Efraim
Cleft Lip and Palate
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[Jesus speaks:] I was born, born for you, in a cave, in December, in the cold, homeless, in the middle of a winter's night, in the unheard-of poverty of the extremely poor, in solitude, in an abandonment unique to this world. What, my children, do I want you to learn from my birth? To believe in my love, to believe that I have loved you until now. To hope in me, who have loved you so dearly.
Venerable Charles de Foucauld
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The concept that God is humble, vulnerable and in need of us seems incongruous. We hold Him to be infinite, all powerful, the Creative Force and those terms convey the impression that perhaps He is distant, inaccessible, even aloof. However, in all His manifestations He demonstrates His true nature, His true way of being. When He entered time and space at the Incarnation, He presented Himself as a helpless child, born to poor ignorant parents in a place fit only for animals. His first visitors were sheperds, poor and illiterate. In the Incarnation, He came to seek us to offer us a share in His divine life, the Creator pursuing the created. He does not intrude in our lives nor imposes His will. We know Him through His works, through creation. He places Himself, as it were, in the background. He waits patiently for us in the sick, poor, oppressed and vulnerable. He asks us to care for Him in the dispossed and marginalized, to be stewards of His gifts to us, to share them with our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Again, no demands, no imperatives. He gives to us unconditionally and asks us to share unconditionally.
Ricardo
Colitis
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Oh how we long to find God in some moment of spiritual ectasy, looking for the divine in some spectacular or extraordinary event. Yet God comes to us in a humble disguise, in unexpected places. We don't find God where we expect to or want to.
Gerard Thomas Straub |
We have had a full, often hectic but wonderful year in our home. We have remained crowded and over capacity but our gifts have been great. Each child we receive and help is a gift, a manifestation of God, humble and vulnerable. More often than not we receive more from them than we give. They, in fact, become our ministers, teaching us patience in suffering, unconditional love in caring for one another, gratitude for gifts and care rendered. It is especially gratifying, to interact with their parents or caretakers. We represent God's love to them and their children and they in turn represent His need for us. A sobering thought; God needs us to complete His creation.
Mirtha
Dislocated Hip
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That you need God more than anything you know at all times in your heart. But don't know also that God needs you?
Martin Buber
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Jaime
Burns of Neck
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God has work to do that will not be done without us.
St. Augustine |
Thank you for sharing your gifts and talends with our children. May God fill you and yours with every blessing during the Season of Love and in the New Year. We love you and wish you His peace.
The San Damiano Foundation has produced a film in DVD format about our home for children. The film details the day-to-day routine of the home and highlights the plight of the children we care for. It was produced at no cost to the Villa La Paz Foundation. Copies are available for a donation of $20.00. The San Damiano Foundation's mission is to put the power of film at the service of the poor. To order a copy of the film titled, "The Patients of a Saint," please click here
Lucio
Chronic bone infection
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Luz Maria
Malformation of the Bladder
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Marcos
Tuberculosis of the Knee and Hip
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Luz Victoria
Tumor of the Chest
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Then he took a little child, stood him in the midst, and putting his arms around him, said to them, "Whoever welcomes a child such as this for my sake welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes, not me, but Him who sent me".
Mark 9:36-37
The children on these pages are the face of God. In them He has become completely dependent on us. Thank you for your support of this work. We love you and wish you blessings of peace and joy.
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about these and other cases
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