Value what is good
Value what is good
Share your goods
Share your goods
Allowing yourself to be surprised
The great scientist Louis Pasteur once said: “To know how to wonder and question is the first step the mind can take towards discovery.”
Luigi Ballerini, a children’s author and psychotherapist, also reminds us of this and his work is the inspiration that lies behind this article. [1] He wrote: “After all, wonder is nothing more than a form of trust […] It is the idea that there is still a world to discover, to understand and to encounter. This explains why the loss of wonder is so serious: without it, life becomes flat, reduced to the repeatedly gazing wearily and no longer seeing anything. […] If we lose our capacity for wonder, we do not become more realistic or efficient; we simply lose the chance to be stirred by reality, to recognise that we ourselves can continue to change and improve through what we encounter.”
A sense of wonder reminds us that not everything depends on us. It is an invitation to embrace each moment with an open heart, to recognise what life is trying to tell us and to be grateful for it. A sense of wonder evokes amazement – that extraordinary ability children have to open themselves up to life and relationships; these dimensions are fundamental to the human condition and for millenia have been key to the adventurous development of human thought. They teach us to step back from our own perspective in order to reach out to the people who may be waiting for us, who share our daily struggles and our hopes.
Today, the challenges posed by social media and artificial intelligence seem to be stifling this capacity for awe and wonder: have we already seen everything there is to see? Above all: are we becoming desensitised to everything that happens? It is often the small and seemingly insignificant actions that are capable of rekindling that sense of wonder.
To be amazed means keeping alive the capacity to marvel, to learn from new experiences and to recognise the value of the people and situations we encounter, without resigning ourselves to indifference when we meet with pain and suffering. It means having the courage to look at reality with attention and openness, putting ourselves in others’ shoes and offering a listening ear and support without judgement. It also means caring for those who are living through important or complex situations.
There are so many everyday stories of hardship, of illness, of lives that seem lost or meaningless: yet there is always a chance that the ending has not yet been written. In families and in care settings, we are often amazed to see signs of the most powerful revolution of all – that of a greater love that produces outcomes that are very different from what is expected. Let us allow ourselves to be vulnerable and humble and so be amazed by what happens. Let us share these moments of awe and wonder with other people and so impact upon our relationships and society in the future.
THE IDEA OF THE MONTH is currently produced by the Focolare Movement’s “Centre for Dialogue with People of Nonreligious Beliefs”. It is an initiative that began in 2014 in Uruguay to share with non-believing friends the values of the Word of Life, i.e. the phrase from Scripture that members of the Movement strive to put into practice in their daily lives. Currently, THE IDEA OF THE MONTH is translated into 12 languages and distributed in more than 25 countries, with adaptations of the text according to different cultural sensitivities. www. dialogue4unity.focolare.org
[1] https://www.avvenire.it/idee–e–commenti/lasciarsi–stupire–dalla–meraviglia–quello–che–i–ragazzi–ci–ricordano_109483)
Photo © Srinivas-Bandari-Unsplash
“My soul magnifies the Lord.” (Luke 1:46)
In the first chapter of his Gospel, Luke presents us with the only passage in the New Testament in which the main characters are two women, Mary and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth lived in a village near Jerusalem, about 150 km from Nazareth. Immediately after receiving the angel’s announcement that she would become the mother of Jesus (Lk 1:26–38), Mary sets out on a long journey to visit Elizabeth. We do not know the details of the route; we only know that she hurried towards the hill country. But why did she go there?
Mary went to share her joy with someone who, like her, had received a grace from God and had conceived a child. She wanted to be close to Elizabeth and help her during the final months before the birth of her baby. This is the story of two women and two experiences of pregnancy when conception seemed impossible. Who better than Mary could understand Elizabeth and share this time with her? The song of the Magnificat springs from their encounter.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
In his commentary on the Magnificat, Martin Luther wrote, ‘Her words are an expression of great love and profound joy; this explains why her life and soul are raised up in the Spirit. Mary does not say: “I magnify God”, but “my soul” does so. It is as if she is saying my whole life and my senses are, as it were, upheld by God’s love […]’ [1]
The verb ‘to magnify’ or to make great, reveals a feeling of joy that emerges from the discovery that God is even greater than one might have expected. This joy is echoed by profound humility and a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation.
Ermes Ronchi points out, ‘The Magnificat is Mary’s gospel, it is her good news that reaches all generations’. [2] This young woman from Nazareth repeats ten times that it is “He who has done…”’. This seems like a new Decalogue, a new set of ten commandments that overturn the logic of the world.
It comes naturally to ask whether we have retained a sense of wonder and amazement in our daily lives and in our prayer regarding all that God has done and continues to do. Without openness and wonder as we encounter what is new and full of surprise, faith may become a weary prayer that gradually fades away and turns into nothing more than a social habit [3].
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Mary’s canticle is not merely a prayer of personal praise but a prophetic statement, characterised by a constant reference to passages from Scripture, which indicate God’s deepest desires for the future of humanity [4] To praise him means to stand alongside the least in society and to believe that the world can and must change.
The words of this hymn invite us to understand God’s saving intervention in our personal and communal history because they refer not only to our individual lives but to the entire universe. They extend from the present moment to the new heavens and the new earth that the social revolution of the Gospel inaugurates.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
The Magnificat invites us to transform our lives into a living form of praise by recognising the “great things” that are happening every day. It invites us to join with Mary in proclaiming that God is faithful, that his mercy extends from generation to generation and that his kingdom of justice and love is already being fulfilled among us.
Chiara Lubich had grasped this revolutionary dimension of Mary’s canticle when she wrote to a group of young people: “Read the Magnificat and you will find there the first and most powerful page of Christian social teaching.
Who and when will make these words into reality?” [5].
The question remains open and challenges us. God’s intervention should not remain confined to the intimacy of the heart but must be manifested in our relationships, in life together and in the fabric of society for generations to come.
Edited by Patricia Mazzola & the Word of Life Team
[1] Martin Luther, commentary on the Magnificat 1520
[2]Ermes Ronchi, Magnificat, an open window upon the future, Avvenire Aug 2012
[3] Cf. Pope Francis, Angelus, Rome 4 July 2021
[4] Cfr. Gérard Rossé, , The Gospel of Luke 1992
[5] Detti Gen, Città Nuova, 1969
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Give preference to the truth
Give preference to the truth