they may help us great in our spiritual life.  And what do they have to do with pain and suffering? I mean, because everyone of us may suffer from time to time, or even often, and often it is little pains the ones we will suffer. Everyone may tell us about this human issue: wars, scantiness, unemployment, diseases, solitude and loneliness, and a long etcetera.  Well, those two people may comfort us big throughout their literary and spiritual writings. And you can find them easily in any bookstore at least in the West, and let alone on the Internet. Worth to pay a visit.  Yet you can understand them better from a Christian perspective. Jesus Christ, true God and true man, sav...

  Perhaps you already knew that during the Third Reich, which finished in May 1945, some six million Jews were murdered. Why did Auschwitz concentration camp exist at all? And that was not all evil in the twentieth century, as you well know. Also in our century now some form of slavery exists.  Where was God during Auschwitz? Evil problem is not so simple to explain and convey the origin of, anyway. Our Mother the Church explains that it is not that simple to define why evil. We have to contemplate all the Christian faith to reach some explanation.  God is love and he has created us so as to have other people who could reach happiness too. Moreover we exist to get to know God and to love him and to give him glory. I mean he wished somebody else could enjoy existence happiness.  And he has made us free. Since we are free we can choose well: to love him, now in this life and then after for ever and ever. He wishes we be free. Thus also we can exert bad use of our freed...

  Did you ever see God? Nobody did indeed. But we believe in him, and he has revealed himself, sure thing. Well a lot of people did see Jesus Christ, some two thousand years ago in ancient Palestine. And he is God. Actually true God and true man. At the same time.  And the essence of Christian creed or religion is Jesus Christ. And God has revealed all in Christ Jesus. He is the definitive revelation. Nothing else can be said. Anyway our mother the Church has deepened in these beliefs along history.  And with that Person, Jesus, we can talk. Now. We can talk to and with him, and so many a person can account about that tremendous experience. You can attain too. That’s not for a few chosen people. Moreover he is wishing you address him. In your interior. Or amid nature. Or you may enter a church and find him in the Tabernacle, in the Eucharist. Or in the Monstrance, if he is exposed to people’s adoration and chattering with him. It’s just ordinary experience. You also may a...

  God you asked? He is so good and good to us that he has revealed himself. He has gotten known to us. In his eternal love to us. By means of words and things that happened, he revealed to us what he is like.  In his son Jesus Christ – true God and true man – he has told us all he had to tell us. For example that there is one single God, yet three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  And he lets us entertain ourselves with him, for we can talk to and with him at prayer, and all day long, also through our everyday work and our rest. And all this with his grace and help – otherwise we cannot address him at all. Prayer is but a gift to us his children. And prayer may be made absolutely everyplace: at work, of course at church, with my family, when playing tennis, when having a beer with my friends, whenever we exist.  Furthermore we can participate in his life, by his grace. And in his inner life he is three Persons, like I said before.  How could I e...

  Prayer? Talking to and with God, like a child with his dad, with a wonderful love of dad and mom? It is wonderful, prayer is so. Because I can tell him my stuff, my things, and my dear ones’ as well, and he responds, of course he does! In some way or other. At our interior, in my heart.  Prayer? Basically it’s a gift from and by God, it’s to try to reach him too, and he does not conceal from you – the little we seek him, he is easy to find. Well, you will probably not see him, anyway he is more present than me myself.  André Frossard, the famous French journalist, used to say – and I’ve heard say the same to other people – that Saint John Paul II was like a block of prayer. And I guess many of us can recall when he was on this world, well, he was such a block of prayer, absolutely embodied in prayer, but not indifferent to other people and their needs; even more, that prayer made him accessible to any person, and he perfectly realized about others’ needs, and had some p...

  We have already said that man can reach to know God with his own reason and mind, okay. But God has wished to reveal to man, his divine inside but also some things man can reach to know through his reason and mind. God is so good.  For example, God has revealed he is three Persons but anyway only one God. Is it clear? Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet only one God. Well, that’s something you cannot understand nor comprehend totally, for it’s a mystery.  And Jesus Christ, the Son incarnated, revealed there are those three Persons in God. As I said before, God is so father and loving and good that he has revealed some things – moral and doctrinal – man can achieve to learn through his only mind – also because man is so fallible at getting to know such things.  And we get to learn all those things by the Bible, Tradition and our mother the Church teaching over the centuries.  I live in Granada, Spain, you know, the Alhambra palace and all that – ama...

  Man is capable of God ultimately. Ultimately and at first look.  Obviously I’m also referring to woman, of course. What I mean is that we human people have a primordial thirst for God. And even more nowadays, in our dear afflicted world.  Why so? Why this interior searching for God? Just because we have been made that way, by God himself. He has created us in that certain way.  We exteriorly may not show we do need him, but when you have a conversation with a friend for example, a profound one, you ultimately reach that fundamental thirst for God.  And we are capable to seek him, to admit in our interior that we aspire to him. And, well, we can treat him, we can talk with him. That’s prayer. And I mean with and not only to , for he responds. It is not like a voice you hear with your ears, but he talks in our interior.  Some posts ago I told you that there is – or was, I hope still is there – a chapel in our dear Gibraltar, south of Spain and belonging to...

  When someone has something good, like a great joy, more often than not that person tends to tell that joy to his or her family, perhaps their friends, colleagues, neighbors, and the like.  Well, you know, we Christians have something so great, which is the Person of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. For example Pope Leo XIV constantly talks about him.  And also I would like to transmit and pass on the experience of treating him, of talking to him, also with him, for he may respond to your queries and questions, and he really does, as he used to do when we could see and hear him two thousand years ago in old Palestine.  It’s something so great I cannot stop saying things about him and what he did for us – he redeemed us from our sins by dying on a cross, and resurrecting after three days. As well he redeemed us through all his life on earth, both some thirty years in his hidden life in Nazareth, while working as a carpenter, plus some three years of public life, ...

  Contemporary man has a great thirst for God. Well, man at any age has had.  We have been designed to love him, and we cannot stand without him. Every person seeks him, in an aware way or without knowing it.  And Jesus Christ is alive, a living person, true God and true man. Actually the second Person of the most holy Trinity.  And the best thing we can do is letting him steer our boat, our rowboat. In life’s seas and oceans and rough seas.  We can talk to him, and with him, to have a tremendous conversation with him, all made up of everyday things, the ones we try to carry out. He is interested in all our things, family, profession, worries, joys, pains …  Where can we find him? The first important thing is for us to try to find him – he does not hide from us. And he is everywhere. And he lives in our souls in grace. And in churches Tabernacles. And in the four gospels of the Bible.  He does not conceal his face. Probably we will not see him physical...