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It Seems as If It Was Just Yesterday . . .

I am celebrating yet another year of work at the Legion of Good Will (LGW). The sun was rising on June 29, 1956—St. Peter and St. Paul Day. I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At 15, as if by intuition, I turned...

Altruism and Well-Being

Who has never experienced the feeling of well-being after helping another person, whether by way of a word of encouragement or an incisive action of support or help? Well, this pleasant feeling was the subject of a study led by Brazilian...

Les Misérables Yesterday and Today

There is so much we still need to learn in this world! Without mentioning how much we still need to understand about the Other, the Invisible one. When Jesus says, “To each person according to your deeds,” ...

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Endless Hope

Some say that “Hope is the last to die.” But we, in the Religion of the Third Millennium, eloquently affirm that Hope is never extinguished, since Hope is Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, the Sublime Statesman!

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As I wrote in the third volume of the Sagradas Diretrizes Espirituais da Religião de Deus, do Cristo e do Espírito Santo [Sacred Spiritual Guidelines of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit] (1991):

The existence of the Religion of Universal Love is the manifestation of the unshakeable faith in better days to come, filled with dignity for the Eternal Spirit of human beings. . . . Giving up on Good due to adversities? Why would that be? Let us leave our bitterness aside, let us throw our complexes in the trash. If those who came before us, fighting against and overcoming the harshest difficulties that are always posed as challenges on the pathway to progress, had capitulated, where would we be today?! In the Stone Age. Therefore, let us not get discouraged. Quite the opposite, our duty is not to throw in the towel. Then, facts really change, and the miracle—as many wish to happen overnight—materializes: that of work, nourished by Accomplishing Faith.

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”