ConAltriOcchi blog – 以不同的眼光看世界-博客

"C'è un solo modo di vedere le cose finché qualcuno non ci mostra come guardare con altri occhi" – "There is only one way to see things, until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes" (Picasso) – "人观察事物的方式只有一种，除非有人让我们学会怎样以不同的眼光看世界" (毕加索)

Category Archives: Mercy


by Leave a comment

Why me? Testimony of a Missionary of Mercy in Mali

We have received and are pleased to publish the testimony of a dear friend of ours appointed by Pope Francis as a Missionary of Mercy, Don Toussaint Ouologuem, a Mali priest.  We are very grateful to Toussaint for this beautiful testimony for, knowing him as we do, we know that he will be capable of announcing the love and infinite mercy of our Father to whomever he meets.

Fr. Toussaint Ouologuemi

If they had asked me to choose a priest in my diocese to be a Missionary of Divine Mercy, I would never have chosen myself. Not because I have a lack of faith in myself or a low opinion of myself but because it is Mercy which is involved, Divine Mercy.

Summing up all my sins, weaknesses, spiritual, intellectual and moral frailties and adding to these my severity of judgment, my search for justice at any cost, the difficulty I have in giving people a second chance, above all those who have in some way, offended me. And to conclude, my youth and lack of experience in the priesthood ( two and a half years). Putting all this together, I would certainly not have chosen myself as a Missionary of Mercy. A sinner, too severe, too young and little experience, I would have defined myself as inadequate for such an important mission.

But here I am; chosen by the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, through the Urban College, approved by my bishop and designated by Pope Francis as a Missionary of Mercy. And I ask myself: why me?

Regardless of the Urban College’s choice, regardless of my bishop’s approval, his Green Light, regardless of the letters and e-mails between myself and the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, regardless of any other human intervention,  I can’t help but see the hand of God in the fact that I was chosen. It is my faith which is asking this of me, my spirituality that is telling this to me, my vocation to the priesthood that is shouting it out loudly. So, I ask myself: why me?

This is the question I have never stopped asking myself and God ever since I was approached the first time because someone, somewhere proposed my name.  With huge joy, with fascination on the one hand and tremendous fear on the other, I willingly accepted this mission.  But ever since then I have been asking myself: why me?

I am now sure that I will ask myself this question way beyond this year, until the end of my days, seeking to understand better the full meaning hidden and desired by God, a meaning both for me and for others.

A few days after my consecration as a Missionary of Mercy, after a Eucharistic Adoration in one of the Churches in Torbe, a holy hand gave me a book, a book called «We  cannot keep quiet about what we have seen». I started to read it straight away a sentence struck me, a sentence which answered my continual question. In fact, the sentence said «when God touches your life he assigns you a duty: to give yourself wholly to Him and be happy in Him in order to announce it to others».

Between conferences on Mercy and missions on the radio and the TV, between homilies and Penitential Celebrations and some personal encounters, I try in every way to carry out my mission as a priest promoting Divine Mercy and spread word of my happiness. But it is never enough. That is why I have never missed an opportunity of asking people to pray for me, just as Pope Francis does on many occasions,  asking people to pray for him.

Many stories about vocation in the Holy Scriptures make us understand that God, for the most part, doesn’t choose someone because that person is already able to accomplish his mission, but he chooses him in order to make him able, suitable for that mission. Therefore it is my duty to be vigilant in order to receive such Grace as God may give me for my mission. May God help me in this.!

This is a Year of Grace which has been granted us.  It is a year in which we have the task of meditating (personally) on God’s Mercy, benefiting from his Divine Mercy (by the sacrament of penitence) and living it (the 14 works of Divine Mercy).

Towards the end of his Bull, Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis says:” In this Jubilee Year, let us allow God to surprise us”. I wish to add that we need to allow ourselves to be surprised … by ourselves, : surprised at what we can do that is  beautiful, great and extraordinary meditating on, benefiting from, living and sharing Divine Mercy. God bless us all!

 


by Leave a comment

There can be no feasting without our sons and brothers

Fr. Francesco Pesce

God showers His blessings on the honest and the dishonest alike, He causes rain to pour on both the just and the unjust. However, He has a predilection for lost sheep, the stone cast aside, the prodigal son. This we must never forget, as Christians, who realise that we are ever in need of a new conversion, and as the shepherds of God’s people.

The Lord Jesus bears witness to the fatherhood of God, Who has sent His Son to rebuild a world according to the measurements of love, where even the lost sheep, the stone cast aside, the prodigal son are the object of the Father’s care, attention and mercy. A Father Who wants us all to be saved – as Pope Francis answered to a child in the recent book edited by Father Spadaro, SJ.

The Gospel for this Sunday of Lent recounts the well-known story of the prodigal son. Conversion does not mean becoming prodigal sons: it means overcoming the antithesis between the two sons, between virtue and sin, between those within and those without, and to overcome it by means of a synthesis, which is the work of love, in which those who belong to the world of virtue go beyond themselves, towards the bewilderment of the son who left his father and squandered his possessions. St. Paul explains the situation well in the Second Reading: God has forgiven us by reconciling us with Him. Therefore, God expects us – and we too should expect it of ourselves – to forgive others. St. Paul even speaks of a “ministry” that God has entrusted to each of us.

Why this idea of conversion? Basically for three reasons. The first is that each one of us belongs, at one and the same time, to the world of both the sons of the Gospel story. No-oneshould live under the illusion that he or she dwells only in the house of virtue. The second reason lies in the fact of being sons, which is not a merit, but a fact, and we Christians also believe that it is a free gift of God. And we are all sons, by virtue of the gift of His mercy.

The third reason that should prompt us to go out towards the prodigal son, to those who have done wrong, is simply because Jesus did so. It is not a question of (purely formal) obedience to God (often viewed as a master) that makes a Christian, but but our likeness to Jesus, Which our merciful Father sent to save us; the Beatitudes, in fact, and not the Commandments, are specifically Christian.

We must learn to understand and accept those who become lost. And we must bravely search within our “virtues” for their often self-righteous and sectarian characteristics, in order to enter into another measure of human brotherhood, based on reconciliation, like St. Paul, a great sinner who later became the Apostle of the Gentiles, encourages us to do.

It is not sufficient to go and eat with sinners and then return to our homes; it is not enough to use the Gospel as a sort of unusual manual of good manners: this is hypocrisy. We must remove all the obstacles on the path of reconciliation and to transform the Father’s house into everyone’s home, where no one is cast aside.

The prodigal son must convert to virtue, the eldest son to mercy. The Father expects each one of us to undertake the never-ending journey of this double conversion. There can be no feasting, in heaven and on earth, if even only one of our sons and brothers is missing.

 


by Leave a comment

Misericordes sicut Pater

Perché il blog 

Significativamente e con grande gioia inauguriamo questo spazio di riflessione e condivisione nell’anno del Giubileo della Misericordia, che ci ricorda la profondità e la bellezza della nostra realtà di figli – amati e perdonati dal Padre. Come parte della comunità ecclesiale, anche con questo blog, desideriamo accompagnare “le gioie e le speranze, le tristezze e le angosce degli uomini d’oggi” (Gaudium et Spes, 1), “misericordiando” e mettendo al centro il Volto di Dio. Grati a Papa Francesco  e incoraggiati dal suo esempio, pensiamo che sia possibile e importante annunciare il Vangelo e testimoniare una “Chiesa in uscita” anche attraverso i mezzi di comunicazione sociale e della rete. 

Why this blog?
Significantly and with great joy we are opening this space for reflection and sharing in the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which reminds us of the depth and beauty of being children of God – loved and forgiven by the Lord, our Father. As part of the Church community, with this blog too, we wish to accompany “the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time” (Gaudium et Spes, 1), “using mercy” (“misericordiando”) and by putting at the center of our life the face of God. Grateful to Pope Francis and encouraged by his example, we think it is possible and important to announce the Gospel and witness a “Church which goes forth” through social media and Internet.
为什么这个博客?
欣逢慈悲禧年之际，我们怀着极大的喜悦搭建了这个反思与分享的平台，这是一件非常有意义的事，它让我们回想起作为天主子女的美好与奥妙，因为我们都被天父所宽恕和深爱着。作为教会团体的一份子，我们希望透过这个博客来参与“今天人们的喜乐与期望、愁苦与焦虑”（牧职宪章1），并把天主的慈悲面容带进那些有需要的人们的生活中。非常感谢教宗方济各，是他的榜样带动我们，让我们觉得透过社交媒体和互联网来宣传福音是一件可行的事，这样可以为“正在发展的教会”做出见证。