Roman Catholic Church:
We are in St Joseph’s Church (El Saladillo), near Camposol and Mazarrón Country Club urbanizations (exit 17, RM3 motorway).
Schedule of Masses:
Saturday: Mass at 4.3 (in English).
Schedule of Confessions: Saturday from 3.15pm-4.20pm. (Also on request.)
The Autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (The Little Flower), a Carmelite Sister.
I read in St Matthew: “You have heard that it has been said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy”: but I say unto you, “Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43-44).
There are, of course, no enemies in the monastery; after all, we have our natural likes and dislikes. We may feel drawn towards one Sister and may be tempted to go a long way round to avoid meeting another. Well, Our Lord tells me that this is the Sister to love and pray for, even though her behaviour may make me imagine she does not care for me.
“If you love them that love you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also love those that love them.”
It is not enough to love. We must prove our love; naturally one likes to please a friend, but that is not charity, for sinners do the same.
Our Lord also taught me: “Give to everyone that asks thee; and of him that takes away thy goods, ask them not again.”
To give to everyone who asks is not so pleasant as to give of one’s own accord. If we are asked pleasantly, it is easy to give; but if we are asked discourteously, then, unless we are perfect in charity, there is an inward rebellion and we find no end of excuses for refusing. Perhaps, after first pointing out the rudeness of the request, we make such a favour of consenting thereto, that the slight service takes far less time to perform than was lost in arguing the point. If it is difficult to give to whosoever asks, it is far more difficult to let what belongs to us be taken without asking it again.
Dear Mother, I say this is hard, but I should rather say that it seems hard, for “The yoke of the Lord is sweet and His burden light.” (Matthew 11:30). When we submit to that yoke, we at once feel its sweetness.