News

From 2022-11-12 to 2022-12-12

PASSING ON TO TAKE ROOT

"Giving, receiving, giving back in turn is really at the heart of transmission and at the heart of our dignity, our humanity and our intelligence as human beings, when we use it well. What do I want to give today? What do I want to give back?" Conscious or unconscious transmitters, we are observed: speak our smile, our look, our tone, our generosity, our open hand, our patience, our words...Our attitudes speak, encourage or discourage and have repercussions as much on the children as on the adults. Courage and its opposite, respect and its opposite, truth and its opposite, honesty and its opposite, love and its opposite are transmitted... These values, which are capable of providing an answer to the question of the aforementioned singer: "Where is happiness? Where is it?". "It is so easy to give, to give as a tree gives shade with all its height! But how difficult it is to give without humiliating, like a brother who only does his duty, who shares with his brothers what belongs to them too..." (Dom Helder Camara - excerpt) (Dom Helder Camara - excerpt from Transmettre) Perhaps therein lies happiness!

 

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

From 2022-11-05 to 2022-12-05

DÉLIA’S COLUMN

Do whatever you can; God will do the rest. (February 5, 1922)

 

God prepares the future and His ways do not always correspond with ours. I don’t mean to say that our ways of doing are not good, but that God’s plans often confound human wisdom.

(February 21, 1930)

 

I am convinced that the formation of the youth is the future of a country. (June 14, 1931)

 

Not knowing the future is not a reason for doing nothing in the present. You cannot imagine things to be as clear as you would want them to be; but we do what we can in the present and we pray to be enlightened for the future.

(January 16, 1932)

 

From 2022-10-12 to 2022-11-12

LIFE CAN BE THE VICTOR

Daily news which is part of my life, keeps informing me that there are currently many people living in desperate conditions, unable to get out of their misery, and the good Samaritans are insufficient. When great catastrophic events take place, there are always the official caretakers

who are at work with their admirable competence; however, there are numerous small catastrophes during a lifetime which are unattended and these can gradually lead to greater disasters. I therefore ask myself, without judging or accusing anyone— could the family circle be a privileged place for its members to learn good behavior, to avoid hurtful insults or blame, to come to the rescue of those who are abandoned and left to themselves? Are families aware that, somewhat like Jesus, they are first hand pedagogues in the way they teach their children the art of being attentive to the other, and, by their example, show how to apply the balm of tenderness?

 

THE GOAL OF EDUCATION

The family has a direct influence on the children’s development; parents guide them toward finding a true sense of self, they teach them to ‘wait’ without getting edgy, to share willingly what they have, to endure even though it bleeds. Parents play a fundamental role in forming the values of children. They are ‘key’ in helping children to humbly realize that they have strengths and limitations, that truth is to be spoken, that silence and solitude are important, that forgiveness is a must, that to serve the one most in need is very rewarding, and to be attentive to the environment is a responsibility.

The goal of education is to develop a child’s capacity to an attentive awareness, to an awakened presence of the other. At a time when much of the focus is on play, distractions, entertainment, when the ‘me, me, me’ takes center stage, when the ‘me’ is too distracted to seeing dangers, there is a risk of making mistakes. Who then will help out the child before it is too late? There can be no other but the family; only the family can humanize our society. Educating a child to be attentively aware of the ‘other’ is a blessing for the whole of society.

Jesus did not propose a family model but sensitized his entourage to the presence and importance of little children “for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Lk 18: 15.17). In other words, the fullness of LIFE is theirs. LIFE will be victorious not when the deficit zero will be reached or when churches will be full, but rather when society will become more humane, and when the family circle will be a place where attentiveness and tenderness are learned. What do we teach our children today? To what kind of messages do we expose them? In what direction do we draw their attention? To whom do we entrust our children? What time do we have with them? And during those hours, what content, what kind of conversation do we engage in?

 

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

Nowadays, those who govern the countries of our planet make troubling choices which endangers LIFE and poisons it in small doses: weapons of all sorts, pollution, monopoly, intimidation, dictatorships, reckless competition, GMOs… “A good number of young people have become incapable of believing that others can interact with them in a friendly manner, with respect, generosity, and a spirit of cooperation or willingness to create newness together… We are under the impression that we have all lost confidence in the collective institutions.” For LIFE to be the victor, families will need to regain the art of being pedagogues—initiating the children to be attentively aware of the ‘other’ and teaching them to use the balm of tenderness. For this to happen, parents will need to be supported in more ways than one. Our society which stresses consumerism, trading, rivalry, competition is overlooking the aspect of solidarity. The law of the jungle is the motivation. However, when solidarity is put into practice, “each member feels comforted and secure in its existence.” Today’s families, no matter their background or ethnicity, are called to face with courage and determination the current challenges as well as the ones yet to come. LIFE will be the Victor when man will shape the world in keeping with human dignity.

André Gadbois