Do you want to discover how to live your life for Christ and His Church daily, even in the mundane routine of being a student, parent, worker, or anyone/ anything? Need people or an organization to help you stay faithful to a life of daily, better yet, constant prayer and fulfillment in your vocation? Then you need two of the greatest, and relatively new Movements in the Church.
I've discovered two extremely powerful and influential "Movements" within the Catholic Church, Opus Dei and the Focolare; both are phenomenal and will change your life- for Christ! I discovered these in talking with two dear friends who are intensely involved in these movements.
The first, Opus Dei, is not what The Da Vinci Code would have you believe; it's so radically different than anything you've ever been lead to believe by society. Opus Dei means in Latin "The Work of God", and was founded by St. Josemaria Escriva, a priest from Spain in the 1940s. The foundation of this movement is finding God in the mundane, making every act you do in the day towards the work of God in the coming of the Kingdom. Originally, St. Josemaria Escriva only allowed lay singles or married couples to join, feeling those who have less physical & spiritual ties to the Church (in that a priest lives at his parish, a nun her convent, both immersed in Mass and praying) needed support and direction in their not-so religious daily work. He wanted the laity to realize that their vocation of single & married life, in doing business, farming, sewing, carpentry, and everything else was their path to holiness and sanctity. By following the Jesuit phrase "Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam", meaning "To the Greater Glory of God", all peoples were called to holiness and did God's work in their daily life of their individual vocation. What a beautiful calling, to remind ourselves when we don't feel like studying, working, changing diapers, or whatever, that if we don't do what we ought to, we are failing our vocation and not doing God's work here on earth!
The second is the Focolare movement, which in Italian means "hearth". This too was started in the 1940s, by a young woman named Chiara Lubich, who first coined "God is Love". She desire to found something to proclaim some of the last words of John's Gospel, "May they all be one, as you, Father and I are one, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:21). The aim of the Focolare movement is unity, to bring all peoples, nations, churches, and everyone into one faith, the true faith. The movement deeply resonates with Phenomenology, a branch of philosophy proclaiming that absolute truth indeed exists, but how each of us, subjectively, comes to that objective truth is what makes us human and gives depth to the infinite amount of truth of God. This is tremendous philosophy of the Catholic Church, coming from Marcel Gabriel, St. Edith Stein (Teresia Benedicta of the Cross), Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and many others. Two points of interest, while Chiara Lubich is not a saint yet, she is on the list for beatification, and one of the main supporters I know of this movement is Bishop Mulvey of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas (he was pastor at St. Mary's, College Station).
Just to clarify, both are obviously Church approved movements! I hope that you can discover how to find God daily in your routine, and to see how vast the perspective of truth is, yet how fine and absolute it is.
Go to these for more info: http://www.focolare.us/us/home & http://www.opusdei.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment