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...

  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...

  We may be hectic and so busy, you know, with everyday’s stuff, plus my kids, my work, etc.  And what about God? The devil tries we would be so immersed in worldly stuff that we don’t remember we have a soul, and our loving father God loves us infinitely.  You know, we can be busy for example with our work, but also we can carry it out as service to the community and the singular persons, even we can contemplate God and work at the same time, turning our dear work into prayer. All that with God’s help and grace, of course.  And can we talk about him? What is he like? We can approximate him by thinking of the perfections we find in our world and in singular persons. And he is beyond all that.  You know, the best thing to get so close to God is by talking to him; moreover, talking with him, for he responds, and that is not something extreme or out of every man’s reach. It’s regular stuff, everyday’s stuff.  When we make prayer, we get to start knowing God, a...

  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...

  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...