1) Cut following the dotted lines 2) Fold vertically in 4 parts 3) Fold horizontally in 2 more concrete love towards everyone “Love is the fulfillment of the law.” [read the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter 13, verse 10] St.Paul describes the Christian life as a life of love for others. He tells us that when we love our neighbor, we are doing the will of God perfectly, and his will is contained in the Law (that is, in the ten commandments). Word of Life Loving other people is the most beautiful, most authentic way of showing our love for God. “DO all the GOOD you can ” How can we live the Word of Life this month? By remembering all the various ways we can love our neighbor. First of all, by avoiding doing anything evil to our neighbor, because to live as a Christian we can never go against the commandments of God. And as we saw last month, each commandment wants to nurture in us a love that is always more vigilant, more delicate and more respectful towards others, a love that gives more concrete attention to every neighbor. At the very same time, we will grow in being detached from ourselves, in overcoming our selfishness. This will come as a consequence of living Christian love. that’s what happened to: A t school, during class, my friend and I started to work on some homework that was due in the next few days. Another classmate realized what we were doing and told the teacher, who reprimanded us. We were really upset! I tried to find a way to get back at that student for telling on us. About fifteen minutes later, I noticed that he was hiding the fact that he, too, was doing his homework during class. I thought, “This is my chance!” But then all of a sudden I Paul then describes for us the different expressions and effects of this love. First of all, real love does no harm to one’s neighbor. Rather it urges us to do all the good that our neighbor may need. This Word urges us to make ourselves one with others and be sensitive to their needs, their desires and their legitimate rights, to have the love that is respectful of every person’s human and Christian dignity, a love that is pure, under- standing, able to share, open to all – just like Jesus taught us to be. This kind of love is not possible unless we are willing to stop putting ourselves first all the time, and thinking we are self-sufficient. Therefore, this Word helps us to overcome all our selfish tendencies (like being arrogant or greedy or wanting to be on top of others, etc.). These things can be a major stumbling block in loving others. WoL That’s how we will do the will of God fully. We will show God our love in the way that is most pleasing to him – by loving our neighbor! remembered that love is stronger than every bad thing and that only with love can we overcome every division among us. In fact, by telling on him I wouldn’t accomplish anything good, so I decided to forgive him. Inside I felt a great joy, especially because I had not rejected a classmate. [Tiago, Brazil] O ne day my sister Leila left our room in a mess. I started to tidy everything up, more out of duty than out of love. That evening, when I came back home, I felt inside of me a kind of wall that stopped me from wanting to talk to my sister or tell her about my day or even say “good night” to her. I just pretended everything was okay and turned off the light. However, I couldn’t fall asleep. After a while, I told Leila I was sorry for being like that and together we decided to start over again to love. I felt so free!! Love had won out! [Carolina, Brazil]