Na Kulturni uri meseca Januarja smo se spomnili Email Rucigaya; Stanley Rupnik nam je prebral njegov zanimiv zapis o aktivnosti domžalskih žena in še posebej ‘slamnikarc’, ki so veliko pripomogle k emancipaciji žena tako doma kot v ZDA.
Joao Chrisostomo nam je predstavil svoje delo v zvezi z dvema diplomatoma, portugalskim (Aristides de S. Mendes) in brazilskim (Luis Martins de S. Dantas), ki sta med II. Vojno zastopala svoji državi v Franciji in po svoji krščanski vesti, proti zahtevam svojih vlad, izdajala potrebne dokumente beguncem v Franciji, ki so bežali pred Hitlerjem in jih na ta način tisoče rešila smrti.
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Excerpts from Pope's Message for Lent 2024: Through the desert, God leads us to freedom
When our God reveals himself, he conveys freedom: "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). Thus begins the Decalogue, which was delivered to Moses on Mount Zion. The people know very well what kind of way out God is talking about: the experience of slavery is still imprinted in their flesh. In the desert, he receives ten words as a path to freedom. We call them "commandments", emphasizing the power of love with which God educates his people. The call to freedom is a strong call. It does not exhaust itself in a single event, for it matures on the journey.
Just as Israel still has Egypt in her in the wilderness—indeed, she often laments the past and grumbles against heaven and Moses—so God's people today carry within them oppressive ties that they must choose to leave. We realize this when we lack hope and wander through life as if in a dreary desert, with no promised land to reach for together. Lent is a time of grace, in which the desert again becomes - as the prophet Hosea preaches - a place of first love (cf. Hosea 2:16-17). God is raising up His people to step out of their bondage and experience the transition from death to life. As a bridegroom, he draws us back to himself and whispers words of love to our hearts.
……….It's time to act, and during Lent to act also means to stop. To stop in prayer to receive God's Word, and to stop like a Samaritan next to a wounded brother. Love of God and love of neighbor is one and the same love. To have no other gods is to stop at the presence of God, at the flesh of one's neighbor. Therefore, prayer, almsgiving and fasting are not three independent exercises, but a single movement of opening, emptying: out with the idols that burden us, away from the attachments that throw us into prison. Then the weakened and lonely heart will awaken. So we have to slow down and stop. The contemplative dimension of life, which fasting will help us rediscover, will attract new energies. In the presence of God, we become sisters and brothers, we feel each other with a new intensity: instead of threats and enemies, we find fellow travelers. This is God's dream, the promised land we strive for when we come out of slavery.
As much as this season of Lent will be a journey of conversion, lost humanity will feel a surge of creativity: a flash of new hope. Like the young people I met in Lisbon last summer, I would like to say to you: “Search and risk, search and risk. The challenges are enormous and the groans painful on these historic cherts. We are watching World War III piecemeal. But let us take the risk, and think that we are not in agony, but in labour; not at the end, but at the beginning of a great show. Such thinking requires courage" (Address to students, August 3, 2023). This is the courage of conversion, of getting out of slavery. Faith and love hold the hand of this little girl's hope. They teach her to walk, while at the same time she pulls them forward.