Italian Association Amici di Raoul Follereau (AIFO)

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Lord, Deliver us from ourselves

Lord, teach us
to not love only ourselves,
to not love only those who are dear to us,
to not love only those who love us.

Teach us to think of others
and love especially
those whom no one loves.

Lord, make us suffer the sufferings of others.
Give us the grace to understand that in every moment,
there are millions of human beings,
who die of hunger
without deserving to die of hunger,
who die of cold
without deserving to die of cold.

Have pity, Lord, of the lepers,
who ask for your mercy
the hands without fingers ...
and forgive us for having abandoned them.

Do not allow it any more, Lord
that we can be happy alone by ourselves.
Make us feel the pain of universal misery
and deliver us from ourselves. Amen.

Without you there is no love

We have built churches,
but our history is
an unending war;
we have built hospitals, but,
for our brothers,
we have accepted hunger.

Forgive, Lord,
for the crushed nature,
for the forests destroyed,
for the rivers polluted ...
forgive us for the atom bomb,
for repetitive work,
the machines swallowing humans,
and the insults to Love.

We know that you love us and to
this love we owe our lives.
Save us from asphyxia of hearts and bodies.

That our days are not disfigured any more,
by envy and ingratitude,
by the terrible slavery of power.

Give us the joy of loving our brothers.
Teach us to love,
because, Lord, there is no love
without your love.

Make our lives a reflection of your love

Lord, give us the gift of love.
The gift of loving all the earth,
of loving every thing on this earth,
and above all, men, our brothers,
who are sometimes so unhappy,
and loving even those who are happy,
and those who are often poor devils!

Give us the force to love
those who do not love us,
those who love no one.
That our love be a reflection of your love.

To love our neighbour at the other end of the world,
to love the outsider who lives among us,
to console, to forgive, to give benediction, to open our arms.

To love the selfish, the skeptics, the destroyers,
so that a spring may rise out
from the deserts of their hearts.

To free those who are lonely,
to free with a smile
their closed hearts: loving, loving, ...

Then a grand springtime will change the world
and every thing in us will flower.

Lord, Cure us of our true leprosy

Lord, here are your lepers,
without hands and with swollen faces,
repulsive, wasted, filthy,
who carry like your Cross
all the misery of the world.
Lord, here are your lepers,
without hands and with swollen faces.

Lord, here are the true lepers,
the selfish ones, the ones without piety,
Those who live in stagnant waters,
those looking only for comfort, those with fear,
those who waste their lives.

Lord, here are the true lepers:
those, who had crucified you.

If Christ tomorrow ...

If tomorrow Christ, will knock at your door,
will you recognise Him?
He will like He was once upon a time,
a poor man, certainly a lonely man.

If tomorrow Christ, will knock at your door,
will you recognise Him?

He will have a worn look,
tired,
crushed as He is
as He must carry
all the sadness of the earth ...

If tomorrow Christ, will knock at your door,
will you recognise Him?

So he will go away,
even more worn, even more crushed,
with peace in His bare hands.