Villa la Paz Newsletter June 2010

Sacrament: Christianity; any of certain rites instituted by Jesus and believed to be a means of grace; something regarded as having a sacred character or mysterious meaning.
Sacramental: relating to a sacrament, being or resembling a sacrament

Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition

When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and the human became united. This unity means that all that is mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite points to the infinite. In and through Jesus all creation has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of God is revealed to us. This is called the sacramental quality of the created order. All that is is sacred because all that is speaks of God’s redeeming love. Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun, moon, and stars and all the animals and people have become sacred windows offering us glimpses of God.

Divine Meditation
Henri Nouwen Society
Daily meditation for September 22, 2009

The whole world, including every aspect of humanity, is sacred and a gateway to God.

Gerard Thomas Straub
Posted in reflections

The created order as sacrament; the face of God revealed in a cloud, a butterfly, a breeze, the eyes of a child. Incalculable gifts that we seldom realize or appreciate. Or perhaps we do not wish to realize the sacramental nature of the created order. It is pleasant and inspiring to witness a magnificent sunset, to look out over the vast ocean, to appreciate a beautiful flower and acknowledge the Artist who created them, to see them as a glimpse of the Divine. However, it takes a leap of faith to see the face of God in a person who is suffering, in the homeless who asks for a handout, in the irascrible, in the addicted. These are situations which we find disagreeable and unpleasant. We wish to avoid them if at all possible and to realize them as pathways to God obligates us to attend to them, to see past their outward circumstances and accept them as glimpses of heaven. It is a seeming paradox and difficult to understand and accept. Nonetheless it is quite clear from Scripture that the poor, the marginalized, the suffering are the preferred of God and as such lead us to God and give us glimpses of His preferential love and mercy. His identification with them enjoins us to look beyond their unpleasant aspect and see them as tabernacles in which the Triune God dwells. Indeed we are all tabernacles of the indwelling Divinity and each of us is a gateway to heaven for those with whom we come into contact with. The gospels reiterate time and again that the kingdom of heaven is among us if only we love one another and are willing to serve one another. Poverty, war, hatred, racism and all the other destructive forces that exist in our world would cease to exist if the gospel message “Love one another as I have loved you,” were heeded. A simple message but one so hard to put into practice. However, seeing one another as sacraments enables us to enter into direct communion with God and should make God’s message of love an intrinsic part of our innermost being, as natural to us as breathing.

The children on these pages, and indeed children everywhere, are sacraments through which the Divine is mirrored. Like their Creator they manifest an unconditional love and speak of God’s hope for the world. We must treasure our children, nurture them and embrace them as God’s manifestation among us.

We learn to see the face of Christ – the face of Christ that is also the face of a suffering human being, the face of the crucified, the face of the poor, the face of the saint, and the face of every person – and we love each other with the criteria with which we will be judged: I was hungry and you gave me to eat.

Oscar Romero
Martyred Archbishop of El Salvador

Jesus embraced, touched and loved the poor, the outcasts, the rejected. He called them “blessed.” For Jesus the poor and lowly are sacraments because they offer a direct way to encounter God.

Gerard Thomas Straub
When Did I See You Hungry, page 155
[St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2002]

Thank you for your love and support of our children. We love you and wish you God’s peace.

Villa la Paz Newsletter March 2010

Agape: Christian Theol.
a) God’s love for man, divine love
b) spontaneous, altruistic love
Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition

Long before any human being saw us, we were seen by God’s loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person speaks to us in this world we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love.
Henri Nouwen

As finite beings, the idea of agape, love as goodwill, love that cannot be conquered, a love that is totally unconditional, is a difficult concept to grasp and at times difficult to put into practice. Human love is never perfect and is a pale reflection of its source, the Eternal Love that existed before the world was created. We do, of course, love our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends, but there are nuances to our love such that a careless remark, a deep hurt perpetrated by a loved one, a child who disappoints because he lacks certain desirable attributes, can chip away at the edges of our love and leave it less intense, less complete than it was before. This never happens with the agape of the Eternal. We are loved by the Eternal God not for our looks, intelligence, accomplishments, talents but for being us, as we are, warts and all. We sin, we fail Him, we turn our backs on Him but still we are loved as intensely and unconditionally as we were before time began. It is an unfailing, complete, all encompassing love that will never be lessened or extinguished. However, all of us at times, question the existence of this perfect and unquenchable love. Our belief in this love wavers when we experience illness, loss of employment or other personal tragedies or when we see the death and destruction wrought by natural disasters that seem so prevalent and devastating these days. How can someone who loves with a perfect love permit such occurrences? That is when our faith must come to the fore. Our faith tells us that evil and suffering are permitted, not desired, so that a greater good can be brought from them. In responding to another’s suffering and needs our attention is drawn away from ourselves and to the other. We forget about ourselves and our needs in an effort to help and we come together with others to form a common good, an endeavor to succor the needs of those suffering. Serving others who are in distress thus brings us closer to God and redeems us. In serving them we serve Him and become a beacon of his love to the world. With personal suffering our self-assurance, our complaisance, our feelings of complete control over our lives are called into question and we realize our dependence on God, which also brings us closer to Him. I must admit that my own faith wavers when presented with a suffering child. Little Davis was admitted to our home with chronic diarrhea and severe malnutrition. His brother was with us on two previous occasions for the same reason. His mother, although she loves him, is woefully ignorant and extremely poor. I could not help contrast his circumstances with those of my nieces and nephews and the children of my acquaintances who are well nourished, healthy and advantaged. I grasped and pleaded for an explanation as to why Davis was so unfortunate. Seven days after his admission, while I was staring at him, he looked up at me and smiled. I felt a tremendous relief for when a sick, malnourished child smiles one can be sure that recovery is on the way. I was then struck by the fact that Davis’ suffering allowed myself and our nurses to care for him, to switch our concerns from ourselves to him and to serve God through him. God permits but does not desire evil, to being from evil a greater good, for He is love. That is what my faith assures me.

Let us remember these great truths: (1) There is nothing, however small or apparently indifferent, which has not been ordained or permitted by God- even to the fall of a leaf. (2) God is sufficiently wise, good, powerful and merciful to turn those events which are apparently the most calamitous to the good and advantage of those who know how to adore and accept with humility all that His divine and adorable will permits.
Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

There is nothing so steady and relentless, so committed and enduring, so firm and unwavering as God’s love for us. Over and over again, in story after story, Jesus tells us that the defining characteristic of God is not anger but love. Yet we stumble around in a fog of misplaced guilt and wrong attachments. As children of God we are called to be people of love, people who accepts God’s love and people who transmit God’s love.
Gerard Thomas Straub

Thank you for your love and support of our children. We love you and wish you God’s peace.

Celebración de la Fiesta de San Francisco de Asís

Estimados Amigos,

Los días primero y segundo de Octubre celebraremos la fiesta de nuestro patrón San Francisco de Asís.

Ojalá que puedan asistir.

Anthony Lazzara
Hogar San Francisco de Asís
Chaclacayo

Villa la Paz Newsletter September 2009

Theophany: a manifestation of God.
Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition

It is God whom human beings know in every creature.
Hildegard of Bingen

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.
Julian of Norwich

God is humble. He is humility itself. We know of Him only through His creation, His Word that became flesh and dwelt among us and His Spirit that dwells in us. His omniscience and omnipotence are never perceived directly by us but are disguised in His works and revealed word. Every creature speaks of the Divine Artist. Some are lovely and pleasing such as a flower, a sunset, a piece of art or a comely child. Others can be displeasing and arouse negative feelings such as the homeless, the addicted, the incorrigible. If we are truly attuned to the Divine Presence in everyone and everything our response to the pleasing and displeasing should be the same: one of admiration, acceptance and solicitude. Our reaction to a well educated and well respected individual should be no different than our reaction to a homeless person, a beggar and the other marginalized persons who cross our path since all are manifestations of a Universal Father. Every person and all of creation are interconnected and intertwined to form a unity of one with the Creator. To knowingly disdain someone or something is to disdain Him who created us, and indeed, all of His creation. The universality of creation demands a positive response to those in need and to our world, a response that entails a respectful and solicitous attitude. If you are searching for God you will find him in the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dirty and, indeed, in our own brokenness. His love is unconditional and embraces all of creation.

Children are perhaps the quintessential manifestations of God’s presence. Born helpless into a sometimes cold and indifferent world their utter dependence for sustenance reminds us of God’s own birth two thousand years ago and again bespeaks of His humility. As such our home is a microcosm, a mini-universe which demonstrates His presence and unconditional love among us. Each child comes wi an imprint of the Divine. That is what sustains me this work.

Jesus of Nazareth lies hidden and helpless in all of humanity’s most vulnerable children, those for whom there is no room at the table. May we know the grace or our loving God in them and rebuild our troubled world for them to enjoy as God’s beloved daughters and sons.
Father Donald H. Dunson No Room at the Table [Orbis Books, 2003]

I believe that there are no gospel words that have made a deeper impression on me and have changed my life more than ‘As you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me.’
Charles de Foucauld

The following simple prayer by St. Joan of Arc will help us in our quest to make this a just and more equitable world, to serve God in His distressing disguise.

Lord, let me be a rock on which others can lean in their times of hardship. When all seem bleak send me signs of your presence, signs as simple as rainbows and smiles.

My sincere gratitude to all of you for being a beacon of God’s love to our children. We love you and wish you His peace.

Villa la Paz Newsletter June 2009

Compassion: sorrow for the sufferings or troubles of another or others accompanied by an urge to help; deep sympathy.
Webster’s New World Dictionary Third College Edition

We are living at a time when humankind can face whatever threatens it only if we, by which I mean each of us, manage to revive, with new energy and a new ethos, a sense of responsibility for the rest of the world.
Vaclav Havel

Compassion, which literally means to suffer with, is a gift to those who practice it. Far from being something which detracts from our sense of well-being, engaging in compassion elevates us to a higher level of existence since our thoughts and actions are no longer centered on ourselves but on the sufferings of others. We become one with the person suffering in an effort to mitigate their pain and distress and in so doing enter into the mystery of suffering, a mystery which has engaged great minds in trying to explain its meaning and its purpose. In effect we cannot understand or explain suffering. It defies analysis. It does make us more dependent on God and, depending on our disposition, closer to Him but the question still remains why do people have to suffer. In our present life it is an enigma. The important question then is how do we respond to it when we experience suffering or are confronted with another who suffers. Our personal sufferings can be joined to the redemptive sufferings of Jesus, accepted as a sign of His love for us, and offered up for our troubled world. In a sense we become co-redeemers with God. The sufferings of others can spark in us compassion, the realization that we are all intimately interconnected and related and that we exist only to help and serve others. God’s preference for the poor, the marginalized, the suffering is reiterated time and again in scripture as is His call to each one of us to succor and alleviate their sufferings, to have compassion for them, to suffer with them. There is no higher calling than this since it ennobles us and raises us to a plane closer to God.

We currently have in our home a 15 year old girl named Roxanna. She suffers from a malignant brain tumor which is inoperable and for which there is no cure. As a result of the tumor she is blind and suffers from intermittent severe headaches, nausea and vomiting. Notwithstanding, she is the epitome of compassion for the other children. Whenever new children are admitted and are distressed at being left by thir parents, Roxanna makes her way to them, consoles them and takes them under her wing to lessen their distress. She will sit with a child who is in pain or crying and will either talk to or sing to the child. She is a joy and a gift to the other children and an example to me and the others who labor in the home. We must see in the suffering person the face of God and know that what we do for the sufferer we do for Him. God has shown compassion to us in so many ways and we must be conduits of His compassion to others. If a blind girl can see the face of God in her suffering friends we have no excuse not to see Him in others.

In the end of our lives we will not be judged on how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.”
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I want to end this newsletter with a prayer by F.B. Myer. May it help us all to grow in compassion.

Forgive me most gracious Lord and Father if this day I have done anything to increase the pain of the world. Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture, the hard and selfish deed, the failure to show sympathy and kindly help when I had the opportunity and missed it; and enable me so to live that I may daily do something to lessen the tide of human sorrow and add to the sum of human happiness.

Thank you for your compassion towards our children. We love you and with you God’s peace.

Villa la Paz Newsletter March 2009

Steward: a person morally responsible for the careful use of money, time, talents, or other resources especially with respect to the principles or needs of a community or group.
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Third College Edition

Thus says the Lord: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own.
Isaiah 58:7

Every human face is an epiphany. In the face of the other, especially the vulnerable other, is a wordless call that awakens us to solidarity, to our connection with that other.
Fr. Donald H. Dunson
No Room at the Table
[Orbis Books, 2003]

Everything that we possess is pure gift. Talents, physical appearance, material wealth, all have been given to us by a benevolent Father. We have received these gifts for our own benefit and for the benefit of others. We are stewards of the gifts we have received and must engage in stewardship, the sharing of our gifts with those less fortunate than ourselves. To do such is not easy and may even be painful. We are creatures of insecurity. We fear that we may not have enough in the future for our own needs and postpone our sharing with others until we feel our future is more secure. Many times the postponement becomes indefinite since in our minds our future can never be completely secure. To overcome these doubts and hesitations faith is necessary; faith that if we share with the less fortunate we will receive in kind from our heavenly Father; faith that what we do for the least of these His little ones we do for Him; faith that instead of building up treasures on earth we are storing treasures in heaven. What greater joy can there be than knowing that someone has benefited from our benevolence, that to the person we share with we are a beacon of God’s love. It is an astounding fact that God depends on us to care for His less fortunate children. He cannot impose Himself on us since he has gifted us with free will. Our willingness to care for His poor is born in us and flourishes if we say yes or dies in us if we say no. The choice is ours and cannot be imposed on us by God. This is another indication of the humility and vulnerability of God, His complete dependence on us to do His work.

Our children are stewards also. They share with us their unconditional love, their patience in suffering, their indomitable will to heal, their joy of life. Our home reverberates with their laughter, their singing and at times their tears. It is amazing that despite their suffering and pain they can maintain such positive attitudes and hope for the future. They are pure gift.

I want to end this newsletter with a prayer of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, a prayer that sums up our desire for a more just and peaceful world.

O God, we pray for all those in our world who are suffering from injustice; For those who are discriminated against because of their race, color or religion;
For those imprisoned for working for the relief of oppression;
For those who are hounded for speaking the inconvenient truth;
For those tempted to violence as a cry against overwhelming hardship;
For those deprived of reasonable health and education;
For those suffering from hunger and famine;
For those too weak to help themselves and have no one else to help them;
For the unemployed who cry out for work but do not find it.
We pray for anyone of our acquaintance who is personally affected by injustice.
Forgive us, Lord, if we unwittingly share in the conditions or in a system that perpetuates injustice.
Show us how we can serve your children and make your love practical.

We thank you for sharing your gifts with our children. We love you and wish you God’s peace.

Villa la Paz Newsletter December 2008

Love: a deep and tender feeling of affection or attachment or devotion to a person; a feeling of brotherhood and good will towards other people; Theol. a) God’s tender regard and concern for mankind b) mankind’s devotion to and desire for God as the supreme good.
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Third College Edition

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
Hamilton Wright Mabi

A year is ending, a new one will shortly begin. How fitting it is to end each year with the season of love, Christmas. The magic of Christmas stems from its emphasis on love. We put others before ourselves. We shop for gifts that will please those we love. We bake and cook for friends and family, again to express our love and care for them. Our love is also directed to strangers and persons we may never meet as we donate to charities and turn our concern to the poor and marginalized. The Christmas season itself compels us to reflect on its origin, the eternal and unconditional love through which the Infinite became finite to heal and save a broken world. The intense feeling of love that we have for one another has its origin in our Father’s everlasting love for us. On receiving His love, dwelling in His embrace, we are compelled to transmit it to others, to share it with others and in so doing reflect the life of the Trinity since our Father, we and the one we direct our love to are locked in a mutual embrace. Since His love is gratuitous, we must also love gratuitously, expecting nothing in return.

Our children have also experienced His embrace. They enter our home with broken bodies and, in some instances, with broken spirits. We strive to furnish them with all that they need to restore them to physical and spiritual health. We do not always succeed but in caring for them we reflect God’s love in a world that remains fragmented and in desperate need of His healing power.

We are called to be like God, to empty ourselves of everything but love and to share that love with others and all creation by becoming more and more merciful, compassionate, forgiving and understanding.
Gerald Thomas Straub

In the evening of life, we shall be judged on love.
St. John of the Cross

I want to end this letter with a Christmas prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson. It speaks to our highest aspirations that our world be healed of its divisions and love would flourish.

Loving Father,
help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven
for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.

We Thank you for making the care of our children possible. May you have a most Blessed Christmas and Fulfilling New Year. We love you and wish you God’s peace.

Villa la Paz Newsletter September 2008

Poverty: The condition or quality of being poor; indigence; need.
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Third College Edition

The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him.
Dorothy Day

The poor, the weak and the hurting are God made visible.
Thomas Gerard Straub From the book “When Did I See You Hungry” Saint Anthony Messenger Press

Poverty is very difficulty to comprehend, very difficult to accept. It seems contradictory to the concept of a loving Providence. The greatest philosophers and Christian mystics have struggled with the concept of poverty, have tried to come to terms with it. It is seemingly a mystery but contemplating it can lead us to a greater understanding of our Creator and our response to the needs of others. God showed his preference for the poor by being poor Himself, by being rejected and despised by his kinsman and by being ignominiously executed by them. He continually admonishes us in the gospels to care for the destitute and rejected. And in our world, in which guise does he present Himself to us? He comes to us in the poor, the sick, the dying, the prisoners, the lonely, the disabled, the rejected and asks us to serve and love Him through them. What is our response? Do we respond with love, time and talent? Do we share our gifts with the poor? Can we look into the eyes of a poor man and see the indwelling Trinity? Can we cease centering our attention on ourselves and center them on the other? The more abject, dirty and offensive the poor are the more they cry out for God’s love which has to be channelled to them through our concern and actions. The stark fact is, that being created by the same universal Father, we are all intimately interrelated so that we are all diminished by the hunger, suffering and rejection of another. Our material goods, wealth, titles, awards do not define who we are. Our responses to the poor, to the less fortunate, to the rejected define who we are and which legacy we will leave when we are finally called home.

Our children seen on these pages have experienced poverty and its consequences. They have been rejected by society and denied needed medical care because of a lack of personal resources. A basic human right has been denied to them because they suffer from the ravages of poverty. Our children and all the poor are treasures for they open the door to heaven for us. They offer us a direct way to encounter God.

We thank you for making the care of our children possible and for making our home a haven for the poor. We love you and wish you God’s peace.

When we hear the cries of the oppressed, the cries of the poor, we hear the voice of God. Where there is weakness there is God. We need to ask God to shatter our complacency, to strip us of our need for comfort.
Gerard Thomas Straub From the book “Thoughts of a Blind Beggar: Reflections From A Journey To God” Orbis Books

The more goods I keep for my own enjoyment, the less there are for others. My pleasures and comforts are, in a certain sense, taken from someone else.
Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island

Men pray to the Almighty to relieve poverty. But poverty does not come from God’s laws – it is blasphemy of the worst kind to say that. Poverty comes from man’s injustice to his fellow man.
Leo Tolstoy

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