Saul Alinsky and Hillary Clinton

I thought about who I am today. I am not conservative or liberal, democrat or republican. I am for the Dignity of the Person, for Solidarity and for Subsidiarity! I defend first and foremost, a Culture of Life in every possible way from conception to natural death, that is to say, Not A Culture of Death. I am the Deplorables generation that Oprah recently said should die faster in order to eradicate Racism! The President, Michelle and Hillary act like spoiled, immature brats who indignantly defend the denigration of our flag, our constitution and our country trying to sell us to Soros and the United Nations. I feel that my generation of the Baby Boomers and now the Millennials have been duped and brain-washed by the secular world through education, media, Hollywood and many other liberal entities. I was there once but now especially after seeing the enlightening documentary from Arcadia Films, entitled a "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing about Saul Alinsky, it is very clear to me that we all have been sheep following the wolf who only cares about himself instead of the Shepherd who loves his sheep. We will be sheep with Hillary who brings us to the slaughter taking away all of our 
God-given freedoms! I will have to be as courageous as my parents were under communistic regimes in WWII. Donald is still far better than the immorally corrupt and Machiavellic Clinton Dynasty. I want a Strong and Free America as Pope Francis just said in endorsing Donald Trump even though He, as I, do not agree with all of his views. When I meet my Maker, He will ask me if I aided or abated the Culture of Death and I Will have to answer to that first and foremost! I have great faith in Americans!!! I hope with all my heart that we vote for a Culture of Life not Death physically, morally, economically, spiritually and politically. I do not want a dependent, weak , freedomless and immoral America for our children and grandchildren! Do we want our children and grandchildren to have Hillary as their role-model on how to succeed corruptly and despotically in our blessed nation? I pray to God that we do not!

St. Francis of Assisi and I

San Francesco D'Assisi

For anyone that knows me, I am sure that they would say that I have a great love for Saint Francis of Assisi. Why, you may ask? There are many reasons for this affiliation with this iconic saint of Italy and one of the greatest historical figures of Italian history. The first reason is that my Italian parents had a great affection for him and transmitted it to me in my childhood through many ways.We had a statue of San Francesco in our living
room and in the garden of our very Italian home. Secondly, in my 12 years of Catholic education, I continually learned about this remarkable saint of the Catholic Church. I fondly remember learning by heart the Prayer of Saint Francis.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument* of thy peace!
That where there is hatred, I may bring love.
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony.
That where there is error, I may bring truth.
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith.
That where there is despair, I may bring hope.
That where there are shadows, I may bring light.
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort,than to be comforted.
To understand, than to be understood.
To love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

St. Francis of Assisi

 Thirdly, in my Italian literary studies in undergraduate and graduate courses, I studied Saint Francis as the author of one of the first works of artistic value in Italian literature, the "Cantico delle Creature" and from that exposure, came my enthusiasm and love for the teaching of a literary unit on Saint Francis of Assisi that I fondly taught every year for my 37 years in secondary school education. Fourthly, as a reading specialist and a professor of Italian, I often lectured and presented talks on topics dealing with St. Francis at local and national language conventions such as the AATI and ACFTL. Though I could name many more reasons for my great love for Saint Francis, my last reason is connected to my dear Mamma's illness and death and Saint Francis' tangible intercession to my prayers.

To people the world over St. Francis is known as the founder of a religious order, I Frati Minori or Franciscans and a symbol of humility and brotherly love but what most people do not know is that in his early twenties, he severed all ties with his family and renounced wealth and social position to lead a life of poverty. I know many Franciscans and I love how after 800 years since St. Francis' death, the order that he found, is still very much alive in many parts of the world today and in the Holy Land as custodians of the places where Christ walked, preached and died.

Saint Francis was born in 1182 and died in 1226. He died in a little chapel that he built called "La Porziuncola" when he was 44 years old. He is Italy's patron saint and his feast day is celebrated on October 4th. He was the son of a rich Italian cloth merchant and of a French woman. In 1201 he saw the Light and had a conversion. His famous apparition at "La Verna" in 1224 was when he received "La Stigmata."

He is considered Italy's first great poet of Italian literature who wrote in Italian and not in Latin. His famous lyrical poem, Il Cantico del Sole (delle Creature) written in 1225 is a poem that lauds all of Creation and its Creator.

The Canticle of Brother Sun

Most High, all powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor,
and all blessing.

To You alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no man is worthy to mention Your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praise be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and the stars, in heaven you formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which
You give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night and he is beautiful
and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through those who give pardon for Your love,
and bear infirmity and tribulation.

Blessed are those who endure in peace
for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whom no living man can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will
find in Your most holy willl,
for the second death shall do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord,
and give Him thanks
and serve Him with great humility.

AMEN

---

Song, music, and poetry were so deeply a part of the nature of Saint Francis that in times of sorrow and sickness as well as of joy and good health he spontaneously gave voice in song to his feelings, his inspirations, and his prayers. The clearest expression of this aspect of the personality of the Poverello is the Canticle of Brother Sun. G. K. Chesterton, in his reflections on the saint, wrote of this work: "It is a supremely characteristic work and much of Saint Francis could be reconstructed from that work alone. " And Eloi Leclercq, O.F.M., has written: "The manner in which Francis here looks at the created world is a key to his inner self, for the Canticle undoubtedly has elements that reveal in a special way the personality of its author. "

The Canticle of Brother Sun is a piece of spiritual literature that comes at a transition period in the development of language, that is, when Latin was slowly becoming Italian. For this reason, philologists and literary scholars as well as students of spiritual theology have studied this work. In the twentieth century more than five hundred articles have examined the Canticle and within the past twenty years ten books have been written about it.

The Legend of Perugia, 43, narrates the circumstances of the composition of the first section of the Canticle, in which the saint invites all creation to praise its Creator. The author describes the intense suffering of the Poverello in that period after he had received the stigmata. "For his praise," he said, "I wish to compose a new hymn about the Lord's creatures, of which we make daily use, without which we cannot live, and with which the human race greatly offends its Creator." The second section of the Canticle, consisting of two verses concerning pardon and peace, was composed a short time afterward in an attempt to unite the quarrelling civil and religious authorities of Assisi. The same Legend of Perugia, 44, describes the reconciling power the Canticle had in the resolution of the conflict. The final verses of the work, which constitute the third section, were written at the death of Saint Francis. Once again the Legend of Perugia, 100, provides the details of the scene at the Portiuncula where the Seraphic Father enthusiastically sang the praises of Sister Death and welcomed her embrace.

This magnificent hymn expresses the mystical vision of the Saint of Assisi and, since it springs from the depths of his soul, provides us with many insights into the profundity of his life of faith in the Triune God, Who so deeply enters into creation. In this vision, however, the Little Poor Man does not lose himself in space or in the vastness of the created world. He becomes so intimate and familiar with the wonders of creation that he embraces them as "Brother" and "Sister," that is, members of one family. More than any other aspect of the Canticle, this unique feature has enhanced the spiritual tradition of Christian spirituality.

(This introduction on the "Canticle" has been taken from: The Classics of Western Spirituality - Francis & Clare - Translation and Introduction by: Regis J. Armstrong, OFM, Cap. and Ignatius C. Brady, OFM).

 St. Francis wrote his poem at the end of his life after he received the Stigmata when he was very spiritually mature in heart, mind and soul. The poem was a song originally but the original music was lost. He loved nature and preached about its gentleness and goodness. His ideal was to live the Gospel to the letter and above all, to live perfect poverty. Francis was called the Song-writer of God. In 1219 he went to the Holy Land to speak to the Sultan who had a conversion from St. Francis' message of love and peace. In 1223 Pope Honorius III approved his order of the Frati Minori. the Franciscans who are still today a very active and vibrant religious order around the world because St. Francis was a man of action and of love. For St. Francis the love that he had for Christ was the love that he would have for his fellow man. There are three components in Francis: his spirituality,the presepio (1223) of Greccio where he reenacted the birth of Christ of the Incarnation to show God's humility and love for us and the cross of Calvary in the Eucharist where he sees the love of God made flesh in the Passion. St. Francis' message is essentially a message of love that can be encapsulated in three P 's: his love for the Passion, for the Poor, and for the Protection of God's Creation. These three P's essentially represent his love for God, Man and God's Creation.He saw the crucified Christ in the poor and wanted to live in poverty. As his prayer of peace espouses, St. Francis, "Il Poverello" wanted to preach love, pardon, faith, hope, light,and joy not with words but with deeds. One of my lectures was entitled, " Hope Springs Eternal in Itally with San Francesco." In retrospect, this was the best title I could give this magnanimous noble personage in Italian history who was canonized a saint in 1228.

I would always begin to teach my unit on St. Francis with Giotto's painting on the life of St. Francis called, "The Preaching to the Birds" which comes from a story written in "I Fioretti di San Francesco" which is a collection of stories on the life of St. Francis and his companions. ( his biography). "I Fioretti" is one of the most poetic works in Italian literature. The religious ardor of St. Francis, his love of God, for his fellow men, for nature, and for all of God's creation, are brought to life in short, simple tales, as vividly as in Giotto's frescoes. I remember when I saw the fresco for the first time in the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi I was awestruck by its beauty, mysticism, simplicity, harmony, naturalism and concentration of expression of Giotto. Giotto's art is heavily influenced by St. Francis and St. Claire.Giotto (1267-1337)) is considered the Father or precursor of the Italian Renaissance, the first naturalist known for his great interpretations of Franciscan mysticism. Afters he incorporates nature, animals, expression, and simplicity, he uses these elements in harmony with the composition and its landscape. The figures in his paintings are sweet, moving and realistic After the study of Giotto I would present St. Francis'"Cantico delle Creature" considered the first great lyrical poem in Italian literature. I loved teaching this first literary work in the vernacular of Italian with a serene message with which people all over the world still resonate. In this most beautiful first lyrical poem of Italian literature Saint Francis uses personification in praising the sun, the moon, and all creation. The poem evokes a serene solemnity. Apart from the beautiful message, Il Cantico is a striking example of pure, lyric achievement.This poem helped me to learn how to fully praise and love God's totally beautiful Creation.

After presenting the life, writings, and contributions of Saint Francis, I would also include a study of the region of Umbria in light of this extraordinary man. My aim ultimately was to always illustrate a running thread of messages of "Speranza" (Hope) that permeate Italy's culture, literature and civilization.

In my unit of Umbria and in particular,of Assisi where this illustrious saint was born, I would show film clips of this verdantly beautiful region of Italy that is called the green heart of Italy.  I remember the first time when I was 22 years old I visited the City of Assisi for the first time and I felt a sensation of serenity, peace and love. I can't explain it but it was felt tangibly and palpably in the very fiber of my being. When I was 60 years old, I entered the "Porziuncola" which St Francis built and where St. Francis' body lay for the first time in my life. There I. experienced the presence of God and felt completely forgiven for all of my sins and their remission. I stayed there for more than two hours which seemed like just a mystical moment in time. Time just stopped,for me and I experienced a joy that I had never ever had before. I was given a foretaste of Heaven that day, a day that transformed me because I experienced the mercy and compassion of Christ through the intercession of St. Francis as I sat so close to his body.There was a silence, a peace, a joy that I had never felt in my entire life. I would never be the same again because I knew from the bottom of my heart, mind, and soul that God loves me.

http://www.porziuncola.org/indulgenza-della-porziuncola-40-1.html

Last reason coming soon!

Well, today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4th and also the day my dear Mamma passed away so it is fitting that I give my last reason for why I love St. Francis so much. My beloved mother, Vittoria and beloved Father, Armando both loved St. Francis very much. My mother and father were great defenders of the Poor. That stayed with me all my life. During a ten year period of seeing and assisting my loving Mamma and Papa suffer with their maladies during their old age, I would always pray to St. Francis to intervene to the Lord for their physical and spiritual salvation.After studying and reading about St.Francis and after watching my parents suffer and die next to their bedside, I learned the most important lesson of life. I learned how to really love sacrificially as they did through their love of Jesus, of their Family, and of the Poor through their love of Christ and through His servant, San Francesco. Through their redemptive suffering which they accepted so humbly, I learned how to love as Christ loved us so perfectly. Through the allegorical journey of Dante as I was studying the "Divine Comedy" during this difficult time in my life and through St. Francis' intervention, I coped, survived and loved in the most profound way one can. After ten years of watching them suffer, after visiting my dearest Mamma on October 4, 1994, as I entered my house upon seeing the statue of St. Francis at my doorstep that I love so much, I finally broke down and realized that I had to let her go and asked San Francesco to ask the Lord to take her and an hour later, I received a call that Mamma was dying. I called my five brothers and we were at her bedside when she gave her last breath quietly, peacefully and submissively to be with the Lord. When I returned home that night I felt her beautiful presence in my kitchen; I felt an extraordinary warmth, peacefulness and blissfulness that I had never experienced in this material world ever before; I knew that Mamma was telling me she was in God's loving hands. For the next twenty-two years I would have apparitions of her in which I would gently wake up from a sound sleep. We would communicate without words through her beautiful eyes so fixedly penetrated in mine.She would always give me such reassurance of her love for me and for God's unconditional love for me and for all of Humanity. I always feel my Mamma's presence when I pray the rosary for her and Papa or when I teach a lesson in Italian class when I am reminded of her beautiful life lessons that she taught me not through words but through her deeds of Sacrificial Love....that is CARITAS! In closing Saint Francis of Assisi and my Cara Mamma taught me " to Preach at all times and if necessary use Words."

Life lessons I learned from my beloved Pinocchio by Carlo Lorenzini

The story of Pinocchio is about a wooden puppet carved by a friendly and lonely man called Geppetto .  Pinocchio, the naughty, wooden puppet made out of pine comes alive but has to learn how to love in order to become fully human.  The Blue Fairy, La Fata Azzurra who represents the supernatural realm brings the wooden puppet to life because Geppetto loves children and never had a son of his own. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that he cannot become a real boy until he proves his worthiness. A talking cricket, Il Grillo,Parlante accompanies Pinocchio as his conscience, telling him right from wrong and warning him that his bad decisions and actions have severe consequences.

Pinocchio learns many lessons through all his mischievousness. The first lesson we learn as readers is that Geppetto is a very loving father who sacrifices for his beloved son by selling his only jacket to provide a schoolbook for Pinocchio. Here  is the first example of sacrificial love that we witness in this supposedly innocuous children's tale. In each adventure or chapter of Pinocchio there is temptation, remorse, forgiveness, redemption and salvation. The adventures of Pinocchio teach him how to become human or in other words, teach him how to truly love and  he learns to truly love through the noble actions of his self-sacrificing father, Geppetto and through the compassionate actions of his supernatural mother through the character of the Blue Fairy. One could say that Pinocchio is on a real journey on life's road to learn about Caritas (Sacrificial Love) , the same love that is the central theme in Dante's Divine Comedy as he journeys through hell, purgatory, and heaven in order to also ultimately learn how to love sacrificially or perfectly. Italians read Pinocchio as children and as older students they read Dante's Divine Comedy yet the overarching theme in both of these great works is how to love perfectly.

So many of the deadly sins are supplanted in the character of Pinocchio and as I observed my own children growing up, I would always humorously point out to my students how my own children would act just like Pinocchio with his naïveté, with his innocence and with his concupiscence.

I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:21-25)

"Christ by His death redeemed mankind from sin and its bondage. In baptism the guilt of original sin is wiped out and the soul is cleansed and justified again by the infusion of sanctifying grace. But freedom from concupiscence is not restored to man, any more than immortality; abundant grace, however, is given him, by which he may obtain the victory over rebellious sense and deserve life everlasting."

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

 Sin is a condition in which we fail to grow in a fully human way. Pinocchio's negative behavior turns him always to himself and his own selfish needs and thus, his vices or sins, if you will, are  "deadly" because they take him from life to death or in eschatological terms, they could conceivably take him from eternal life to eternal damnation. Pinocchio's choices turn him away from his fullest humanity. Pinocchio has a free will that allows him to continually fail and to learn from his errors. He is continually restless and unsatisfied as he tests the muddy, tempting waters of life. Saint Augustine in his Confessions tells us that "God made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." Dante, in his Divine Comedy from the Middle Ages, organized the Mount of Purgatory into seven terraces which beginning with pride, the sinful mounted to expiate their sins and learn of their opposing virtues.  For example, the sinful in pride learn how to be humble or the sinful in sloth learn how to be charitable. Pinocchio learns with his intellect and his heart the same type of lessons that transform vice into virtue. The old monastic writers knew instinctively that to turn away from the isolation of self and to turn toward the other is to Love! It is better to give than to receive as Saint Francis of Assisi demonstrated so passionately in the way he lived his life which was totally Christocentric. He saw Jesus Christ in everyone and everything that God made in Creation. Pinocchio sees Christ in the paternal love that he unconditionally receives from his temporal father, Geppetto who always forgives his beloved Prodigal Son when he goes astray as well as seeing Christ in the maternal love that he unconditionally receives from the supernatural mother of the Blue Fairy who also forgives him when he errs from the straight and narrow path. She also helps to comfort him when he is suffering, encourages him even when she knows he is deviating from the right path and patiently waits to bring him home when he has lost his way. Pinocchio fears both his  natural father and supernatural mother but it is a good,filial fear that increases his hope in being transformed into a human being and ultimately, with temperance to avoid sin, and have perpetual life. 

Alla prossima ( Until next time) Tante belle cose to my Pinocchiophiles!

Family

The foundation of Italy is not its constitution but La Famiglia. Growing up Italian even when all of our relatives were far away in Italy while we were new immigrants in the United States, we never felt alone. As a child I always always felt safe and protected in the refuge of our home with my Papa and Mamma and five siblings.  The unification of Italy after the decline of the Roman Empire occurred after many centuries of exterior as well as interior invasions of the Italian boot. Perhaps this is why Italians are so self-sufficient and hopeful. They had to fend for themselves from the decline of the Roman Empire to 1870 when Italy was finally united. This social and political movement was called the Risorgimento meaning Resurgence that unified all of the regions of Italy into one single state of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italian film, Il Gattopardo made in 1963 helped me to understand the positive and negative effects that the unification of Italy had on Italian society. Throughout Italy’s tumultuous centuries of changing conditions, the only unchanging fundamental institution inevitably became the family. 

My parents taught me to always defend, honor and respect the family. I learned to love and respect the family because my parents loved and respected us so much.  My Italian parents throughout my childhood and also into womanhood always treated me as a precious human being with great worth, dignity and whose needs were of paramount importance to them. I felt like a Regina ( Queen) and infact, they called me La Regina Dorina because my Papa had a little poetic verse put on a cake which he brought to the hospital when I was born which read, “E nata la Regina, la chiameremo Dorina." From that moment on I always felt immensely loved. It seemed like the world stopped for my parents when we children were in their midst. It was truly self-sacrificing love that emanated from an imitation of God’s triune love, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and from an imitation of the triune love in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. From divine to human, all these models affected how our Mamma and Papa loved us, educated us and respected us. And now as a parent and grandparent I try to continue to educate, respect and love my children and my grandchildren in the same way.

It saddens and frightens me how the basic unit of society which is the family is being weakened, devalued and even mocked. To think that a woman who is helping to destroy the sacredness of human life, the family and marriage between a man and a woman is now running for President of the United States. It should not surprise me since our country helped to elect an African-American President who in just two terms of office has decimated the nucleus of society which is the family that traditionally consisted of Father, Mother and children. After 43 years of sacramental marriage, my husband and I know that mankind's purpose on this earth is to love unconditionally in relationship as God does and that through marriage and the family we can fulfill this inherent need in the most sublime way.

I had the privilege and honor of being in the birthing room of one of my daughter's first child's entrance into this beautiful world with her beloved husband. I witnessed the most beautiful miracle....the miracle of LIFE! I will cherish this memory forever! It is with deep gratitude to Joseph's parents for letting me be a part of this most blessed event. People are searching for fool-proof evidence of God in this world. Well, my response to that would be to say that all you have to do is witness the beauty, wonder and awe of seeing new life enter this world. No words can fully describe what I saw, thought and felt in my heart, mind and soul!

 

Faith

Faith is the most important thing in my life. With faith I can do all things even move mountains.
I want to share the beauty of the Catholic Faith with my family  and in particular, to my beloved grandchildren through my words and deeds and from my joy of living this beautiful life God has given me. I want to teach my family and grandchildren the beautiful family traditions and Catholic Church Traditions  of our faith and how sacred it is and that it is the most important thing in our life. I want to impart to my to them how much Jesus loves each and every one of us and how much good comes from loving Jesus and knowing Him. Everything that I do should be rooted in good morals by teaching our family never to give up hope in God, to always be strong through faith in Jesus Christ, and to fix things when they go wrong with faith, hope and love. It is my hope that will make me a good example to my family and show them that when someone, that is God, loves us so much, that we, in turn, can go through anything in this earthly life. I hope to be supportive and kind to my grandchildren when they receive the blessed sacraments like Holy Communion and Confirmation and continue to show them good moral standards with love, patience and understanding. One of my heartfelt wishes is that I will be able to take my precious grandchildren to Eucharistic Adoration to experience the true presence of Jesus and to talk to Him. My most favorite time with my family is when we all go to Sunday Mass together followed by a good breakfast at our home. Being Catholic and Italian has taught me how beautiful it is to nourish our bodies through wonderful Italian Cooking and to nourish our souls with Holy Communion.  This partaking of food at the Lord's Table and at our Family Table unites us as One with each other and One with The Lord. For Jesus said not to seek for bread that perishes but seek for food that lasts unto eternal life. He told us that He is the living Bread that comes from Heaven and that his flesh is food for the life of the world. I firmly believe that the bread and wine at the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at banquet with my Lord and Savior, is transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Jesus becomes truly substantially present under the appearance of the Eucharistic elements.This is as the Catholic Church states  the source and summit of our Catholic faith. I am so thankful to God for my Catholic faith in this belief of this Sacrament Most Holy,this Sacrament Divine.

Paradiso XXXIII 145

Here is a beautiful idea that everyone should live by that comes from the very last verse of Dante.

“L’amor che move il sol e l’altre stelle,”  ( The love that moves the sun and other stars )

( ParadisoXXXIII, 145 of The Divine Comedy)

In Dante’s time, the sun had not been recognized as the center of the universe, and thus, it was the belief that the sun and stars orbited us. God was viewed as light. Everyone who has ever had a near death experience will tell you they have seen a light and that God exists; but Dante challenges this idea. He tells us that God is not merely a blinding, refulgent vision of glorious light, but that God is the LOVE that moves the sun and other stars. The first thing humans know is light, without it we cannot see which is true but without LOVE we would not exist to see this light. There is so much evidence for God because of this Love that moves us.  Love moves Dante’s desire when he experiences it after a fleeting vision of God and ultimately in this last verse reveals the essence of his entire great work, of God, and of the universe ....that is, that God is Caritas ( Sacrificial Love) who moves all of Creation and all of Humanity! We are made in God's image and likeness and there is so much evidence for this LOVE that moves all of His world and all of His creation.

I recommend a site called http://www.magiscenter.com/

Fr. Spitzer who is a brilliant scholar and scientist has the following mission:

Our Mission:

Magis Center will provide comprehensive and systematic responses to restore, reconstruct, and revitalize belief in God, the transcendent dignity of every person, the significance of virtue, the higher levels of happiness, love, and freedom, and the real presence of Jesus Christ.

MAGIS CENTER Provides Responses to Four Popular Secular Myths  (click on the desired landing page icon below)

1. The false conflict between Faith and Science.
2. The false conflict between Suffering and the Love of God.
3. The false conflict between Virtue and Freedom.
4. The false conflict between the historical Jesus and “the Jesus of the Gospels., ,

In the following article of Pope Benedict of why he wrote his first encyclical Deus Cariitas Est.(God is Love)

is a more concise and scholarly explanation of Paradiso XXXIII 145.

The cosmic excursion in which Dante wants to involve the reader in his Divine Comedy ends before the everlasting light that is God himself, before that light which at the same time is the love “which moves the sun and the other stars” (Paradise XXXIII, verse 145). Light and love are but one thing. They are the primordial creative power that moves the universe.

If these words of the poet reveal the thought of Aristotle, who saw in the eros the power that moves the world, Dante's gaze, however, perceives something totally new and unimaginable for the Greek philosopher.

Eternal light not only is presented with the three circles of which he speaks with those profound verses that we know: “Eternal Light, You only dwell within Yourself, and only You know You; Self-knowing, Self-known, You love and smile upon Yourself!” (Paradise XXXIII, verses 124-126).

In reality, the perception of a human face — the face of Jesus Christ — which Dante sees in the central circle of light is even more overwhelming than this revelation of God as trinitarian circle of knowledge and love.

God, infinite light, whose incommensurable mystery had been intuited by the Greek philosopher, this God has a human face and — we can add — a human heart.

In this vision of Dante is shown, on one hand, the continuity between the Christian faith in God and the search promoted by reason and by the realm of religions; at the same time, however, in it is also appreciated the novelty that exceeds all human search, the novelty that only God himself could reveal to us: the novelty of a love that has led God to assume a human face, more than that, to assume the flesh and blood, the whole of the human being.

God's eros is not only a primordial cosmic force, it is love that has created man and that bends before him, as the Good Samaritan bent before the wounded man, victim of thieves, who was lying on the side of the road that went from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Today the word “love” is so tarnished, so spoiled and so abused, that one is almost afraid to pronounce it with one's lips.

And yet it is a primordial word, expression of the primordial reality; we cannot simply abandon it, we must take it up again, purify it and give back to it its original splendor so that it might illuminate our life and lead it on the right path.

This awareness led me to choose love as the theme of my first encyclical.

I wished to express to our time and to our existence something of what Dante audaciously recapitulated in his vision. He speaks of his “sight” that “was enriched” when looking at it, changing him interiorly (cfr. Paradise XXXIII, verses 112-114).

It is precisely this: that faith might become a vision-comprehension that transforms us. I wished to underline the centrality of faith in God, in that God who has assumed a human face and a human heart.Faith is not a theory that one can take up or lay aside. It is something very concrete: It is the criterion that decides our lifestyle.

In an age in which hostility and greed have become superpowers, an age in which we witness the abuse of religion to the point of culminating in hatred, neutral rationality on its own is unable to protect us. We are in need of the living God who has loved us unto death.

Thus, in this encyclical, the subjects “God,” “Christ” and “love” are welded, as the central guide of the Christian faith. I wished to show the humanity of faith, of which eros forms part, man's “yes” to his corporeal nature created by God, a “yes” that in the indissoluble marriage between man and woman finds its rooting in creation.

And in it, eros is transformed into agape, love for the other that no longer seeks itself but that becomes concern for the other, willingness to sacrifice oneself for him and openness to the gift of a new human life. The Christian agape, love for one's neighbor in the following of Christ, is not something foreign, put to one side or something that even goes against the eros; on the contrary, with the sacrifice Christ made of himself for man he offered a new dimension, which has developed ever more in the history of the charitable dedication of Christians to the poor and the suffering.

A first reading of the encyclical might perhaps give the impression that it is divided in two parts, that it is not greatly related within itself: a first, theoretical part that talks about the essence of love, and a second part that addresses ecclesial charity, with charitable organizations.

However, what interested me was precisely the unity of the two topics, which can only be properly understood if they are seen as only one thing.

Above all, it was necessary to show that man is created to love and that this love, which in the first instance is manifested above all as eros between man and woman, must be transformed interiorly later into agape, in gift of self to the other to respond precisely to the authentic nature of the eros.

With this foundation, it had then to be clarified that the essence of the love of God and of one's neighbor described in the Bible is the center of Christian life, it is the fruit of faith.

Then, it was necessary to underline in a second part that the totally personal act of the agapecannot remain as something merely individual, but, on the contrary, it must also become an essential act of the Church as community: that is, an institutional form is also needed that expresses itself in the communal action of the Church.

The ecclesial organization of charity is not a form of social assistance that is superimposed by accident on the reality of the Church, an initiative that others could also take. On the contrary, it forms part of the nature of the Church.

Just as to the divine Logos corresponds the human announcement, the word of faith, so also to the agape which is God must correspond the agape of the Church, her charitable activity.

This activity, in addition to its first very concrete meaning of help to the neighbor, also communicates to others the love of God, which we ourselves have received. In a certain sense, it must make the living God visible. In the charitable organization, God and Christ must not be strange words; in fact, they indicate the original source of ecclesial charity. The strength of "Caritas" depends on the strength of faith of all its members and collaborators.

The spectacle of suffering man touches our heart. But charitable commitment has a meaning that goes well beyond mere philanthropy. God himself pushes us in our interior to alleviate misery. In this way, in a word, we take him to the suffering world.

The more we take him consciously and clearly as gift, the more effectively will our love change the world and awaken hope, a hope that goes beyond death.

If you would like to read Pope Benedict's encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, I recommend going on Marcellino D'Ambrogio's Crossroads Initiative Page which is where I located this article on the encyclical.

Hope you find these resources illuminatingly fascinating and informative.