Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation
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Browsing Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation by Author "Abonyi, Blessing Anayo"
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- ItemThe Spirituality of Blessed Francisco Palau As A Means of Fulfilling the Two Commandments꞉ Love of God and Neighbour(Tangaza University College, 2018) Abonyi, Blessing AnayoAccording to the Holy Scripture, the purpose of God is to gather the whole of creation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, in whom, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all are brought into communion with God (Cf. Eph. 1). All creation is a community of subjects to be communed with. They need to love and be loved. We are created to love and be loved, for when we do not love, we will find our alternatives lies in loneliness, destruction and despair. Love means open arms, sacrifice, it leads to self-surrender. If we close our arms to love, we will find that we are left holding on only to ourselves. This is the problem of our world today. Many people are being denied love from their childhood to adulthood or even till death. Others are dying in loneliness, depressed, confused, disturbed, hostile or hopeless. It is our love that will heal their brokenness and their wounds. Francisco Palau experienced this love in a deeper and unique way since from his childhood; my heart developed its passion from childhood. He knew well that the supreme ideal of Christian life is to love God and to love neighbor. He knew that these two precepts of love have to be integrated in our lives: “you must always remember that perfection consist in the fulfillment of the precept of love: love of God and Love of neighbor.” He exclaimed: “God in creating my heart, breathed into it, and his breath was a law that He imposed on it, and that law says, “Love!”. My heart was built by the hand of God to love and be loved, and it only lives out of love.” The Christian life and consecrated life in particular is a call to holiness. St. Teresa of Avila has named three things that are needed for prayer and spiritual growth to be possible in life of any Christian. They are namely, detachment, humility and love. This paper concentrates only on the aspect of love and it seeks to understand the spirituality of Blessed Francisco Palau the founder of Carmelite Missionaries as a means of fulfilling the two commandments of love of God and love of neighbor. In order to capture the theme, the researcher divided the work into three chapters. Chapter one examines the Palautian spirituality of the love of God and neighbour. This chapter will explore the life, works and legacy of Blessed Francisco Palau. It presents his family background, his education, religious consecration and ordination. It also explores the influence of Blessed Francisco Palau, his Works, especially his Work: “My Relations with the Church,” which portrays the Charism he left behind as his legacy. The chapter also presents a brief explanation of this Charism, his Spirituality and the Foundation of the Carmelite Missionaries. The second chapter deals with the challenges in fulfilling this commandment of love. This lead to exploring some challenges like; gossip and envy, cold- war in Fraternal living, pastoral individualism, digital worldliness, spiritual worldliness, selfishness and spiritual slot, sterile pessimism, clericalism, careerism and vain glory, business mentality, dualistic thinking and excessive rationalism and activism. The third chapter explores the possible solution in living the values of the commandment of love. To achieve this, I propose the following as important in our times: living the beatitudes, prayer and contemplation, Response to listening, knowing one self, discernment, mindfulness, smile, appreciative attitudes to others, holistic thinking, Blessed Francisco Palau’s virtues, integration of shadows, integral self- care, asceticism, fraternal living and finally imitation of Mary the Mother of God.