Note to God

Management  consultant Stephen Covey thought that discipline was freedom: “The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”. Leadership is about freely choosing thoughts and actions that lead to improvement. It’s denying the easy gratifications that surround us and keeping true to our goals. To ask others to demonstrate self-discipline involves us setting the example.

All of us would like a word of encouragement when things have not gone well, and would appreciate understanding from others when, once again, in spite of our best intentions we have made a mistake. We prefer others to have more regard to our positive deeds than to our shortcomings; we are glad to have a cordial atmosphere at our place of work or on coming home. We like to be stretched at work, but to be asked, nevertheless, with courtesy and in a kindly fashion to do what is required of us; we don’t like anyone to speak badly of us behind our backs; and if someone does, we’d be grateful to have another defend us in our absence; we would like others to be concerned about us when we are ill; we would not be averse to receiving fraternal corrections when we do something badly, instead of having our blunder gossiped about with somebody else; we would be happy to know that our friends pray for us ... These are things which, with humility and a spirit of service, we have to do for others: Di...

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Instead of saying " let's do sth", be specific - let's watch this show etc. Don't give her the mental load of deciding what to do

Oh God! What happiness to be thus embraced and to recline in the bosom of the Saviour. Remain thus, beloved daughter, and like another little one, Saint John, while others are tasting different kinds of food at the table of the Lord, lay your head, your soul and your spirit, in a gesture of utter trust, on the loving bosom of this dear Lord

You are my only hope, you are the source of my joy. When I could no longer cling to my normal supports I discovered that true support and real safety lie far beyond the structures of our world.

Friends are those who have been chosen as living signs of God's love to us.

When two people commit themselves to live their lives together, a new reality comes into existence. “They become one flesh,” Jesus says. That means that their unity creates a new sacred place.  Many relationships are like interlocking fingers. Two people cling to each other as two hands interlocked in fear. They connect because they cannot survive individually. But as they interlock they also realize that they cannot take away each other’s loneliness. And it is then that friction arises and tension increases. Often a breakup is the final result.  But God calls man and woman into a different relationship. It is a relationship that looks like two hands that fold in an act of prayer. The fingertips touch, but the hands can create a space, like a little tent. Such a space is the space created by love, not by fear . Marriage is creating a new, open space where God’s love can be revealed to the “stranger”: the child, the friend, the visitor. This marriage becomes a witness to God’s ...

Faithfulness, obviously, does not mean sticking it out together to the bitter end. That is no reflection of God’s love. Faithfulness means that every decision we make in our lives together is guided by the deep awareness that we are called to be living signs of God’s faithful presence among us . And this requires an attentiveness to one another that goes far beyond any formal obligation.

the “Tempter” came to him asking him to prove that he was worth being loved. The “Tempter” said to him: “Do something useful, like turning stones into bread. Do something sensational, like throwing yourself down from a high tower. Do something that brings you power, like paying me homage.” These three temptations were three ways to seduce Jesus into becoming a competitor for love. The world of the “Tempter” is precisely that world in which people compete for love through doing useful, sensational, and powerful things and so winning medals that gain them affection and admiration. Jesus, however, is very clear in his response: “I don’t have to prove that I am worthy of love. I am the Beloved of God, the One on whom God’s favor rests.” It was that victory over the “Tempter” that set Jesus free to choose for the compassionate life.

 is the contemplation of the daily Gospel. Each day of the year has its own Gospel passage. Each passage holds its own treasure for us. For me it has been of immense spiritual value to read each morning the story about Jesus that has been chosen for the day and to look at it and listen to it with my inner eyes and ears. I have discovered that when I do this over a long period of time, the life of Jesus becomes more and more alive in me and starts to guide me in my daily activities. Often I have found myself saying: “The Gospel that I read this morning was just what I needed today!” This was much more than a wonderful coincidence. What, in fact, was taking place was not that a Gospel text helped me with a concrete problem, but that the many Gospel passages that I had been contemplating were gradually giving me new eyes and new ears to see and hear what was happening in the world. It wasn’t that the Gospel proved useful for my many worries but that the Gospel proved the useless...

Jesus did not say: “Blessed are those who care for the poor,” but “Blessed are the poor.” Simple as this remark may seem, it offers the key to the kingdom. I want to help. I want to do something for people in need. I want to offer consolation to those who are in grief and alleviate the suffering of those who are in pain. There is obviously nothing wrong with that desire. It is a noble and grace-filled desire. But unless I realize that God’s blessing is coming to me from those I want to serve, my help will be short-lived, and soon I will be “burned out.” How is it possible to keep caring for the poor when the poor only get poorer? How is it possible to keep nursing the sick when they are not getting better? How can I keep consoling the dying when their deaths only bring me more grief? The answer is that they all hold a blessing for me. Ministry is, first of all, receiving God’s blessing from those to whom we minister. What is this blessing? It is a glimpse of the face of God. Seeing Go...

Why is it so difficult to be still and quiet and let God speak to me about the meaning of my life. Is it because I don’t trust God? Is it because I don’t know God? Is it because I wonder if God really is there for me? Is it because I am afraid of God? Is it because everything else is more real for me than God? Is it because, deep down, I do not believe that God cares what happens at the corner of Yonge and Bloor? Is it because I don't love God enough? I only love Him limitedly. I want my space, my time. It just shows I ultimately don't love him enough. I love him, but not enough. Just like Peter loved him, philia, not agape.  But Lord, I do desire to love you. My flesh is indeed weak O lord. Help my lack. Because I know, you love me. And will come down to me. Always. 

1. An important discipline in the life of the Spirit is spiritual reading. Through spiritual reading we have some say over what enters into our minds. Each day our society bombards us with a myriad of images and sounds. Driving down Yonge Street in downtown Toronto is like driving through a dictionary: each word demanding our attention in all sorts of sizes and colors and with all sorts of gestures and noises. The words yell and scream at us: “Eat me, drink me, buy me, hire me, look at me, talk with me, sleep with me”! Whether we ask for it or not is not the question; we simply cannot go far without being engulfed by words. Do  we want to let others decide what enters into our mind and determines our thoughts and feelings? Clearly we do not, but it requires real discipline to let God and not the world be the Lord of our mind. But that asks of us not just to be gentle as doves, but also cunning as serpents! Therefore spiritual reading is such a helpful discipline. Is there...

Do we have a clear goal in life? The athletes whose clear goal is the attainment of the Olympic gold are willing to let everything else become secondary. The way they eat, sleep, study, and train are all determined by that one clear goal. This is as true in the spiritual life as it is in the life of competitive sports. Without a clear goal, we will always be distracted and spend our energy on secondary things. “Keep your eye on the prize,” Martin Luther King said to his people. What is our prize? Is it the divine life, the eternal life, the life with and in God. Jesus proclaimed to us that goal, that heavenly prize How then do we keep our goal clear, how then do we fix our eyes on the prize? By the discipline of prayer: the discipline that helps us to bring God back again and again to the center of our life.

 know of few people who have seen as much suffering as the Dalai Lama. As the spiritual and political leader of Tibet he was driven from his own country and witnessed the systematic killing, torture, oppression, and expulsion of his people. Still, I know of few people who radiate so much peace and joy. The Dalai Lama’s generous and disarming laughter is free from any hatred or bitterness toward the Chinese who ravaged his land and murdered his people. He says: “They too are human beings who struggle to find happiness and deserve our compassion.” How is it possible that a man who has been subjected to such persecution is not filled with anger and a desire for revenge? When asked that question the Dalai Lama explains how, in his meditation, he allows all the suffering of his people and their oppressors to enter into the depth of his heart, and there to be transformed into compassion. What a spiritual challenge! While I anxiously wonder how to help the people in Bosnia, South Africa, ...

Too often we think or say: “I don’t want to bother my friends with my problems. They have enough problems themselves.” But the truth is that we honor our friends by entrusting our struggles to them. Don’t we ourselves say to our friends who have hidden their feelings of fear and shame from us: “Why didn’t you tell me, why did you keep it secret so long?” Obviously, not everyone can receive our hidden pains. But I believe that if we truly desire to grow in spiritual maturity, God will send us the friends we need. So much of our suffering arises not just out of our painful condition, but from our feeling of isolation in the midst of our pain. Many people who suffer immensely from addiction—be it addiction to alcohol, drugs, sex, or food—find their first real relief when they can share their pain with others and discover that they are truly heard. The many twelve-step programs are a powerful witness to the truth that sharing our pain is the beginning of healing. Here we can see how close ...

To really sacrifice for the sheep No glory at all All want to take the back seat. Who wants now to sit at the right and the left? You need to be crushed. The suffering servant.  It's burdensome because of sin. If everyone is a saint, everyone want to be a leader.  But we have to juggle your own sin, but the sin of others. We are dealing with the eternal yet are so undervalued. We aren't dealing with the material.  - there is no honor, power, glory. We do it because we love. We love in the love of God in us, through us, with us.  Only The love of God carries us through 

There are always sorrowful and joyful sides to the reality we live. And so we always have a choice to live the moment as a cause for resentment or as a cause for joy. It is in the choice that our true freedom lies, and that freedom is, in the final analysis, the freedom to love. It might be a good idea to ask ourselves how we develop our capacity to choose for joy. Maybe we could spend a moment at the end of each day and decide to remember that day—whatever may have happened—as a day to be grateful for. In so doing we increase our heart’s capacity to choose for joy. And as our hearts become more joyful, we will become, without any special effort, a source of joy for others. Just as sadness begets sadness, so joy begets joy.

Saint Bonaventure tells us that in the end we should not pray for light, but for “raging fire”. [17] He teaches that, “faith is in the intellect, in such a way as to provoke affection. In this sense, for example, the knowledge that Christ died for us does not remain knowledge, but necessarily becomes affection, love”. [18]