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Buenos Aires, Argentina—“Love All Creation” was the theme of UPF-Argentina’s 18th Reading and Reflection series “Honoring a Peace Legacy,” held on August 17, 2020, in support of the UPF Co-Founder’s Centenary. We had 15 participants on Zoom, among them Ambassadors for Peace and people related to UPF. After the opening prayer by Ailen Marquesano, member of the UPF staff, Alba Luz Tangarife read the excerpt of a speech by UPF’s co-founder chosen on this occasion:
We can no longer tolerate actions that destroy nature and pollute the environment.
As citizens of Cheon Il Guk, please have the wisdom to protect and love nature. Return to nature and enjoy a life of liberation and complete freedom. To love nature is to love God and humanity. When human life resonates with nature, human character can blossom in perfection. The flowers of a true culture of heart, a true artistic world, will bloom. It will be the Garden of Eden, the original ideal where human beings and all creation live in complete harmony and express their original nature.
If you practice such true love in your daily life, how can God do anything but bestow great blessings upon you? You will live for all eternity in blessing and happiness. (*)
This reading resulted in reflections that completed a spectrum of this current theme, which was fortunately incorporated in the public agenda. Julio Nardini, member of the Peace Council, concluded with a “reflection of reflections,” taking central points from what every participant shared. He concluded:
I hereby suggest a spiritual path. Some saints have developed their spiritual ability to such extent that, for instance, Saint Anthony managed to “convince the fishes” to listen while he preached the Gospel, since he was ignored in the city he visited. So there is a power in there. Once, I went out to a mission. It was no mission! I visited schools in the mountains with a college, and I was told that it had not rained for five or six months. I told them: “Let’s pray today so it will rain tomorrow.” If it had not rained, it would have been okay; but it rained, so the children were moved. This is because I have spent years walking in fraternity with nature. These are spiritual paths that have to teach us how to communicate with all beings. This is also a gift of the tongue. This is very thorough. Sorry for dwelling on this, but all of you said so many rich things, that we had to lead the way.
Eduardo Corales, member of the Peace Council, gave the closing prayer. In this moment, we included prayers for people who have health problems or other issues.
The previous themes of the other Reading and Reflection meetings were “Freedom” (August 10), “Concept and Root of Filial Piety” (August 3), “Hope” (July 27), “Interdependence and Cooperation” (July 20), “The Era of Women” (July 13), “Practical Faith” (July 6), “Forgiveness” (June 29), “The power of Loving the Enemy” (June 22), “Interreligious Harmony and Peace” (June 15), “Freedom and Responsibility of Expression” (June 8), “The Purpose of Religion” (June 1), “Challenges for the Integration of Peoples and Cultures (May 25), “Science and Ethics” (May 18), “The Value of the Mother/Father-Child and God-Humanity Relationship” (May 11), “The Principle of Living for the Sake of Others” (May 4), “Unity” (April 27), and “The Four Great Realms of the Heart and the Three Great Kingships” (April 20).
Link to the 18th session’s recording
Quote:
(*) Excerpt of the speech “Cheon Il Guk Is the Ideal Heavenly Kingdom of Eternal Peace,” June 13, 2006, South Korea