Dear friends,
I want to start this letter inspired in a thought of a saint of our times “we can not do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It might be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an oportunity to the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest”.
Monsignor Oscar Romero, (he also is the thinker behind the title of the letter).
The reason I will reflect on this thought of Monsignor Romero is because I wonder how many times we feel that we don’t do enough. As if everything depends on us. As if the burdens of the world are upon our shoulders.
How many times we forget for some moments that those burdens were already carried in a cross by our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Includding our own per secula seculorum.
With this I don’t mean to express that we should relax our efforts to fullfill our duties and call as christians/ catholics, persons, quiet the opossite, “do something and do it well”; but in the spirit of we could try to ease our minds, our hearts to avoid the anxiety, the temptation even, of thinking we are the ones who are “doing”.
I can remember the Gospel of Luke, in which he described the scene in the house of Martha. While one sister decided to stress, the other (probably younger), choosed to seat and listen to Jesus’ teachings. Why Our Lord told Martha to leave Mary alone? To let her be sitting there and learning “what was better”. Could it be because His teachings were “the only thing that was needed”.
Now, about Suppe og Vennskap, we only go out twice a month, and there has been days in which we were forced to cancel due to the weather. That feels aweful. And even in moments when we recognize "our fellows” in the street and have nothing to give, it feels bad.
How much we want to give right? We would love to talk or share with all of those we meet but we can´t.
But instead of worrying, in prayer, that effort “baby step”, that spark, will allow the Grace to act and the Grace is never static, it is constant movement. We can count us blessed because we have got to dismiss the ideas of a person with a different lifestyle than us is not worth to spend time with. We have leant how to approach, what to say because our conceptions of the world is different, we have learnt not to be affraid or overwhelmed.
We have learnt to laugh at some other kind of humor.
We are leanding to love. Slowly, as the things of Our Lord are never rushed.
Sta Theresa of Avila said “God gives more in a moment than in a longer period, for His actions are not measured by time at all” and I would dare to add, not in amount because he is the abundance himself. I think we all could recall concrete testimonials of this fact.
In another hand, Jesus made the miracle of the multiplication of the bread (and the fishes), out of five pieces and three fishes. He was not specting the diciples do the whole job, because His job no person can do. I want to invite you to be joyful about your contribution for little as you might think it is.
Suppe og Vennskap since the conception has been set into Gods hands and He is the masterchef. Us the ingredients to make it a warm good and nutricious broth. And as in our menu, some times there is one kind of soup, other times something different, and some others just quick and easy. He never has abandoned our kitchen, just pray we keep it open.
Cheer up friend! And feel happy to face the new semester knowing that the warm smile of Jesus is in you and in the soup and chocolate too of course!
FS
