Note to God

No marriage is free from this tension. The tension increases as the body goes through the motions of love without the soul, and it decreases as the soul loves through the body. The greatest relief there is to this tension is the begetting of children, for here the seeming disproportion between a passion for unity and the failure to make it permanent is compensated for by the child, who becomes a new bond of unity outside father and mother. Husband and wife never feel the emptiness of their relations one with another when it is filled up with a new body and a soul directly infused by God, the Creator. The second tension inherent in marriage is between the person and humanity. Married love is personal, unique and jealous, in the right sense of the word. It implies secrecy, togetherness, and resents intrusion. For that reason, it never speaks of its love in public and never demonstrates it. It is a curious psychological fact that those who make their personal love public, and “dear” one a...

Time with your wife has to be exclusive

Bright and cheerful homes Just attended the wedding of Victor and Sabrina, prayer of the faithful:  For Victor and Sabrina, that they may grow in greater love and union each day  that passes, and that they may be blessed with children, and the grace to raise a  bright and cheerful home, let us pray to the Lord. And it is really a grace, a blessing from God. Beautiful expression coined by St Josemaria, that our homes should be bright and cheerful. I truly experienced this recently. So, my birthday just passed. My wife asked me what I want to do? I said, the usual, staycation or have dinner at a fancy place or do sth nice together. She then chided me cause I didn't really include my family in the picture. She was like: huh? What about your parents? Not celebrating your bday with them? How can u be like that?   And it's true, I neglected my family for my birthday in that sense.. in the end, thanks to her feminine genius, I celebrated bday with my family, and it was...

Grant, O Lord, that from faith in your Love, we may live each day with a love that is always new, in joyful hope.

It helps in connections and asking, it's part of apostolate. Things get done when there's prestige

The lack of time for formation. What can we do? one of Josemaría books can be helpful: non multa sed multum[not many, but much]–not committing our efforts to many things, but putting a lot of effort into only one, or a few. 

1. Have a morning routine - schedule, the heroic minute 2. Calm your mind in the morning - mindfulness, prayer 3. Watch your language - don't be a pessimist - yes, we can - reframing  - positive language -The Secret: it's all about positive thoughts, you send positive energy around you and you attract the like. Like attracts like 4. Practice compassion, have mercy - suffer with - God is always with us, reveal that to others 5. Move your body - physically fit and active - not making the body an idol, not a fanatic - enjoy yourself 6. Create a media diet - don't be a social media junkie - it is useful, but there are pitfalls - purge negative people in your feeds - limit the social media calories 7. Have good extra curricular activities - have good hobbies  - good use of free time, have a plan! Not just scroll 8. Cultivate supportive relationships  - those who have good social relations are healthier mentally - St Josemaria: to be be supernatural, we have to be very human - ...

St Augustine said: a lame man who sticks to the path makes better progress than a runner off the path. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas spoke about the virtue of “studiousness,” which entails “a determined effort to seek out the truth of things.”[12] That is, it requires the permanent attitude of cultivating a healthy curiosity to know our world in depth and striving to overcome the obstacles that prevent us from doing so. In any case, the important thing is never to lose sight of the greatness of the goal inspiring our efforts: to make Christ’s message our own in order to be able to sow it in the world around us. The image of a battle can also lead us to consider the importance of having a strategy. How are we to achieve such a high aim when we lack the time and serenity needed to ponder in depth the great questions in life? For some, this strategy may involve making good use of the means of formation they are already participating in, striving to get more out of them. For others, the advice from a classical author that Saint Josemaría used in one of his books can be helpful: non multa sed multum[...

Do things with love for souls, not just getting things done

A pure soul is worth any suffering on earth. A pure soul in heaven, cleansed of sins, is worth all the self-sacrificial love. Jesus, forgive me that I do not strive for such perfection of charity and sacrificial love.