The Father of Light illuminates the paths of life
- Parent Categories: Spirituality
by Gianni Gennari
Again on the first word: “I believe”. Maybe these are difficult conversations. I apologize to those who read, and I will try to simplify, but some thoughts are really needed to move forward together.
When I say "I believe" and the word expresses what "faith" is, I mean both certainty of foundation ("biblical basàh") and the impulse of trust that pushes forward ("amàn") and becomes the ability to respond with life to the "Word" which both announces and reveals the salvation that comes from God and which truly gives ultimate meaning to all human existence, even if as an instrument it "is of no use" to anything worldly, human knowledge and power over nature. Salvation is what gives "ultimate meaning" to everything in time and beyond time, because it consents to the invasion of God himself into our existence and transforms it into a "company" of Father, Son and Holy Spirit until eternal life...
With the eyes of a child
- Parent Categories: Spirituality
Canopi/January 2011
Recalling in old age the experiences and impressions had in early childhood can be a way for everyone to recover an apparently lost world and perhaps also to find the key to understanding their own inner world in the current moment. However, it is not easy to recall one's childhood "out loud", that is, to tell it to others. There is an innate reserve, like a veil beyond which not even we can push our gaze. We are fully known only by God, for he is the Love that created us and sustains us in life.
1*/ Thinking about faith
- Parent Categories: Spirituality
I believe to understand
“I believe... that I will make it”: this is how I responded to the Director who asked me to try to write in installments a kind of explanation-commentary on the “Creed” that we recite at every Mass. It formulates in human words our assent of faith in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit and in the Church, in this earthly life which is also a time of preparation and expectation of eternal life. It is a faith that will not go beyond earthly life. In the eternal one we will no longer "believe" because we will "see", and everything will be different, even if no one can pretend to imagine how. In fact, "human eye has never seen, human ear has never heard, human heart has never been able to foresee what God has prepared for those who love him" (I Cor. 2, 9)
The verb “to believe”. So let's start with the word "I believe". We say it many times in our days: I think it will rain... I think it's good... I think it's not long until the train arrives... I think I remember well... I think this is right. There is also a more personal use of belief, which for example we find when addressing a person we say "I believe you", referring to something that they have communicated to us...