第一天：人被造是为了爱神
First Day: MAN WAS CREATED TO LOVE GOD
也就是赞美、荣耀并服侍他，并藉此达到他永恒的命定
（这是我生命中首要和基本的方面。）
That Is to Praise, Glorify, and Serve Him and by These Means to Achieve His Eternal Destiny
(This is the primary and fundamental aspect of my life.)
我存在……
I exist…
这个存在的起源是什么？它的意义是什么？它的价值是什么？这是我作为一个人应该问自己的关键问题。
What is the origin of this existence? Its meaning? Its worth? This is the capital question that I should ask myself as a human being.
圣经，特别是新约，为我这样回答：
The Bible, particularly the New Testament, answers it for me this way:
（1）人是神按他的形像和样式造的。创世记1:26-27：「神说：『我们要照着我们的形像、按着我们的样式造人。』」
(1) Man was created by God in his image and likeness. Genesis 1:26–27: “God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves.’”
「因为神就是爱」（约一4:16）：因此人被造是要用他的心去爱，这心与神的心相似。
“Because God is love” (1 John 4:16): man therefore is made to love with his heart, which is like God’s.
（2）神造人是要人尽心、尽意、尽力爱他。
(2) God created man to love him with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength.
申命记6:4-9：「以色列啊，你要听！耶和华我们神是独一的主。你要尽心、尽性、尽力爱耶和华你的神。我今日所吩咐你的话都要记在心上，也要殷勤教训你的儿女。无论你坐在家里，行在路上，躺下，起来，都要谈论。也要系在手上为记号，戴在额上为经文；又要写在你房屋的门框上，并你的城门上。」
Deuteronomy 6:4–9: “‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Take to heart these words that I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.’”
人首先通过赞美、敬拜和服侍来爱神。我应该按照这些方向来安排，也就是规范，我的整个存在。
Man loves God first of all through praise, adoration, and service. It is along these lines that I should order, that is, regulate, all of my existence.
（3）但爱的含义不止于此。爱的本质就是寻求联合。神从无中创造人，是为了使他在耶稣基督里并藉着耶稣基督成为神的养子。
(3) But love means more than this. Love of its very nature seeks union. God created man out of nothing to make him God’s adoptive son in Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ.
因此，神的计划包括使我们能在地上（藉着信心和恩典）并在永恒中（在更亲密的友谊中）参与三位一体的生命。
God’s plan therefore consists in enabling us to participate here on earth (by faith and grace) and for all eternity (in a more intimate friendship) in the life of the Trinity.
「亲爱的弟兄啊，」圣约翰写道（约一3:2-3），「我们现在是神的儿女，将来如何，还未显明；但我们知道，主若显现，我们必要像他，因为必得见他的真体。」
“My dear people,” St. John writes (I John 3:2-3), “we are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.”
在最后的晚餐上，在他离别的谈话和大祭司的祷告之后（约翰福音13:31—17:26），正是耶稣亲自向我们显明我们存在的意义，以及它全部的荣光。让我们细细品味这些话：「到那日，你们就知道我在父里面，你们在我里面，我也在你们里面。……人若爱我，就必遵守我的道；我父也必爱他，并且我们要到他那里去，与他同住。」（约翰福音14:19,23）。「你所赐给我的荣耀，我已赐给他们，使他们合而为一，像我们一样。……我在他们里面，你在我里面，使他们完完全全地合而为一。」（约翰福音17:21）。
At the Last Supper, after his farewell discourse and priestly prayer (John 13:31–17:26), it is Jesus himself who shows us the meaning of our existence in all of its magnificence. Let us relish words such as: “On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. . . . If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:19, 23). “I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one” (John 17:21).
我们可以通过阅读保罗写给以弗所人的书信前三章，更深入体会神为我们所定的「他在基督里按着自己所喜悦而安排的奥秘计划」：一切都来自神的爱；一切也该在爱里归还给神。
We can deepen our appreciation of God’s “hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ” for us by reading the first three chapters of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: everything comes from God’s love; everything should be returned to God in love.
（4）我从耶稣对那位律法师的回答里学到这些问题的答案：他问耶稣：「夫子，我该做什么才可以承受永生？」（路加福音10:25）；或者从那位文士的提问里学到：「夫子，律法上的诫命，哪一条是最大的呢？」（马太福音23:34—40；马可福音12:28—34）。耶稣说：「你要尽心、尽性、尽意爱主你的神。这是诫命中的第一，且是最大的。其次也相仿，就是要爱人如己。这两条诫命是律法和先知一切道理的总纲。」又据路加记载，耶稣说：「你回答的是；你这样行，就必得永生。」（路加福音10:28）。
(4) I learn the answers to these questions through Jesus’ response to the lawyer who asked him: “Master what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25), or from the scribe who asked him, “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the law?” (Matt 23:34–40; Mark 12:28–34). He said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second
resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law, and the prophets also.“ And, according to Luke, Jesus said, “Do this and life is yours” (Luke 10:28).
在这些反思的最后，最好按照第二或第三种祷告方法，用主祷文、尊主颂，或简单地用我们的「仁爱经」来祷告。
At the end of these reflections it would be well to pray on the Our Father, the Magnificat, or simply on our “Act of Charity” according to the second or third method of prayer.