I’m very patriotic when it comes to language, literature, and culture, but not so with music. When it comes to choosing between Malta Eurovision Song Contest and Sanremo, I choose the latter. Just to clarify, by ‘following’ I mean scrolling through the songs on my smartphone, since I neither have a television nor enough patience and time to spend in front of a light emitting box.

For the Ariston Theatre, this year’s concert was a good one because many of the songs that made it to the final stage were somewhat beautiful in their style, melody, or lyrics. Even if initially I didn’t give it too much importance, one of the songs that struck me most was Tango by Tananai, which placed fifth.

After hearing it for several times and watched the music video, I realised that this was a contemporary masterpiece. To put you in context, it speaks of two lovers separated by the war in Ukraine. The music video is made up of a divided screen, with clips of her and their daughter (both refugees in Italy) on the left, and on the right, clips shot by him; an inexperienced soldier, back in Ukraine during their daily video calls.

To some extent it’s a typical Italian love ballad, with statements featuring the desire to return to the day they met and reverse the events so that they won’t be suffering of a love-story lived at a distance. However, there are also a couple of disturbing lines that almost shook me and made me struggle to bring out their real meaning after reading through the lyrics repeatedly. The last lines of the pre-chorus and the opening lines of the chorus are as follow:

Lo so quanto ti manco, ma chissà perché Dio

Ci pesta come un tango e ci fa dire

Amore tra le palazzine a fuoco

La tua voce riconosco …

When I heard “God” and “tango” in such proximity, a repressed memory from my secondary school years came to the fore: the stupid song called ‘Lord of the Dance’ which we sang during mass and which I hated wholeheartedly. Moreover, it’s quite weird to imagine God dancing tango, being a Trinity and not a couple (apologies for the blasphemy). But what’s most harsh about these few words is that it’s as if God is trampling on them like in a tango dance because of this horrendous experience they’re going through, and yet the singer somewhat acknowledges that it is God that makes them say, “my love,” even in the midst of broken buildings and explosions.

This paradox has baffled theologians and philosophers for millennia, and they only managed to reach partial answers which are either too logical to touch the heart, or too sentimental to make a cohesive argument. However, I cannot stop listening to these verses because, let’s face it, as we pray in the Our Fathers’—“and lead us not into temptation”—we know that in life we pass through many trials, and ‘faith’ removes nothing from the suffering to be endured.

In a sense, sometimes, only poetry, music, and art can transmit the belief that God is there, even amid our hells, and that it is only love that makes hell bearable, both that of our loved ones and also His love—which is not always easy to see and verify.

Yet God’s love guides our stories, both in their highs and also in their lows. God’s love endures even when we promise that on a Monday we’ll be back, but have little faith that Monday will ever come (Io tornerò un lunedì/Ma non è mai lunedì). Love makes our hearts beat and it itself sows small seeds of love amid deserts.

So, back to the question, “Tananai’s Tango and… God?”… I think this art-piece succeeds at showing that only God, while sometimes apparently trampling on us in the dance of his love for us, makes us capable of loving (i.e., even when we are living through hell on earth). He who is love itself, gives us the grace to not give into doubt, fear, anxiety, or egoism. Indeed, and here, in being transformed into God’s nature, we become selfless like him. Through love and being loved, we become love.

It is only if we sow love that humanity will be able to reap the fruit of love one day. This fruit is not a forbidden fruit, but a fruit that God wishes us to feed on abundantly!

Read More –

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In Search of Beauty

I look out the window

to see a restless night.

I close my eyes, so that I might for a while

escape the pain behind me.

There sat he

behind me

news on the telly.

He’d been on the news

some days ago.

Run over by a reckless driver.

Hit and run. Both legs mangled.

Forever injured.

Now the news spoke

of ground shattering war,

lives taken, families scattered.

War, famine,

death, destruction.

Brother deceiving brother.

A world in chaos.

And in this moment of despair,

in a world with no rhyme or reason,

I turn my face upwards towards the stars

and silently scream

“Where is my God?”

And I think to myself,

why do I expect to find God in hell?

What is this place we call our own

if not a man-made hell?

Here in the realm in which we tread,

in which we’ve spread our corruption,

we have silenced Heaven’s bell; for we no longer seek

it’s guiding toll, threw away the Holy Bread.

Our god is born from self-deception.

Greed and power-lust are its holy word.

We are a world of modern-day Mammonites.

The devil calls,

‘Come to me and I’ll reward ye

Wealth, power, all the world’s comforts shall serve ye…..if simply

Ye kneel before ”me.”

Tempted with an easy life,

a life of grazing on coin, engorged with recognition and fame

we’ve thrown our soul onto the pyre,

sold our soul to the devil’s fire.

So I clutch the crucifix hanging from my neck

pleading for a sign that God is listening.

But all I hear, in this darkened night, is the street below, brimming

with the desperate vibrations of a technological world,

a world desperate to make gods from men.

I squeeze my eyes, my mind swirls with thought.

What prayer ought I say?

What words may this mouth of a blasphemer speak?

I try to croak out a plea for help,

but the weight of my sins seems to pull the prayer into deep abyss

leaving in its wake a snake-like silence seemingly solid and unbreakable.

Until to my surprise,

through that deep solid silence,

A voice breaks in song.

It was a simple song

sweetly sung, its sound softly soaring and at times, falling.

Its simplicity seemed to lure me.

I lean back towards the song

and before long,

I can make out the words

constructing a song of praise

to Him who made all.

Slowly my eyes open, I turn round,

and there before me sits the singer,

wheelchair bound.

“How?”, “how can you find the words to sing

of beauty, in a world so sick without

love, a world so drenched in darkness and sin?”

A smile shined from his face and he said

“Finding the words is no hard feat,

when beauty is all around.

You just have to learn to see”.

My father used say;

“how does the sparrow fly so free

despite all that threatens it?

It flies because it knows

that beauty always grows

taller than terror.

It knows it can find shelter

in the trees that tower,

and find peace

among the smallest flowers.

Despite all that hunts it,

the sparrow never gives in.

And so must we never give up

just because of sin.

Just because there’s death

does not mean there’s no life.

There is still love

despite the strife.

The loving parent

who adores the child,

the patient teacher

who nurtures the mind,

The humble worker

to whom most are blind,

who toils and troubles

to serve.

There are many times

when humans sacrifice out of love.

It is this sacrifice

that raises us above

our monstrous desires.

Open your eyes

See past the lies

The world is not in darkness.

It isn’t all night.

Open your eyes and see the light.”

See more –

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The post In Search of Beauty | A Poem by Jacob Fiott appeared first on Universe of Faith.

The passion and the crucifixion of Christ are very dear to me. In fact, I sincerely believe that if Christ had to call me to be His disciple, He would call me during that journey. In Christ who is suffering, I do not see a man whom I should pity; in Christ who is undergoing His passion, feelings of guilt and shame stay away from me. As He undergoes his passion, rather, I find myself lost in His loving gaze for me. My eyes meet His and I feel tenderly loved in a complete way, in a way I have never imagined before. I feel immersed in an ocean of unconditional love.

As He is enduring the scourging, I do not see Jesus as a victim of human sin, but my Saviour who is freeing me and saving me. I realise how deeply precious and dear I am for God. I find myself wanting to hide and find comfort in His wounds. I find myself wanting to walk all this journey with Him – to be there for Him. And I can see the Spirit of the Resurrection already present.

Why should I be afraid of His passion, why should I seek to run away – when in those moments I can experience his deepest and most tender love for me?

His blood is sanctifying. It heals me. He gives me the courage to follow in His footsteps and also embrace the pains of my life steadfastly. I love the passion of Christ, for I do not simply see a human being who is undergoing pain and suffering from human sin, but the glory of God. Because during this affliction, from Him emerged only light, unconditional love, forgiveness. A torrential of graces were poured on to us! And these are graces which give us the strength to receive and accept the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Graces which, when we believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is our Saviour, can give us the faculty to transform our lives completely.

In light of all this, I am reminded of a metaphor that a priest once narrated on a radio-station. He compared the journey of Christ’s death and resurrection to a woman giving labour. The pain and suffering, irrespective of their horror, are ultimately needed for the child to be born. This means that suffering isn’t something that we should always attempt to escape, but to realise that sometimes there is a kind of freedom and potential growth in it. In a sense, the Resurrection wouldn’t make sense without the antecedence of Death. And this death – all form of death – is never separated from He who loves us. Grace gives colour even to the blackness of the tomb.

See More – Top-pope-francis-quotes-on-death/

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1. Maybe we have not discovered God yet, and so God feels foreign to us.
2. Maybe we have discovered God but all suddenly don’t feel his presence as strongly.
3. Or maybe we are living a kind of life that rejects God.

These are all, in different ways, forms of exile.

And yet, amidst these forms of estrangement, we are encouraged to not lose heart and to, against all odds, keep trusting in God’s love and faithfulness! Sometimes, undoubtedly, this is not that easy for us to do. The question is, how can Lent help us do this?

Lent Inspires us to Prepare the Way for the Lord (to open our Selves to God).

This idea of preparing the way for the Lord might sound daunting. How much effort do I have to make? Is it all up to me?

The good news is that, with God things never depend only on us. He is always the one to take the first step! God is already inviting you into deeper friendship with him – we simply need to try to reciprocate in the ways that we can. Thus, for example:

If we don’t know God personally yet, we can try to search more genuinely and with a more open heart (i.e. here, it’s important to let our natural questions guide us, so that our search will be authentic).

If we’ve known God but are not feeling him much at the moment, we can try to remind ourselves of His faithfulness and love – asking him to help us be faithful even during the dark times.

If we are living a life that is rejecting Him, we can try to ask him to help us grow in love and in self-discipline, while engaging in acts of charity and fasting!

Sometimes, all it takes to “prepare the way” is to give God “permission” to work in us. God will not impose himself, so we need to show Him that we want to be transformed. The slightest effort on our part can bear much fruit!

In this light, it is good to note that many of the changes that we are called to make are in the spiritual life. The focus should be on all those problems in our life that need to be straightened out. Our distraction – our tendency to heal our anxiety with superficial things – our failure to go out of our way to help others – our propensity to waste time, the list goes on.

Ultimately, this growth is a journey; a journey that cannot take place without hope.

Lent renews our Hope, inviting us to reflect upon what our Hope is rooted in.

In waiting for the Lord to be reborn in us at Easter, we long for the fulfilment of a promise by faith. This is a longing that is characterized by confident expectation. Here, our longing is ‘active’ because of our hope. The Prophet Isiah writes how those who hope in the Lord soar like eagles… they walk without tiring. Is this how we often feel?

The question is, in our life, what are we primarily rooting our hope in?

Naturally, in our life we trust and wait on many things! We wait for job interviews, for new album releases, for exam results, for the night to pass….  Our life is in part a life of waiting. But it isn’t and shouldn’t be a life of passive waiting – or of only waiting for things that will fulfil us only for a short time. We’re not made for short-term fulfilment!

In one of his novels, the Polish novelist Joseph Conrad contrasts the human being to a butterfly. Whereas a butterfly, at some point or another, successfully finds the branch or rock to rest upon; the human being never stays still for a long period of time. We are restless, always searching, always desiring new and more of things. We never stop and say, “there’s nothing else I want!”. Joy is different from hunger, which we can satisfy at some point – it seems infinite.

Amidst all this, how can we better understand all this anxiety that always pushes us to search and want more?

Our anxiety is not something we should get rid of; rather, it is something we need to interpret and understand. Anxiety is a sign – showing us that we need to always strive for a better life – for a fuller life.

In one of her reflections, St Theresa of Avila compares the human soul to a “castle” that has many rooms and many stories. The deeper we travel inside, the closer we get to God. The last room is God’s room in us. In it, our self and God meet! But in order to travel deeper, in order to get to this last room, our paths need to be all clear. This is what lies at the heart of Lent! The task of making ourselves clearer to discover who we are and to, in turn, discover Jesus within!

See More –

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“The future has many faces”.

Without making any reference to the company that uses this slogan, I found it quite surprising to see such a philosophical statement used as an advert in our useless bus shelters (i.e., unless they’re to be used as greenhouses during summer or as bathroom cubicles during winter).

But at least, by claiming that the future has many faces, the advert departs from a deeply ingrained deterministic mind-set of us Maltese, especially with exclamations such as, “hekk kellu jkun”—that’s how things had to be—or “kienet miktuba għalih”—it was written for him. And this is quite funny because, for such statements to be tenable, we have to imagine a ginormous library with unending rows of shelving racks filled with whole volumes of books that contain all the details of how a person’s life will evolve, or rather proceed.

This reminds me of a film I watched some years ago, The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon as David Norris and Emily Blunt as Elise Sellas, who play the part of a couple that struggle to go against their predetermined separate plans until they are ultimately granted free-will. Without entering into detail, the movie reflects in a very bizarre way how sometimes we really see things in a contradictory way: everything is predetermined, and yet, at the same time, we are not willing to admit that such belief implies that we don’t really possess free-will. And this is so true because, “free will is a gift, you’ll never know how to use until you fight for it”, as the character Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie) well claims.

Returning back to our argument after this digression: what can be the different faces that the future possesses?

I don’t know. Maybe the face of success, as the company surely won’t promote the face of failure. Maybe the face of power that derives from success, because surely it cannot be the face of meekness that is perceived as weakness by society (i.e. since meekness tends towards gaining respect and, consequently, authority—unlike power, which is obtained by control). Maybe the face of fame which tends to peak and then heads toward a torrential downfall.

I don’t know what faces my—and our—future will have. But hopefully—in the sense of ‘full of hope’, and not in the sense of ‘if I’m lucky enough’ or ‘if the gods permit”— it has at least two faces.

Firstly, the face of humanity which, irrespective of our diverging roads, different social standing, and contrasting views, puts us on the same level and, especially in times of crisis, forces us to cooperate and respect each other as members of the same species.

And, secondly, the face of God-made-man who, in his abyssal downfall, showed us what it really means to be human: the ability to look towards the other and see in the other the face of God who’s image we are all created in and by whose incarnate face we were smiled at and redeemed.

Fr Gilbert Scicluna 

Gilbert Scicluna is a Catholic Priest, currently serving at the parish of Christ the King, Paola, and co-editor of the website behold.mt.

The post “The Future Has Many Faces” – A Reflection appeared first on Universe of Faith.

There’s a space in the beauty of Creation that only you can fill.

There’s a difference in the world that only you can make.

There’s a particular calling that can only be answered through your will.

There’s a valuable story to be written and told only through your voice.

There’s a process of forgiveness that frees others, which can only happen through your transformative journey of healing.

There’s a particular cross that only you can embrace and bear.

There’s a life of prayer that always awaits for your soul to kneel.

There’s a dance, that the spirit of God gracefully longs to direct your steps in.

There’s a song waiting to be sung through your spirit as it rises to Him.

There’s a love to be shared only through your self-gift.

All you once were, all you presently are, and all you are yet to be, are deeply seen as precious in the eyes of Him, of whom you are lovingly His.

In light of all this, finally, let us try to reflect upon how Jesus himself is a gift to us!

An unconditional love permeates God’s every act. This is expressed in His self-love as a gift to humanity – in Jesus – the wounded healer, the faithful lover – but it is also expressed in all of life that strives to live, it is expressed in a joy that points to more joy, it is expressed in the silence of a world that doesn’t need to exist but continues to, it is expressed in the cries of an infant who breathes fresh air for the first time, it is expressed in the Sacrament of Confession, through which God forgives and heals each bleeding wound perfectly, it is expressed even in pain, since pain (our distaste for it) reminds us of our real home, a home that is free of pain, free of death.

This Christmas, therefore, let us allow the one who has experienced each wound, to heal us, let us allow the one who, against all odds, continued to love, to really love us. Let us be born anew, as more healed, more loving, more human. As Meister Eckhart asked, “what good is it for me if Mary gave birth to the son of God 1400 years ago, and I don’t give birth to God’s son in my person and my culture and my times?”.

We are all meant to be “other Mary’s”. By God’s grace and guidance, we can all birth divinity!

Read More –

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Lord I Need You, Where Are You? – Universe of Faith

Is Jesus Fully Human? – Universe of Faith

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As Pope Francis said during the 2020 Easter Vigil:

“Over these weeks, we have kept repeating, ‘All will be well’, clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts. But as the days go by and fears grow, even the boldest hope can dissipate. Jesus’ hope is different. He plants in our hearts the conviction that God is able to make everything work unto good, because even from the grave he brings life.” (Easter vigil 2020).

Where can we see signs of “Jesus’ hope”?

1. What good can come out of Nazareth? Sowing seeds of hope

Like Nathanael, it’s relatively easy to rubbish what happens in Nazareth. We are easily tempted by a “prosperity” Gospel. We think that we find the real presence of God in moments of “success”, in the places of power and control, where there’s “good” money.

Yet, during these challenging months, Jesus is opening our eyes in the same way as he did with Nathanael. Hope resides in the Nathanaels of today who are rediscovering authentic life in the midst of our Nazareths marked by Covid-19:

• those who rediscovered the value of personal relationships;
• those who realised they have neighbours and can act like neighbours;
• those who rediscovered a sense of wonder as they gave time for home-baked bread and a better rhythm of life;
• those who rediscovered the value of initiatives taken from the grassroots. For many, and for a long time, responsibility was shifted blindly onto those in power. Now many realized that they have a say, and an essential one, to reach out to those forgotten by corrupt leaders, to push for change of unjust structures, to celebrate the Lord who “scatters the proud” and “raises the humble” (cf. Luke1, 51-52);
• those who took the option of hope (rather than armchair critics): “when people decide to live no one can stop them”! (Expression of a woman after the tragic explosion in Beirut on 4th August 2020)
• those who are like the women of the dark yet Holy Saturday. “On the Sabbath they were doing something simple yet extraordinary: preparing at home the spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They did not stop loving; in the darkness of their hearts, they lit a flame of mercy. (…) How many people, in these sad days, have done and are still doing what those women did, sowing seeds of hope! With small gestures of care, affection and prayer.” (Pope Francis, 2020 Easter Vigil homily)

How can we sow the seeds of hope in our Nazareths for a future not yet known?

2. Entertainment as the opium of the people? Let us not place a stone before hope

For some time, religion was presented as the “opium of the people”. In the name of a heavenly afterlife, people were being robbed of their present. So to protect the status quo, people were prevented from improving their lot, from welcoming the Kingdom of God in the present.

In our times, entertainment had become “the new opium” robbing people from the future. We were being tempted to get lost in the present (“Enjoy the moment!”), amusing ourselves to death. Moreover, the new possibilities of communication offered by modern technology were being dominated by propaganda and fake news. This creates a fog that stops us from seeing the human face of the other and the path to a better future.

But somehow, during the pandemic, we started to challenge certain illusions. So the stone that seemed impossible to move, started to shake.

• Very often we were dominated by the commandment to “be positive”. However, this made us blind to the grave injustices of our time and mute before those abusing of power. With Covid-19, not only did we fear “testing positive”, but we rediscovered the freedom to speak of our vulnerability, anxieties, challenges. We became more aware that authorities that were telling the hard truths (giving the real numbers of Covid cases, communicating the measures that need to be taken) gave us real security. Those manipulating information as part of their power games were unmasked.
• Young people – an easy target for those who get rich through selling alcohol, drugs, and entertainment – awoke to the fact that their future is compromised. They became aware that missing out on education and authentic friendships will impact not only their present but also their future. Suddenly, the future is rediscovered. The stone that was blocking the horizon is taken away.

“Let us not place a stone before hope.” (Pope Francis)

How do you imagine a better future? How can you contribute to make it happen?

3. “We are not in the same boat. We are in the same storm”. May we bring the song of life.

In a discussion organized by the Taizé community, young people had to give their reaction to the pandemic. Their insights are an eye-opener! One of the young people said: “We feel frustrated. Politicians and other leaders are telling us to ‘be responsible’, to ‘stay inside’, to care for the elderly and other vulnerable persons. This we understand. But a few months ago we were protesting, asking for concrete action to address climate change. If not, the impact on us – younger generations – will be disastrous. We feel frustrated because we saw no sign of solidarity back then”.

Another said: “We are not on the same boat. We are in the same storm”. The pandemic has illustrated in a clearer way than before

• the huge inequalities caused by the current economic system,
• the need for real solidarity between generations and between countries,
• that we do not stand above creation but we are part of it: we need to care for it as much as we live by what we receive from it.

The truth of our interconnectedness is clearer now than before the pandemic. Yet it feels very frustrating and dark when we find ourselves facing a system built on individualism and slavery to the god of consumption. Yet, hope lies with people who recognise all this but do not stop there. They commit themselves to influence processes through concrete gestures.

“How beautiful it is to be Christians who offer consolation, who bear the burdens of others and who offer encouragement: messengers of life in a time of death! In every Galilee, in every area of the human family to which we all belong and which is part of us – for we are all brothers and sisters – may we bring the song of life!” (Pope Francis, Easter Vigil 2020)

What are the concrete gestures that can bring greater equality, solidarity and care for creation?

Let us not be robbed of our hope!

The Covid-19 pandemic has been compared to a storm that threatens to destroy us. In addition, with so many unknowns and insecurities to face, fear and anxiety can block us. So we can either let ourselves be carried away or choose hope. Not any kind of hope but Jesus’ hope. There we recognise a hope that opens to a sure future while empowering us to act in the present. This is what Charles de Foucauld expressed in a letter to the Poor Clares (transferred from Nazareth to Malta) in the midst of the First World War:

“We are living days where our soul experiences a strong need for prayer. In the storm that is raging across Europe, we recognize the nothingness of creatures and we turn to the Creator. In the boat tossed by the waves, one turns to the divine Master, and one begs the One who with a word can give victory and long lasting calm. We stretch our arms towards heaven like Moses during the battle of his own people, and where man can do so little, we pray to Him who can do everything.”

(Letter to Mother Saint-Joseph,  Tamanrasset, 28 November 1916)

This article was originally written for the International Bulletin of the Lay Fraternity Charles de Foucauld (No. 103, 2020). It is being published online on Universe of Faith for the first time.

Read more:
– Corona Virus Poem – Doing Things Differently
– Top Pope Francis Prison Quotes

The post Let Us Be Surprised by Hope During COVID-19! appeared first on Universe of Faith.

1. Prayer for strength – Heavy Hearted

Living God, you know how heavy my heart is,
and how tight my chest.
I can’t find a way out.
Help me, my God!
I know you care for me and love me,
and that you allow each trial I face.
I know you turn all things to good for me.
But help me –
do not let this fear overwhelm me.
I entrust this day to you,
and all my life.
Guide me where you will
and how you know is best for me.
For whether I live or die,
I am with you, and you are with me, my God. Amen.

DÖRTE SCHRÖMGES from the youth prayer book YOUCAT

2. In times of trail – Strengthen Hope In Us

We beg you, God of grace and eternal life,
increase and strengthen hope in us.
Grant us this virtue of the strong,
this strength of the confident,
this courage of the unshakable.
Then we can boldly grasp, again and again,
the challenges in our lives.
Then we will be filled with cheerful confidence
that we do not work in vain.
Then we can do our work and know that you
– without us and where our strength may fail-
still work your glory and our salvation,
according to your purpose.
Strengthen in us your hope. Amen.

KARL RAHNER from the youth prayer book YOUCAT 

3. In Sickness – Prayer For Strength

Lord, I have time. A great deal of time.
When I was healthy, I thought how beautiful it would be to have plenty of time.

Now I do have time, necessarily so.
But these hours and days are another kind of time. Time to think and time to ponder,
to question, and to make reproaches too.
So many things are going through my head.

Lord, I need you.
Help me to keep courageous, trusting, and confident in your goodness to us, your children.
May you be our God, in joy and suffering. Amen.

BLAISE PASCAL from the youth prayer book YOUCAT 

4. During long hardships – Patient Trust

6. Prayer for unemployment – Lord, We Have No Work!

“Lord God look down upon us! Look at this city, this island. Look upon our families.
Lord, you were not without a job, you were a carpenter, you were happy.
Lord, we have no work.
The idols want to rob us of our dignity. The unjust systems want to rob us of hope.
Lord, do not leave us on our own. Help us to help each other; so that we forget our selfishness a little and feel in our heart the “we”, the we of a people who want to keep on going.
Lord Jesus, you were never out of work, give us work and teach us to fight for work and bless us all. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

POPE FRANCIS, Meeting with workers – Cagliari, 2013

Read more:
– Top Pope’s Quotes About Suffering
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