REFLECTIONS

"Keeping Christ at the Center, No Matter the Cost”

Love leads to communion, and communion allows everyone to move forward in harmony. Communion is not a happiness passively enjoyed, but it struggles to maintain a fraternal spirit and to open the doors of this fraternity to all people. By nature, love propagates itself; it is contagious, communicates to others, and draws everyone toward communion.

I must engrave this maxim within myself: "Communion is the struggle of every moment." A moment's neglect can destroy it; a mere trifle suffices: a single thought without charity, an obstinately maintained prejudice, a harmful attachment, a personal ambition or interest, an action done for myself and not for the Lord, returning to a bad habit already abandoned, the desire for personal satisfaction that overrides what is pleasing to the Lord.

Help me, Lord, to examine myself in this way: Who is the center of my life: you or me? , then everyone will be gathered into unity. But if, instead, I see that people around me lose interest and disperse, that will be a sign that I have put myself at the center.

VENERABLE FRANCIS XAVIER NGUYEN VAN THUAN 
Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan (┼ 2002) was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government for thirteen years, during which time he secretly sent prayers and spiritual writings to his flock