Happiness is real

<<< 12/31/2018 Happiness is real Who would have said 4 months ago that I was going to live this experience, Lord? Who would have said less than half a year ago that I would spend a few days in Rome with HAKUNA? Who would have said that one day I would feel like one more hakuner? I met HAKUNA less than 5 years ago and, after a couple of holy hours, I decided to stop going because I didn’t share the ideals being conveyed. Or so I told myself. I chose the excuse that it was all show, an opportunity to meet people and to be known. But no. With this trip I have learned that it’s not just that, that there is something more, something addictive. I had already been feeling for a while that, despite having everything in my life, I had nothing, that I was missing something and that something had to be very important. From time to time I forgot the value of pillars like friendship or family and this emptiness could be summed up in a couple of words: THIRST FOR LOVE. Clearly, this clash with reality was not something radical but everything started with a Holy Hour in summer that marked a before and after in my relationship with you, Lord. After that time with You, and thanks to the advice of a friend, I decided to take the plunge and participate in the HAM. AND, WHAT AN ADVENTURE, MY GOODNESS! These days, Jesus, I have been able to understand the reason for the revolutionary spirit. I have understood, lived, and felt what the Love of Christ is, I have seen what the brotherhood of the family that is your Church is. It has taught me to discover people, not to be led by prejudices, by what people say. As you said, Lord: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For one to be able to afford the luxury of judging something, one has to immerse oneself in it, know it, fully engage to have a complete opinion. And this is what this trip has taught me. Life is full of good moments, experiences full of laughter and fun that must be taken advantage of and enjoyed to the fullest. But it also comes with hard moments, times when we feel needy or start to deceive ourselves to console and justify our own mistakes and flaws. The Pope, when he addressed us on Friday, asked us for 3 things: JOY, COMPASSION, and DISCONTENT. These 3 words have been engraved deeply in my heart but I want to refer to the last one. Lord, I do not want to settle for how my character is, my way of being. Break that shell in which I protect myself so that those bad moments do not affect me, although indirectly they always do. Let me feel that joy of a good Christian, Father. Let Joy stir my spirit to fight to reach each one in a different way, as I know it will fulfill Him. During this trip I have been able to see what HAKUNA is and I wanted to keep 3 adjectives that would help me convey it to people who don’t know it or criticize it, myself included. The first is LOVE, God is Love. As Javi Navas explained in his testimony during the congress, I have had you in front of me for 20 years and, for 20 years, blind. Why? Because I saw you as a Father who had to be satisfied by fulfilling some mandates of now do this, that is forbidden... an endless list of duties that sometimes even made one lose the ability to discern what is right because it is good and what is right because that’s how I was taught. But with HAKUNA I have been able to see that my happiness does not consist of this. And it is that You are not an authoritarian Father, judge, or oppressor who imposes what I must do and what I must not, but pure Love which you make me reach through others, through the service of oneself to others. How obvious it is that you use each one of us to reach every human heart. That your grace flows, out of LOVE, from your divine nature and acts through every person who receives you. Father, may I learn to transmit and help those around me to see your Love through me, as I have lived these days. The second characteristic is the last thing I just asked you for, SERVICE. But not a self-interested service, that knows that this is what it must do, but a service that does not understand attachments, that serves and lets itself be served as You did with the Apostles. I have understood that this service can become a reality because You are acting through each of your children, each servant. Father, may I know how to serve you and serve others with that Love with which they have served me in Rome when I return. The last, but not least important, is PASSION. I don’t know what you have put in the body of all these people to make them do everything with Passion, with the Passion of God. In every barbecue, in every Holy Hour, in every greeting on the street, in every song, in every smile, in meals, in some drinks... In any insignificant thing of the daily routine they add a pinch of your Passion. And it is true what they say, the sea is made of drops. What I am telling you reminds me a lot of the song Passion of God, a song that every time I hear it gives me goosebumps. And, IT IS VERY HEAVY, LORD!! That I am the Passion of God, Your Passion. Now comes the return, Mother. That moment of the trip you don’t want to arrive because you know you are going to leave this bubble of happiness. But this is the key moment, the one that really matters. That return that no one wants but that serves to test us with daily difficulties. My Mother, help me because without you I can’t do it alone. I can’t get up alone while I’m having a beer with my friends after class to go to Holy Hour. Because I can’t remember to pray the rosary alone, as the Pope has asked us. I can’t be serving others transmitting the Love of your son in EVERYTHING alone. Because I can’t do it alone if not with you, with your help. May you revolutionize my spirit more and more every day, Lord. May I smile at all the people I cross paths with every day. May I frequently dedicate my time to those who suffer. May I be able to start each morning with a moment of prayer and offering. Pray every day for everyone. May I be able to commit to taking care of YOU in a tabernacle. May I go every Monday with the enthusiasm and willingness to help in the Holy Hour. Help me see the importance of personal formation to be closer to you, to know you more and, therefore, to love you more. May I be able to see and act as your spring for those who are thirsty for love in every moment of my daily life. May I appreciate the meaning and value of the Sacraments. And, finally, help me take care of Your Mother, Mother of Hakuna. “I want to live life: to know how to enjoy everything, not to sell myself to false fun, to seek happiness within myself. I want to bet on great ideals: to know that my life is worth a lot, not to sell myself to mediocrity, to seek to serve and love. I want to make the right choices: to know how to distinguish good and evil, not to sell myself to be like others, to seek what is worthwhile. I want to be free: to know how to enslave myself for love, not to sell myself to whim or passion, to seek inner freedom in you, Lord.” >>>