Note to God

It seems crucial to me that now, more than ever before, you realize deeply that your worth and value does not depend on anyone else. You have to claim your own inner truth. You are a person worth being loved and called to give love, not because anyone says so or act so [sic], but because you are created out of love and live in the embrace of a God who didn’t hesitate to send His only son to die for us. The crisis you are living through now is one of the most difficult crises for anyone to have to live through, but it can become the most important moment to claim your own inner value as a person and a woman. Your being good and worthy of love does not depend on any other human being. You have to keep saying to yourself: “I am being loved by an unconditional, unlimited love, and that love allows me to be a free person, center of my own actions and decisions.”

Don't pay too much attention - to praises, but give thanks  - to rejections, but improve You are God's beloved regardless. Pay attention to this instead. 

When the totality of our daily lives is lived “from above,” that is, as the Beloved sent into the world, then everyone we meet and everything that happens to us becomes a unique opportunity to choose for the life that cannot be conquered by death. Thus, both joy and suffering become part of the way to our spiritual fulfillment.

The unfathomable mystery of God is that God is a Lover who wants to be loved. The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being. God not only says: “You are my Beloved.” God also asks: “Do you love me? ” and offers us countless chances to say “Yes.” That is the spiritual life: the chance to say “Yes” to our inner truth .  The spiritual life, thus understood, radically changes everything. Being born and growing up, leaving home and finding a career, being praised and being rejected, walking and resting, praying and playing, becoming ill and being healed—yes, living and dying— they all become expressions of that divine question: “Do you love me? ” And at every point of the journey there is the choice to say “Yes” and the choice to say “No.”  Once you are able to catch a glimpse of this spiritual vision, you can see how the many distinctions that are so central in our daily living lose their meaning. When joy and pain are both opportunities to...

Over a dinner conversation, a friend ask: what's next? What's next for us, who are married, have a home, have kids? What's next in the milestone of life? Beneath this, the real question is how can i be truly fulfilled in my being?  What is next is to embark on the spiritual life. For the material life cannot offer fullness of fulfilment. You can enjoy for a moment or two, but you never get satiated. You can enjoy deep affections with friends, but sometimes, they can disappoint. But what you yearn isn't wrong. What you yearn for is the fulfilment of a love so deep that you need to embark on a spiritual journey for this. To walk the road of self discovery - who you are called to be? Who you are and to discover God who loves you.  Who has created you before the world even began, who sent you into the world as an opportunity to become who you are, claim and integrate the belovedness that God has given you and live it with others, and more importantly, to respond to that lov...

Think of yourself as having been sent into the world . . . a way of seeing yourself that is possible if you truly believe that you were loved before the world began . . Spiritually you do not belong to the world. And this is precisely why you are sent into the world. Your family and your friends, your colleagues and your competitors, and all the people you may meet on your journey through life are all searching for more than survival.  Your presence among them as the one who is sent will allow them to catch a glimpse of the real life.   Everything changes radically from the moment you know yourself as being sent into this world. Times and spaces, people and events, art and literature, history and science, they all cease to be opaque and become transparent, pointing far beyond themselves to the place from where you come and to where you will return.  It is very hard for me to explain to you this radical change because it is a change that cannot be described in ordinary ter...

In the face of temptation, not to dialogue with it.  I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid of myself.  To get out. To excuse yourself in the face of temptation. The heart with 7 locks 🔒  - to stop once the 6th lock is unlocked - once u realise u unlock one lock, stop and go away. Not to be idle. King David, he was walking in the mid afternoon on the roof of his house. Why is he there at the time of this day? Seeing vs looking  - looking is looking at the details, and notice. The second look.  - to see is to see there's a person.  See but not look. - eyes are window to the soul The mobile phone - take care of it - don't look through the images Go to confession even confessing that the 7th lock was unlocked - when u were careless with a situation, you talked too much to someone that you needed etc  

When we think about our being given to each other, what comes immediately to mind are our unique talents: those abilities to do special things especially well.  “What is our unique talent?” we asked. However, when focusing on talents, we tend to forget that our real gift is not so much what we can do, but who we are. The real question is not “What can we offer each other?” but “Who can we be for each other?” It is worthwhile making a distinction between talents and gifts. More important than our talents are our gifts. We may have only a few talents, but we have many gifts. Our gifts are the many ways in which we express our humanity. They are part of who we are: friendship, kindness, patience, joy, peace, forgiveness, gentleness, love, hope, trust, and many others. These are the true gifts we have to offer to each other.

Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life .  It is sad to see that, in our highly competitive and greedy world, we have lost touch with the joy of giving. We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don’t know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness, and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others. That truth, however, is usually discovered when we are confronted with our brokenness.

Our work can be put on the paten in the mass. Our mass is the centre of our life. After going g mass in the morning, we live in thanksgiving, and we prepare for mass the next day through our work offered.

What makes a teacher happy? When the student gives a correct answer in beautiful writing. When the student really understands, and gives the right answers in the long essay. 

3pm is the toughest time.. at work we feel sleepy. But it's the time when Jesus worked the hardest, on the cross, breathing. 

One great brokenness is experienced in our sexuality. Our sexuality reveals to us our enormous yearning for communion. The desires of our body—to be touched, embraced, and safely held—belong to the deepest longings of the heart and are very concrete signs of our search for oneness. It is precisely around this yearning for communion that we experience so much anguish. Our society is so fragmented, our family lives so sundered by physical and emotional distance, our friendships so sporadic, our intimacies so “in-between” things and often so utilitarian, that there are few places where we can feel truly safe. I notice in myself how often my body is tense, how I usually keep my guard up, and how seldom I have a complete feeling of being at home. If I then turn to the Toronto suburbs where I live and see the pretentious mega-houses, the ugly shopping malls strewn about to make consumption more efficient, and the alluring billboards promising comfort and relaxation in very seductive ways—all...

Take refuge in your divine sonship: God is your most loving Father. In this lies your security, a haven where you can drop anchor no matter what is happening on the surface of the sea of life. And you will find joy, strength, optimism: victory!

My second suggestion for claiming your blessedness is the cultivation of presence. By presence I mean attentiveness to the blessings that come to you day after day, year after year. The problem of modern living is that we are too busy—looking for affirmation in the wrong places?—to notice that we are being blessed. Often, people say good things about us, but we brush them aside with remarks such as, “Oh, don’t mention it, forget about it, it’s nothing . . .” and so on. These remarks may seem to be expressions of humility, but they are, in fact, signs that we are not truly present to receive the blessings that are given. It is not easy for us, busy people, to truly receive a blessing. Perhaps the fact that few people offer a real blessing is the sad result of the absence of people who are willing and able to receive such a blessing. It has become extremely difficult for us to stop, listen, pay attention, and receive gracefully what is offered to us.

Let me first tell you what I mean by the word “blessing.” In Latin, to bless is benedicere. The word “benediction” that is used in many churches means literally: speaking (dictio) well (bene) or saying good things of someone. That speaks to me. I need to hear good things said of me, and I know how much you have the same need. A blessing goes beyond the distinction between admiration or condemnation, between virtues or vices, between good deeds or evil deeds. A blessing touches the original goodness of the other and calls forth his or her Belovedness. “Janet, I want you to know that you are God’s Beloved Daughter. You are precious in God’s eyes. Your beautiful smile, your kindness to the people in your house, and all the good things you do show us what a beautiful human being you are. I know you feel a little low these days and that there is some sadness in your heart, but I want you to remember who you are: a very special person, deeply loved by God and all the people who are here ...

How do we get in touch with our chosenness when we are surrounded by rejections? I have already said that this involves a real spiritual struggle. Are there any guidelines in this struggle? First of all, you have to keep unmasking the world about you for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run, destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of who you are. Second, you have to keep looking for people and places where your truth is spoken and where you are reminded of your deepest identity as the chosen one. Yes, we must dare to opt consciously for our chosenness and not allow our emotions, feelings, or passions to seduce us into self-rejection. The synagogues, the churches, the many communities of faith, the different support groups helping us with our addictions, family, friends, teachers, and students: All of these can become reminders of our truth. The limited, sometimes b...

Someone has noticed me in my uniqueness and has expressed a desire to know me, to come closer to me, to love me. When I write to you that, as the Beloved, we are God’s chosen ones, I mean that we have been seen by God from all eternity and seen as unique, special, precious beings. From all eternity, long before you were born and became a part of history, you existed in God’s heart. Long before your parents admired you or your friends acknowledged your gifts or your teachers, colleagues, and employers encouraged you, you were already “chosen.” To be chosen does not mean that others are rejected. It is very hard to conceive of this in a competitive world such as ours. All my memories of being chosen are linked to memories of others not being chosen. When I was not chosen for a soccer team, not chosen to be the leader of the Boy Scout patrol, or when I was chosen to be the “senior” of my ordination class, or to be honored with special awards, there were always tears alongside smiles and s...

We need to take God seriously.  With all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We take pharmacy , medications seriously. But God? What about eternal life?

One of my favourite scene from Doctor Strange is: The Ancient One: You wonder what I see in your future? Dr. Stephen Strange: No... Yes. The Ancient One: I never saw your future, only its possibilities. You have such a capacity for goodness. You always excelled, but not because you craved success but because of your fear of failure. Dr. Stephen Strange: That’s what made me a great doctor. The Ancient One: It’s precisely what kept you from greatness. Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all. Dr. Stephen Strange: Which is? The Ancient One: It’s not about you.

These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That’s the great trap. It is the trap of self-rejection. Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. I am constantly surprised at how quickly I give in to this temptation. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me,  I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned. Maybe you think that you are more tempted by arrogance than by self-rejection. But isn’t arrogance, in fact, the other side of self-rejection? Isn’t arrogance putting ...

Jesus’ invitation to “lay down my life for others” has always meant more to me than any physical martyrdom. I have always heard these words as an invitation to make my own life struggles, my doubts, my hopes, my fears and my joys, my pains, and my moments of ecstasy available to others as a source of consolation and healing. To witness for Christ means to me to witness for Him with what I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears and touched with my own hands. I do not remember ever having to sit down “to write a book.” The publications that you know are more a result of speaking with people, sharing my own life with them and trying to give words to what often remains hidden under the threshold of our consciousness.

sort out my many feelings, ideas and impressions and to really discern God’s will for my future

that in and through Christ the evil one has been overcome and that death no longer is the final word. Working for social change, to me, means to make visible in time and place that which has already been accomplished in principle by God Himself. This makes it possible to struggle for a better world not out of frustration, resentment, anger or self-righteousness but out of care, love, forgiveness and gratitude.

I miss there very much is the sacramental presence of the Lord. In my own life, the Eucharist is the center. There the Lord comes to us as food and drink and transforms us into true new beings. The Eucharist, and indirectly all other sacraments, makes the Christ life radically different from a life inspired by the ideas and the stories about Jesus. The sacramental life is a life by which we become living Christ, in which we truly die from the old man and woman in us, and in which Christ becomes the center of our identity. This is the mystical life. Mystical life is the real life. It is the life of the spirit of Christ within us. It is the life which makes it possible for us to say, “Not I live but Christ lives in me.” I have a sense that you both are very open for this, and in fact, know more about it than most people (even most Catholics!).

often deepening the pain is the way to healing because deepening the pain means to go to that place in me where I am really broken, sinful, dependent and where I’m no longer trying to stay in control but where I can reach out to God and to my fellow human beings without fear.

Our father says: it's a sport-like ascetism  Training like an athlete.

Over the last few years I have been increasingly aware that true healing mostly takes place through the sharing of weakness. Mostly we are so afraid of our weaknesses that we hide them at all cost and thus make them unavailable to others but also often to ourselves. And, in this way, we end up living double lives even against our own desires: one life in which we present ourselves to the world, to ourselves and to God as a person who is in control and another life in which we feel insecure, doubtful, confused and anxious and totally out of control. The split between these two lives causes us a lot of suffering. I have become growingly aware of the importance to overcome the great chasm between these two lives and to become more and more aware that facing, with others, the reality of our existence can be the beginning of a truly free life. Often I became aware of the fact that in the sharing of my weaknesses with others, the real depths of my human brokenness and weakness and sinfulness...

Hope is not optimism. Optimism is looking at the bright side of things even when things go awry, seeing possible glimmers amidst darkness.  But our hope is an unseen certainty. It's a surety that will happen. For We have a promise and God is faithful to His promise even when we are doubtful and fearful. As Paul says: “Our hope is not deceptive because the Holy Spirit has already been poured into us.” With looming nuclear holocaust and seemingly apocalyptic times,  what it is important for me is not if our civilization will survive or not but if we can continue to live with hope. I really think we can because our Lord has given us His promise that He will stay with us at all times. He is the God of the living, He has overcome evil and death and His love is stronger than any form of death and destruction. That is why I feel that we should continually avoid the temptation of despair and deepen our awareness that God is present in the midst of all the chaos that surrounds us and t...

I had to learn my humanity. I had to be shown my weakness in order to discover my freedom. Sin and forgiveness.  Fall and rise. Broken and redeemed. Lonely and alone. Solitary and community. Vulnerable and protected. Disappointment and hope. Struggle and joy.

Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that art is the essence of life and that giving birth to a child is the highest form of art. I have a sense that there are levels of human experience we will only come in touch with when we become father or mother. Maybe it is in the child that we come closest to the Eternal in life and get a glimpse of the moment in which the deepest rootedness and the greatest detachment touch each other. There we are most human and closest to God. 

A simple-minded, simple-eyed commitment to God is all that counts. Maybe we have become—especially in academics—so addicted to analysis, to sorting out the many elements of the problems we and others have, that we lose sight of the “Unum Necessarium.” Therefore I also enjoy disagreeing with you when you say: “Naming the demons is the initial and greatest chore.” I don’t think so. The first and most important task we have is to keep our eyes on God and Him alone. We will never overcome the demons by analyzing them, but only by forgetting them in an all-consuming love for God. God is simple, demons are complex. Demons like to be analyzed, because that keeps our attention directed to them. God wants to be loved. I am more and more convinced that the first commandment indeed needs to be the first: to love God with all our heart, all our soul and our entire mind. Our heart, soul and mind can never be divided between God and neighbor or anything else. God is a jealous God who wants our love ...

 I wished that you could spend a good amount of time in a place where you can do nothing else than pray. Pray with words, songs, silence, or just pray by being here and now. Maybe you can go to an abbey or a monastery for that purpose. I love to help you find a good place. But it seems important that at some point you take time out for God and God alone so that after that you will have an inner sensitivity to the spiritual life which will also help you a lot in your studies. Well, I hope some of this makes

Fail is First  Attempt In Learning