Note to God

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, a person is only as good as their weakest virtue. That may seem harsh, but experience shows this assessment to be true. A person who is well-organized, prosperous, intelligent, but lacks in generosity is a miser. Likewise, a person who is affable, and generous to others, but has a crippling addiction to alcohol is a drunk. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, likewise a person is only as virtuous as their weakest virtue.

Male aggression is perceived to be negative, but it has a positive origin. Its derivative, In Latin, ad gregior, which means to confront, to go towards. Hence aggression, when it is well integrated, is the ability to activate him towards the world, towards life.  In sexuality, male aggression is important because during sexual intercourse itself involves the male penetrating into the female, in a virgin woman. And this penetration is a symbolically aggressive act as the male must break the hymen of the woman. Therefore male who has not integrated well with aggression and is afraid of it for some reason may find himself experiencing great difficulty towards his first sexual relation. Because he perceives them to be an intrusive and dangerous act. An integrated aggression is able to balance eros, desire and tenderness. For some man, tenderness makes them uncomfortable as it is related to the mothers world, and man who has not sufficient closeness from a mother, will subconsciously st...

Mercy is therefore more than pity,which latter implies a distance between the man who suffers and him who pities; it supposes a true compassion, the actual sharing of our brothers' miseries, of their material distresses as well as their moral weaknesses. It seems, however, that it is principally these latter which are the object of our Beatitude, for the mercy which we ought to show to others is here put into relation with that which we expect from the sovereign Judge and which shall be shown in regard to our sins. As a result of this, Jesus commands us to love our guilty brethren, although in such a case we may be tempted to limit the obligation of charity and consider this limitation as excusable, if not legitimate.   At first sight we steer clear of people who have fallen into misery as a result of their own laziness, their foolish dissipations, or their misconduct. To come to the help of a drunkard or a gambler, is not that the same thing as to encourage their vice? All our pit...

But the true drama for the Christian who takes the Gospel seriously is that he cannot live in justice, because he exists in a social state which is in contradiction with his ideal of brotherhood and holiness. He condemns war and he must live in a society which prepares for it; he eats his bread every day in a world where hundreds of thousands of individuals suffer from hunger; he makes use of the advantages of an economic system which admits of glaring abuses; he practises a profession perhaps where he is not allowed to be strictly honest. Certainly he applies himself, in the restricted circle of his activity, to denouncing these wrongs, to diminishing them and to making reparation for them; his share in the responsibility of the groups to which he belongs is no less. The collective sins of a society which tolerates public immorality and the misery of the slums are in part his sin, since he is one of the members of this society. He cannot stop the sins, which he abhors, from being comm...

Multi tasking vs micro tasking Microtasking- do small works each time

St. Francis de Sales an opinion which I invite you to meditate. 'There is a perfection which is impossible to the most perfect, unless it has been confirmed to them in grace; this is the perfection of conduct. And there is a perfection immediately realisable to the most imperfect, this is the perfection of the heart'.[24] The perfection of the heart, or of the will, is the desire for perfection, the hunger for holiness. The most imperfect, you have heard, can rise to it. Understand therefore that Jesus' demands as regards us are the demands of love. He wants us to be united to him now, so that we may accomplish our fraternal task (of which we have yet to speak) and find in the possession of God the satisfaction of all our noble desires.

We are never alone. The living Christ is at our side and always accompanies us. He is truly present, close to us in a powerful and intimate way. Our Lord, united to the Father in the Spirit, is nearer to us than our innermost being: intimior intimo meo, as Saint Augustine ardently exclaimed, based on his own experience

1. Control - Buddha says acceptance gives peace of mind. Goals and desires aren't bad, but falling short makes u. You can control what is in your mind. Know what's in your control and what isn't  2. Conceit - makes you think you're the greatest person - that's not true. You are part of a bigger communion.  - convince you that you and your happiness is all that matters - to banish conceit, serve others and those around you  3. Coveting - not about wanting things in life you dont have , but it is about comparing to others. To covet your neighbours things.  - the problem comes when you envy, then compare. You become sour, discontented, and you don't wish for other happiness  - you determine your self-worth based on others, on that inequality - be happy for others.  - practice gratitude  - look inward and chart your own course  - rhis thief is insidious:  > prevent it from influencing you 4. Consumption - this thief tells you that u can only b...

Take the attention off yourself. When communicating: Not how am I doing, but how is your boss doing, or how is your team doing.  Phrase your goals and desires to how it impact others -- it shows that I Thought This Through (for you) How to take attention off yourself?  Use the YOU language. Make the second person first Instead of saying I, say You.  "YOU know how the team gets stressed etc etc"  When u use the You, you make a connection, and create common ground. 

Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’   The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. 

Use the phrase: "Doesn't it seem like...?" To help find a common ground To turn it into sth that people see What is it that u have in common with your boss or team? That shared objective?

Every single being has room for generosity, has potential for kindness. But most of us remains as that. A potential, a dormant energy, an unutilised source of greatness.  What is lacking? That spark. That mover. That catalyst.  Each of us Christians are then called to be catalyst, to spark that moment from dormance to action, from potential to kinetic, from dead to life. And if every Christian does that, how the world would blaze. Where every Christian taps onto that underutilised source of greatness and kindness from everyone to move things and make things happen.  We are called to be Christians of the beatitudes.  The Christians of the Beatitudes are not demi-gods fallen from heaven, they belong to the earth; they are poor sinners who burn to rise out of their misery. They are hungry for a better world, they thirst to put a little more beauty into their lives and to see more fraternal feeling among men. Only Jesus can appease this thirst. If any man is thirsty—this...

It is because Christ is greater than us that he makes us grow; with an ideal cut to our own measure we should remain dwarfs. Whoever abandons himself to mediocrity inevitably descends lower than he had bargained for; inversely, as we always fall short of the best that we have resolved to reach, we have necessarily to set our sights higher. An author of the seventeenth century wrote very truly: 'If I am pressed to say why, although there are so many people who think of serving God, there are so few saints, I will reply that the true reason is that none of them take high enough standards'

“I saw you struggling in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live, and grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts and your hair both grew, but you were quite naked. Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread part of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I bound myself by oath, I made a covenant with you – it is the Lord who speaks – and you became mine. I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil. I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk. I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat. I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head. You were loaded with gold and silver, and dressed in fine linen and embroidered silks. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; ...

 'After the Incarnation we should wonder at nothing,' writes an author of the seventeenth century. No marvel will ever equal that one, and there is nothing more for us to be astonished at. And what more could we wish for? 'He did not even spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; and must not that gift be accompanied by the gift of all else?' (Rom. viii. 32). The Son of God lived with us, like us. I speak to all baptised Christians: he lives in us.

FIRST WAY. Take some spiritual book (New Testament, Following of Christ), read a few lines, pausing long in between—meditate a little on what you have read, trying to get the full meaning and to impress it on your mind.—Draw some holy affection, love, contrition, etc., from the reading. Avoid reading or meditating too much.—Every time you pause, remain as long as your mind finds it pleasant or useful to do so. SECOND WAY. Take some text of Holy Scripture, or some vocal prayer, like the Pater, Ave, or Credo, and say it over, stopping at each word, drawing out various holy sentiments, upon which you may dwell as long as you like. At the end, ask God for some grace or virtue, depending on what has been the subject of your meditations. Do not stop on any one word if it wearies or tires you. When you find no more matter for thought or affections, leave it and pass on quietly to the next. But when you feel yourself moved by some good sentiment, remain there as long as it lasts, without going...

The state we must reach is that of saying 'Yes' to whatever God asks of us; the way to achieve this is to know how to say 'No' to anything that hinders the execution of his will. To say no is the literal meaning of the verb renounce . What is truly needed is for us to free our hearts from all the attachments that bind it; we must enlarge and empty it in order to be flooded with the Love that comes from on high: the Love that will bring us closer to our brethren in order to raise us up again to God.

1. The Holy Spirit will never tell you that on your journey everything is going just fine. … No, he corrects you; he makes you weep for your sins; he pushes you to change, to fight against your lies and deceptions, even when that calls for hard work, interior struggle and sacrifice,” Pope Francis  said  in his homily on June 5. “Whereas the evil spirit, on the contrary, pushes you to always do what you think and you find pleasing. He makes you think that you have the right to use your freedom any way you want. Then, once you are left feeling empty inside – it is bad, this feeling of emptiness inside, many of us have felt it – and when you are left feeling empty inside, he blames you, becomes the accuser, and throws you down, destroys you.” 2. “The Holy Spirit, correcting you along the way, never leaves you lying on the ground, never. He takes you by the hand, comforts you and constantly encourages you,” he added. 3.  “The Holy Spirit on the other hand urges us never to lo...

The heart is made to love. Therefore, if we don't give our heart to God, to our Blessed Lady, our Mother, and to all souls..., then it will take revenge by becoming something filthy. Therefore I tell you: love one another, with sincere, noble affection; without doing anything silly, but without fear. And open your heart. Don't keep any secrets; always bring up first whatever you find most difficult to say; and if you are tempted to keep silent about something, go straight to the chat If you act like that I guarantee that you will be faithful, and that you will be happy on earth and in heaven.

Our passage over this earth can never be a matter of indifference as far as others are concerned. We help others to find Christ or we separate them from him. We enrich others or we impoverish them. And we come across so many of these others - friends, workmates, members of our family, neighbours... who seem to go after material goods as though they hungered for them, material goods that only serve to lure them away from their true Good who is Jesus Christ. They journey through life like men who are lost. If the guide of the blind is not to become blind himself (cf Matt 15:14), it is not enough for him to know the way from hearsay or from coming across mere references to it. If we are to help the people around us, it is not enough for us to have a vague and superficial knowledge of the way. We need to walk along it ourselves and to have first-hand knowledge of the obstacles that lie in our path and have to be surmounted. We need to have interior life, to enter daily into personal conver...

Filial spirit to our father Fraternal spirit with our brothers.  Unity to the Father. The Father brings Christ to us. He has special grace to guide us. 

1. Why the need to dialogue with others? 2. Knowing how to listen. 3. Openness to others. - should not deter us from telling the truth.  4. Maturity and correcting others 5. Dialoguing with closest kin - familiarity breeds contempt 6. Growing in humility  - pride seeks to judge everything. Makes use of the truth.    Sirach 27: 5-7

Evangelic meekness, which is, above all, self-control, will make different intellectual positions seem more understandable and less suspect to us. Let us give anyone, who questions us about our faith, a chance to speak; when they express their own opinion, let us try to enter into their thoughts. Their mistake is quite often merely an incomplete truth; it will be less a matter of refuting them than of clearing up points for them. Do not let us give anyone with whom we are discussing the impression that we want to triumph over him: it is not some truth of our own we are defending, but the Christian doctrine. We have not invented it and we have no merit in possessing it. Lamartine said of that great Christian, Ozanam: 'His orthodoxy was charity. One could differ but one could not quarrel with this pride-free man: his tolerance was not a concession, it was a respect'.   An apostle is so much the more persuasive if, solidly attached to his own faith, he does not make little of othe...

we live habitually united to Mary, that we have recourse to her counsel, that our affections pass through her Heart and that our petitions are frequently made through her. But the thing that Mary most of all expects of our devotion is the imitation of all the virtues that we admire in her and the unreserved abandonment of ourselves into her hands that she may clothe us with her Divine Son.

I did not come to be served, but to serve. When work arises, should we take that task up?  Usually we: - consider the means available - consider how much work it really is... - whether it's worth it to do  But we should really think: -  if I don't do this, will it be wasting God's talent that he has given me? - does it serve others or is it only self-serving

humble Christians have a sense of sin, (as they have a sense of mystery) by which they know themselves to be sinners, they know that in Jesus Christ they received God's pardon

acquire the habit that will make self-custody easy. Quo vadam et ad quid?315 What would Jesus do; how would He act in my place? What would He advise? What does He ask of me at this moment? Such are the questions that will come spontaneously to my mind, hungry for interior life.