Nazarene virtue: Initiative

 

Each and every one we have initiatives. As human beings we have created with the capacity of developing the ideas we have. Some have more brilliant and great initiatives, others (most of us) have more simple and handy ones. The question we can ask ourselves is ¿what is the purpose of my initiatives?

We find in Mary one of the best examples of initiative. As soon as she knew her cousin was pregnant, she started her journey to help her. Joseph also had initiatives. For example, he took Jesus and Mary to Egypt so they could be safe from Herod. In the Bible we can discover how many others had initiatives according to the will of God. All these human initiatives contributed to make the history of salvation.

In the history of the Church, our community of faith, we can find also so many examples of initiatives of evangelization, of charity, of building the Christian community… For us Brother Gabriel is an example of listening to the will of God, discerning it with the help of others and to take the initiative. He founded a Congregation dedicated to serve others through education, catechesis, liturgical animation and all kind of good works.

All these examples can help us to reflect on the intentions and direction of our initiatives. Jesus in the Gospel always invited us to have initiatives to serve others. This criteria, whether our initiatives are for the good of others, can help us to discern if our actions are in the right track. We suggest you to read the Beatitudes (Mt. 5, 1-12) and to decide with initiatives you can do in favour of others.