Dear Fellow Rotarians,

Lent is the ideal time for reflection, sincere repentance and full conversion of hearts to the horizon of grace. As Christian witnesses, let’s embrace its significance in the signs of time and in the phenomena we experience today. A time to return to God by trusting and recognizing His love and Holiness. In this spiritual journey, we need to listen attentively to the word of God and open our hearts to the working of the Devine Power. A call to remain steadfast in our faith in this special time of prayer with greater commitment to ourselves and to our neighbours in need.

There’s a philosophy in ethics called “enlightened self interest”. It’s the intriguing idea that many “good deeds” that we do are not motivated entirely for the benefit of others, but many of those good deeds somehow serve our self interest as well.

Giving and working to charity is a noble endeavour. But giving solely dependent on whether or not we get a tax deduction or credit for our gifts, then giving really falls in the category of enlightened self interest. We’re glad to give as long as benefits us back in some ways.

Not that there’s anything wrong with enlightened self interest in and of itself as of giving and getting something in return is the basis of economies all over the world. It becomes only a problem when we mistake enlightened self interest for selfless love. Thinking that what we are doing is truly loving, when in reality it could be simply selfish masquerading as love. Pure love is a love that is selfless and unadulterated, a love that gives without expecting anything in return. No matter how important all the gifts and abilities might be, without love they were meaningless.

“Service above self” is the basic tenets in the Rotary world. This guiding principle draws its sense out of pure love to serve others in need. May God grant us the grace to continue doing the tasks He entrusted to us as we go through this Holy Season.

God Bless!