Note to God

In ancient Greece, the concept of arete was used to capture the idea of living up to one’s full potential and purpose. Arete was, in some sense, the earliest known incarnation of the modern self-improvement movement, encouraging the people to strive for continuous growth and excellence across a range of life areas, including relationships, intellectual pursuits, moral conduct, and more. The concept connects closely to eudaemonia, a state of flourishing happiness and fulfillment that is achieved only through seeking growth, meaning, purpose, and authenticity. The ancient Greek philosophers believed that through the pursuit of arete, the intentional life of growth and purpose, one can achieve a state of eudaemonic happiness.

Curiosity serves you in your early years as you learn about the world; a rapid ascent up the learning curve is what allows you to survive to reproductive age in the wild. But once you’ve figured out how your world works, that same curiosity is more likely to kill you in your later years if it pushes you to explore beyond the safety of your core routines.  A life without learning is a life devoid of the desire to search, explore, and learn and lacks the texture created by this desire. A life without curiosity is an empty life, a life of stasis, a life without wonder. Paraphrasing a friend on the topic, inside every eighty-year-old is a ten-year-old wondering, What the f*ck just happened? But the seeds of that sentiment are sown many years earlier. They are sown in your twenties and thirties when you stop pursuing any interests or hobbies outside your job. They are sown in your forties and fifties when you stop trying to understand the world and start saying, “That’s just the way it ...

 THE BIG QUESTION: WHO will be sitting in the front row at your funeral?  THE THREE PILLARS OF SOCIAL WEALTH: DEPTH: Connection to a small circle of people with deep, meaningful bonds BREADTH: Connection to a larger circle of people for support and belonging beyond the self, either through individual relationships or through community, religious, spiritual, or cultural infrastructure EARNED STATUS: The lasting respect, admiration, and trust of your peers that you receive on the basis of earned, not acquired, status symbols

Earned status is the great equalizer. It is the real respect, admiration, and trust received through hard-won treasures:  Free time  Loving relationships  Purposeful work, expertise, and wisdom Healthy mind and body  Hard-won financial success The richest people in the world cannot acquire these things in a day. If you don’t make a clear effort to create the space and prioritize effectively, each of these markers will prove elusive. The world’s richest people cannot build a loving relationship any faster than you. They cannot forge a healthy mind and body any faster than you

By seneca

The Imitation: We are all weak.. but be sure that none is weaker than yourself. You are the weakest. Had not been grace given to you, you will have fallen much more. And if this grace had been given to someone else, he will be so much more  holy

We can make ourselves holy in every situation in which God places us, and therefore we can do so in family life, looking after the home and the children, in our workshop or at our work-table. The Carthusian sanctifies himself in contemplation and St. Joseph became holy at his bench. The Carmelite in fasting and the mother in bringing well-being and joy to her home. Wherever God has placed you, in your home, your office, in your social circle, you have a fixed task to perform—it is not your neighbour’s, it is yours—and according to God’s intention, it ought to sanctify you if, there where you are, you live your Christianity to the full. Where God has put you, you are irreplaceable, you are given an apostolate that no one else but you can discharge. Do not look for another field of action, it is there that you will sanctify yourself by making your brethren holy.

Viktor Frankl, author of the Man's search for meaning, shared the horrible experience at Nazi concentrating camp. He says that there's 2 things that no matter how much the despair was, the Nazis could not rob from those who persevered: inner freedom, and dignity. How do we train that inner freedom.?  Inner freedom is the ability to choose how we want to react to circumstances.  It is trained with patience - to be able to respond by waiting , by creating a space to wait  - when we stop be fidgety and restless. When we are deeply attached and cling on to false idols

As we all know, the digital revolution has ushered in an unprecedented information age. Today, our fingertips command access to a vast expanse of knowledge that would have dwarfed the lifelong efforts of scholars mere centuries ago. This transformation, however, is a double-edged sword, morally neutral in its essence. Our ability to explore boundless resources can either elevate our pursuit of wisdom or ensnare us in fleeting distractions. For instance, a neighbor, engrossed in the world of non gamstop bookmakers, channels winnings from online betting platforms to fund a personal library, curating texts that deepen his spiritual reflections. Such access makes the virtue of disciplined learning more attainable, yet it also tempts us toward the vice of unchecked curiosity, where information becomes an end rather than a means. That’s the crux for addressing your question: the disciplined pursuit of learning versus the aimless pull of curiosity. The Virtue of “Studiositas” Learning involve...

1. Simplicity - God does not see as man does. He sees the heart. - christus vivit document on youthful heart 2. Gratitude and thankfulness 3. Make friends  4. Exercise. How to help young people? St. Joseph as model - St Joseph helped to form Jesus in a way - there's a shortage of people for accompaniment We need to accompany young people  We need to be mentors - to be exemplary in our work, to be witness, to seek holiness, to be confident without judging. Not to be afraid when people we guide become better than we are. It's a humility. Tell young people to dream!  Remind them of the love of God.  And the God is truly alive. You don't need to proof your love in the family. As mentors - Understand their family envt! Helps.to understand their background - we may need to be fathers to them to make up for the lack  of fatherhood in society.

If it's just about your personal preference. Then  If it's a threat to your physical,  emotional , spiritual and relational well being, then you should speak up and address. Anything that  undermine your dignity as a son of God, or demeans your dignity as a person. If that person refuses to meet those needs, then speak up. But if an offense is a threat to your preference, like I prefer it this way than that way, like I prefer the toilet seat up rather than down, these are minor irritations and u can offer it up as a small mortification. Or things that are out of ur comfort zone, you can be generous to offer them up, and even grow as a person to experience these things.  But if the offense against my preference is persistent or pervasive, then speak up. Like if it always happens despite you gently raising it up, we should be in a relationship that has mutual self-donationship. For a healthy and thriving rs, it need to be mutually self-donative, and not one sided. Use ...

Jesus also kneel before Judas when He washed the disciples feet. There is not a single one of our brethren whom we are not bound to serve, whether they be the smallest or the most unworthy.

The Cooperators  1. Our Founder, Cronica, VIII-89, p.6 “The Work is a divine and human family that experiences the same things a natural family experiences when it has been blessed abundantly by the Lord with many children: there are taller ones and some others shorter, some are darker and some are fairer (…). And then you find the relatives: some are closer than others. Finally you have the friends of the family.” Aside from the numerous members of this family, “we have close to us those relatives whom we love so much: the Cooperators.” 2. Our Founder explained that to be a Cooperator there is no need of a special vocation (ibid.); to be a Cooperator does not entail any juridical commitment with the Prelature of Opus Dei (to be in Opus Dei, a divine vocation is required), but it is a divine gift that leads them to cooperate with eagerness and generosity in the apostolic undertakings, and to enjoy the spiritual benefits and the means that the Work offers for their formation...