A way of living life to the full

November 14, 2019

223. Such sobriety, when lived freely and consciously, is liberating. It is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity. On the contrary, it is a way of living life to the full. In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have. They experience what it means to appreciate each person and each thing, learning familiarity with the simplest things and how to enjoy them.

So they are able to shed unsatisfied needs, reducing their obsessiveness and weariness. Even living on little, they can live a lot, above all when they cultivate other pleasures and find satisfaction in fraternal encounters, in service, in developing their gifts, in music and art, in contact with nature, in prayer. Happiness means knowing how to limit some needs which only diminish us, and being open to the many different possibilities which life can offer.

Source : Laudato Si'

Fr. Manny Alvarez

Little Flower Church (Coral Gables)

My dear friends,

One of the most unique and special plaques we have in our school is a plaque just to the right of the school office that is dedicated to all our STS alumni who went off to fight during World War II and ultimately gave their lives for our country. We must remember that in the 1940’s, St. Theresa was also a high school so some of these young men went straight from high school to enlistment and promptly off to war. Just recently I presided over the funeral of a long-time parishioner who was 17 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and he asked his mother if she could sign in his deferment so that he could enlist, and his mother obliged. He went on to fight in the Pacific Theater for four years and then came home to rebuild our country and became part of what is known as “the greatest generation.” After celebrating that funeral, I commented to a staff member that funerals for World War II vets are sadly becoming fewer and farther between because the veterans of that war are quickly advancing in years.

This weekend we celebrate Veteran’s Day, and it should never be lost on us how many of our fellow parishioners have served or are still serving in our Armed Forces to defend our nation and our freedoms. During that funeral, I quoted the third verse of “America the Beautiful” which has always been so moving to me:

“Oh beautiful for heroes proved
in liberating strife
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life.”

So many of our veterans enlist with a sense of duty to God and country. They enlist with the conviction that they must serve and defend this great American ideal. It is an ideal that is rooted in Judeo-Christian values of love of God and neighbor. They enlist with that beautiful verse from the St. John’s Gospel inscribed in their hearts: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13).”

We honor our veterans this weekend, and we thank them for their service to God and country. We also thank and pray for their families who endure so many sacrifices of time and distance so that their loved ones can fulfill their solemn duty. Please keep them in your prayers this weekend, as well as all our veterans who have passed on, that while not having laid their lives down on the fields of battle, came back home, lived quiet and dutiful lives and raised beautiful families before being called home by God.

I never cease to be amazed by the morning civic exercises that our school children do every morning. They pledge allegiance to our flag then sing our national anthem. Our teachers and administrators go out of their way that this doesn’t become just another morning exercise, but that the children truly understand what they are doing, and that they should thank God that they have the freedom to pray under that flag and more importantly under that big cross that hangs in the north side of the school building… because brave men and women have fought to preserve their freedom to pray to a God who became man to give us the ultimate example of what it means to lay down your life for your friends.

May God bless our Veterans!

God bless you all,

Fr. Manny Alvarez
Pastor