"Love, love, who said it is thicker than the fragrant flowers?" flows one of the folk songs on love. Love gives a deep fragrance and various colors to life. It's more than the rainbow arising in the lofty sky after the rain.Love is the Alpha and the Omega, that is, the beginning and the end, the cause and the effect, the reason and the answer. Love is the inner power that lets us live harmoniously with "one heart and one will" (Acts 4,32). Love is the fundamental principle of building the community and sustaining it with a compassionate fraternity.
Our lives are filled with love. Truly, love is everything. From love come various virtues such as humility, generosity, sharing, compassion, patience, forgiveness, mildness, willing service, and more. The key point of the whole Bible is also love. The Bible keeps saying the priority of loving God and of loving your neighbors.
Lots of folk songs, poems, novels, art, pictures, and sculptures share love stories. Love is such a good thing.
"Give the truth with love!" is the motto of the Pauline mission renewed in Christ. Especially when we read about the life of those who are converted, it is clear to notice that the starting point of conversion comes from the recognition of God's unconditional love for us. From this awareness of spiritual love begins a new life.
When I read the diary of Fr. James Alberione (1884-1971), the founder of the Pauline family, I was so touched by his struggle to begin anew that I began to translate it.
Alberione wanted to become a priest when he was 6 years old and entered a seminary at Bra, Torino, at the age of 12, but for some reason, he had to go back home after 4 years at the seminary. In fact, he read too many books even at night in the seminary, and lost his sense of balance in his spiritual life. So he had to stop studying to be a priest. Going back home in the middle of seminary life was not an easy decision to cope with.
Nevertheless, thanks to the kind guidance of Fr. Montersino, he could enter another diocesan seminary of Alba (Cuneo) in Italy at the age of 16 in October 1900. He prayed so hard in the night of light between the two centuries from December 31, 1900, to January 1, 1901. The diary begins with that turning point in 1901 during the period of studying philosophy and theology prior to the priestly ordination on June 29, 1907, under the guidance of Fr. Francis Chiesa (1874-1946) as a spiritual director. Even though he entered the seminary of Alba, he couldn't wear the uniform immediately because he was under probation. Only on December 8, 1902, at the age of 18, was he able to receive his clerical investiture.
The diary, a collection of inspiring thoughts, shows one way to love God, the self, and others. It is entitled "Sono Creato per Amare Dio" in Italian, which means "I was created to love God." This collection, the fourth in the series of unedited writings of "Opera Omnia" by Alberione, consists of four parts: The Diary, Funeral eulogy, Elevations, and a summary of Confessions of St. Augustine.
In this little diary, we can feel the moments of his youthful ardor during his seminarian formation. It is inspiring to see his strong resolution to begin again, the gradual development of his thoughts, the spiritual journey toward purification and transformation, and the preoccupation to direct his strength and will toward the integral formation of his personality. His constant interior work to attain spiritual virtues such as self-control and perseverance, to rebalance his inclinations and passionate imagination, and to redirect his life entirely to the love of God is something like sculpturing marble under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit little by little.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2017/08/162_234271.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ August 6 (online), 7 (offline), 2017
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