We are six in our community at present and each of us has the essential charism of a Religious of the Sacred Heart. Just like the six flowers above are all tulips. But each flower is unique and we are unique. These are the same color and I think maybe we show red for courage, but there are also different colors among RSCJ just as we have tulips of varied colors.
I want to get back to the Joy of the Gospel. Here is another excerpt: (The Pope is writing about commitment to the poor)
Our commitment does not consist exclusively in activities or programmes of promotion and assistance; what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism, but above all an attentiveness which considers the other "in a certain sense as one with ourselves".166 This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good. This entails appreciating the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, and in their ways of living the faith. True love is always contemplative, and permits us to serve the other not out of necessity or vanity, but rather because he or she is beautiful above and beyond mere appearances: "The love by which we find the other pleasing leads us to offer him something freely". The poor person, when loved, "is esteemed as of great value", and this is what makes the authentic option for the poor differ from any other ideology, from any attempt to exploit the poor for one’s own personal or political interest. Only on the basis of this real and sincere closeness can we properly accompany the poor on their path of liberation. Only this will ensure that "in every Christian community the poor feel at home. Would not this approach be the greatest and most effective presentation of the good news of the kingdom?" Without the preferential option for the poor, "the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications...
I am thinking that we should all have true concern for each person, and seek the good of each. I need to appreciate the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture and in their ways of living the faith. The Holy Father may be writing about the people living in material poverty, but we are all "poor" in some way so we can apply his words to our own situation, even if we are not in contact with those deprived of basic needs.
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