Today it is evident that we are living our relationship with other human beings and with the other components of creation in the wrong way, and that if we recognised God's presence in creation, we would live animated by a feeling of respect and love towards it. Instead, creatures have become for us only an object of consumption, instruments that serve to satisfy our desires, to feed a false well-being without limits and without laws.
We need to re-educate ourselves to re-discover the true meaning of life, the joy of living in harmony with creation. To do this, we must start with a contemplative gaze that comes from faith: God is everywhere, but our eyes must learn to see it anew.
Christian spirituality is an excellent way to achieve this, as it helps us to use our hearts, to experience the world and in the world, to dialogue with our inner self and our surroundings.
Pope Francis appeals to a profound 'inner conversion': in the Encyclical Laudato Si' there is an invitation to come out of momentary indifference and take a profound inner journey, one that keeps us awake and capable of taking responsibility for others and for the whole of creation. A path, in short, that leads us from the globalisation of indifference to the culture of care.
For a profound inner conversion, we are called to return to contemplate, to look at a Face, the face of Jesus, to recognise him in Creation and in creatures and, allowing ourselves to be animated and moulded by this face, to see beyond physicality and to place ourselves in a new and creative way in our relationships with our brothers, sisters and the rest of Creation.
With these 4 subsidies, we propose to offer a path that - in each period of the year - through 4 thematic retreats encourages reconciliation with ourselves, with others, with creation and thus with God. The four retreats we propose are:
– From indifference to care;
– Silence and inner peace;
– Listening to the song and cry of Creation;
– Listening to the cry of the poor.
We take advantage of the approach of Advent to launch this proposal. Have a good journey!
The materials are available in 5 languages at this link: Italian, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese.
For info: Emanuela Chiang, Youth Pastoral Sector Headquarters - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
