ETERNAL LOVE! ETERNAL LIFE!
Maria Rodrigues sharing her presentation on Eternal Love, Eternal Life
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“In the spirit world when you enter the place where the bell of love rings in your heart, the light of your heart will grow. The light will shine brilliantly in all the five colors.”
- Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
In a quiet little town called Woodbridge, Virginia, WFWP Northern Virginia Chapter held an inspiring presentation about the afterlife. It was called “Eternal Love! Eternal Life!” and took place on June 6th. Mrs. Maria Rodrigues gave a thought-provoking PowerPoint presentation and spoke about the difference between temporal and eternal love. She explained that temporal love is about meeting our material needs and eternal love is about meeting intangible, spiritual needs.
She was asked by one of the young lady participants about the joy that comes from temporal love, and why that isn’t eternal love. She explained that it is not about only “my feeling good,” but it is important to consider will my parents feel good about my behavior. Will my spouse? Will my siblings feel good about what I am doing?
She said that how we live our lives determines whether we will find eternal happiness or not. She asked the audience when we feel the most happiness. Of the answers, the most impressive to me was one man who attended, who said that when he wakes up in the morning and is feeling no energy or desire to get out of bed, “my wife’s smile gives me the strength to face the day.” It was a breath of fresh air for us women to hear how we can affect our spouse and children by a simple smile! It’s great to have men in WFWP working together to bring peace to our nations and world.
Carmela and her daughter with their guest
Mrs. Rodrigues asked, what is the priority in our lives? If we focus on material things, our lives will be unbalanced. We need to put spirituality into practice in the following ways:
Learn to love
Learn to forgive
Practice gratitude
Demonstrate appreciation
Give and receive (both)
Cultivate compassion
Honor the sacredness of life
Mrs. Rodrigues finished with this quote from Mother Teresa: “It is not how much you do but how much love you put into the doing and sharing with others that is important.”
We were treated to snacks and discussion and as we headed out the door, Mrs. Misako Connery gave each person a bag filled with goodies that she had prepared for everyone to take home.