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Road of Hope - Chapter 1

Departure
If you are bound with a gold chain you are not ready for this road

1. Our Lord guides you onto this road so that you will 'go out and bear fruit, fruit which will endure' (John 15:16)
The road is called 'The road of hope' becuase it is overflowing with hope, because it is beautiful as hope. Why should you not have hope when you set off with our Lord Jesus Christ on the way to the Father?

2. The ground plan of this Road of Hope has 3 stages:
a. Departure: 'renounce self'
b. Duty: take up your cross daily
c. Perseverance: 'follow me' (Cf.Luke9:23)

3. If you give up everything but still have not denied yourself, actually you have not given up anything at all, because you will gradually gather again to yourself all those things which you gave up in the first place.

4. Abraham set off on his journey because he hoped to reach the Promised land. Moses likewise set out because he hoped to rescue God's people from slavery. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven with the hope of saving all mankind.

5. If you leave home and go to a distant place thousands of miles away but continue to bring along with you all the bad habits and the "old man" of sin, hat difference does it make?

6. The saints ar fools for Christ.(Cf.Cor.4:10). The making of saintsis far beyond the scope of the wisdom of the world.

7. If you wish to ser off on this road, you must go regardless of what other people in the word say to ridicule you. The three Wise Men set off hoping to meet the saviour and they met him. saint Francis Xavier set off hoping to save souls and he met them. Saint maria Goretti set out to resist temptation hoping to meet our Lord and she met him.

8. You must lose in order to gain, die in order to live, abandon all else in order to meet the lord. The magi risked dangers and ridicule. Saint Francis Xavier left his parents and gave up all his possesions and the pleasures of the world. Saint Maria Goretti gave up her life.

9. Keep advancing along the road of Hope regardless of the heart-rending pleas of those you love, as Saint Paul tell us. "Bondage and affliction await me."(Acts20:23), and as Jesus said, "Now I must go up to Jerusalem to suffer."(Cf.Matt:16:21).

10. Whether you are rich or poor, whether people praise you or ridicule you, whether you are of noble or humble status, does not matter at all, if you have dtermined to advance along this road, waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

11. Our Lord says, "I am truth" (John14:6). he does not say newspapers are the truth, radio is the truth or television is the truth. Which kind of truth will you follow?

12. keep moving forward relentlessly. Do not give up. Nobody will follow the person who turns back.

13. Do not give in to sensuality; do not give in to laziness; do not give in to selfishness. You can not call black white, bad good or dishonest honest.

14. Are you a person who says 'yes' to everything
Which road ill you take?
Do you say 'yes' to many gods?
Do you say 'yes' to many religions?
Do you say 'yes' to a variety of moral standards?
Do you have a flexible conscience which can fit in with any situation and say 'yes' to its values?

15. Refusal to give in to false values is not pride or egoism or stubborness: rather it proves your wholehearted adhrence to yur own standards.

16. You are prepared to reject wealth and position, to give up your own life in order to preserve your ideal, your honour and your faith. So you will never behave otherwise for to do so means the loss of everything.