Hajja Salesjana November December 2017

4 When all is said and done, all that remains are memories that we either cherish for life due to the joy and love they bring to us or else memories which we will try to learn from and forget due to the pain they caused us. This thought came to my mind because as time’s relentless pace marches on unfailingly, and as 2017 slowly begins to fade away, I am sure we can all look back and pinpoint beautiful moments we went through during this waning year, moments that will last a lifetime in our hearts and mind, and other moments that brought us excruciating pain that ultimately changed us and made us grow even further. We are also aware that while we celebrated the Rector Major’s official visit among us this year, a visit that throbbed vibrantly with Salesian joy and optimism and Salesian Family unity, some of us are also aware that some people we know who had started the year with us, are no longer on the journey and have moved on to our heavenly abode making us aware how fleeting and fragile life truly is. Indeed as Scripture says our life is like a flower that blooms in the morning and withers by night. This fact puts things in sharper perspective and makes me ponder on how many times we lose ourselves in the maze of life’s myriad responsibilities and roles and forget what is ultimately truly important at the end of the day. The prospect of eternity makes us take stock of what truly is important and what is not. Let us be agents of joy, peace, love, forgiveness, mercy, concord and camaraderie because at the end of our lives, what will truly console us will be how much love we would have sown around us. All the rest we will leave behind. True, sometimes that love is misunderstood and unaccepted, but that does not matter because ultimately the whole issue is between me and God who IS love incarnate and who has sent us to be messengers and carriers of His love in our love starved world. Let us take stock of our lives as 2017 dwindles into history’s oblivion and let us decide to make the best of our time in 2018 to be instruments of peace and love while we still have the time, so that in so doing we may be known as sons and daughters of God. Let us learn to let go and let God do the rest. This is our challenge for 2018. Let’s do it and we will be all the better for doing so! Fr. Sandro Camilleri sdb “OUR LIFE IS LIKE A FLOWER THAT BLOOMS IN THE MORNING AND WITHERS BY NIGHT...” E D I T O R I A L When al l i s said and done