We wake up in the morning against a backdrop of a beautiful sun, sweet chirping birds, and smiling flowers; and sometimes of a relaxing fluffy clouds, refreshing crisp air, and calming whisper of dancing leaves or jumping water drops.
Now up for the day. Whichever road we take on the four-street fork, something good is always along each road looking at us and waiting to be picked up and appreciated—perhaps a colorful and sweet-smelling flower, a dancing butterfly, or a honey suspending on a branch. Walking farther there could be a hump or two, a hole or a gap, serving us to enjoy our journey as we dance and hop and make our jumps higher and more enhanced.
Life is not a monotonous note of sweet good things. It is an interesting concoction of everything down and up, sad and joy, sour and sweet.
On the table of grace, bitter coffee is there to prod us to move from our comfortable chair to get sweet crystals from the canister on the shelf so our taste buds could dance. In the highway of life, traffic makes us pause for a moment and see the things we normally overlook, or while seated reflect on yesterday and bullet in mind today’s plans to make it better than yesterday and catch a breath.
Whichever road we take, whatever things come our way, life is always offering us good things that will help us triumph every single day… it’s only up to us how we will look at them and use them to assist us and bless others.
We may encounter numbers of dents and pits in our journey toward our destination, but we must always remember that they are there to build our strong character—grateful eyes, cheerful fighting heart, and a calm and composed mind—which will complete our happiness and lead us to our destination… to the place where the Giver of all these wonderful things dwell.
When we arrive at that eternal bliss with the Father… who will not be satisfied and filled with everlasting joy?
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Sacrament of Waiting
THE SACRAMENT OF WAITING
by Fr. James Donelan, S.J.
The English poet John Milton wrote that those who serve only also stand and wait. I think I would go further and say that those who wait render the highest form of service. Waiting requires more discipline, more self-control and emotional maturity, more unshakable faith in our cause, more unwavering hope in the future, more sustaining love in our hearts that all the greatest deeds of deering-do go by the name of action.
Waiting is a mystery - a natural sacrament of life - there is a meaning hidden in all the times we have to wait. It must be an important mystery because there is so much waiting in our lives.
Everyday is filled with those little moments of waiting (testing our patience and our nerves, schooling us in self-control.) We wait for meals to be served, for a letter to arrive, for a friend to call or show up for a date. We wait in line at cinemas and theaters, concerts and circuses. Our airline terminals, railway stations and bus depots are great temples of waiting filled with men and women who wait in joy for the arrival of a loved one - or wait in sadness to say goodbye and give the last wave of hand. We wait for springs to come - or autumn - for the rains to begin and stop.
And we wait for ourselves to grow from childhood to maturity. We wait for those inner voices that tell us when we are ready for the next stop.
We wait for graduation, for our first job, our first promotion. We wait for success and recognition. We wait to grow up - to reach the stage where we make our own decisions. We cannot remove this waiting from our lives. It is a part of the tapestry of living - the fabric in which the threads are woven to tell the story of our lives.
Yet current philosophies would have us forget the need to wait "grab all the gusto you can get." So reads one of America's greatest beer ads - get it now! Instant pleasure, instant transcendence. Do not wait for anything. Life is short - eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow you will die. And so they rationalize us into accepting unlicensed and irresponsible freedom- pre-marital sex and extra marital affairs - they warn against attachments and commitments - against expecting anything of anybody, or allowing them to expect anything of us - against dropping any anchors in the currents of our life that will cause us to hold and wait.
This may be the correct prescription for pleasure - but even that is fleeting and doubtful - what was it Shakespeare said about the mad pursuit of pleasure - "Past reason hunted, and once had, past reason hated." Not if we wish to be real human beings, spirit as well as flesh, soul as well as heart, we have to learn to wait. For if we never learn to wait, we will never learn to love someone other than ourselves.
For most of all waiting means waiting for someone else. It is a mystery, brushing by our face everyday like a stray wind of leaf falling from a tree. Anyone who has loved knows how much waiting goes into it - how much waiting is important for love to grow, to flourish through a lifetime.
Why is this? Why can we not have it right now what we so desperately want and need? Why must we wait - two years, three years - and seemingly waste so much time? You might as well ask why a tree should take so long to bear fruit - the seed to flower - carbon to change to diamond.
There is no simple answer - no more than there is to life's other demands -having to say goodbye to someone you love because either you or they have made other commitments; or because they have to grow and find the meaning of their own lives - having yourself to leave home and loved ones to find your own path - good-byes, like waiting, are also sacraments of our lives.
All we know is that growth - the budding, the flowering of love needs patient waiting. We have to give each other a time to grow. There is no way we can make someone else truly love us or we them, except through time. So we give each other that mysterious gift of waiting - of being present without asking demands and rewards. There is nothing harder to do than this. It truly tests the depth and sincerity of our love. But there is life in the gift we give.
So lovers wait for each other - until they can see things the same way - or let each other freely see things in quite different ways.
There are times when lovers hurt each other and cannot regain the balance of intimacy of the way they were. They have to wait - in silence - but still present to each other - until the pain subsides to an ache and then only a memory and the threads of the tapestry can be woven together again in a single love story.
What do we lose when we refuse to wait; when we try to find shortcuts through life - then we try to incubate love and rush blindly and foolishly into a commitment we are neither mature nor responsible enough to assume? We lose the hope of truly loving or of being loved. Think of all the great love stories of history and literature - isn't it of their very essence that they are filled with this strange but common mystery - that waiting is part of the substance - the basic fabric against which the story of that true love is written.
How can we ever find either life or true love if we are too impatient to wait for it?
by Fr. James Donelan, S.J.
The English poet John Milton wrote that those who serve only also stand and wait. I think I would go further and say that those who wait render the highest form of service. Waiting requires more discipline, more self-control and emotional maturity, more unshakable faith in our cause, more unwavering hope in the future, more sustaining love in our hearts that all the greatest deeds of deering-do go by the name of action.
Waiting is a mystery - a natural sacrament of life - there is a meaning hidden in all the times we have to wait. It must be an important mystery because there is so much waiting in our lives.
Everyday is filled with those little moments of waiting (testing our patience and our nerves, schooling us in self-control.) We wait for meals to be served, for a letter to arrive, for a friend to call or show up for a date. We wait in line at cinemas and theaters, concerts and circuses. Our airline terminals, railway stations and bus depots are great temples of waiting filled with men and women who wait in joy for the arrival of a loved one - or wait in sadness to say goodbye and give the last wave of hand. We wait for springs to come - or autumn - for the rains to begin and stop.
And we wait for ourselves to grow from childhood to maturity. We wait for those inner voices that tell us when we are ready for the next stop.
We wait for graduation, for our first job, our first promotion. We wait for success and recognition. We wait to grow up - to reach the stage where we make our own decisions. We cannot remove this waiting from our lives. It is a part of the tapestry of living - the fabric in which the threads are woven to tell the story of our lives.
Yet current philosophies would have us forget the need to wait "grab all the gusto you can get." So reads one of America's greatest beer ads - get it now! Instant pleasure, instant transcendence. Do not wait for anything. Life is short - eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow you will die. And so they rationalize us into accepting unlicensed and irresponsible freedom- pre-marital sex and extra marital affairs - they warn against attachments and commitments - against expecting anything of anybody, or allowing them to expect anything of us - against dropping any anchors in the currents of our life that will cause us to hold and wait.
This may be the correct prescription for pleasure - but even that is fleeting and doubtful - what was it Shakespeare said about the mad pursuit of pleasure - "Past reason hunted, and once had, past reason hated." Not if we wish to be real human beings, spirit as well as flesh, soul as well as heart, we have to learn to wait. For if we never learn to wait, we will never learn to love someone other than ourselves.
For most of all waiting means waiting for someone else. It is a mystery, brushing by our face everyday like a stray wind of leaf falling from a tree. Anyone who has loved knows how much waiting goes into it - how much waiting is important for love to grow, to flourish through a lifetime.
Why is this? Why can we not have it right now what we so desperately want and need? Why must we wait - two years, three years - and seemingly waste so much time? You might as well ask why a tree should take so long to bear fruit - the seed to flower - carbon to change to diamond.
There is no simple answer - no more than there is to life's other demands -having to say goodbye to someone you love because either you or they have made other commitments; or because they have to grow and find the meaning of their own lives - having yourself to leave home and loved ones to find your own path - good-byes, like waiting, are also sacraments of our lives.
All we know is that growth - the budding, the flowering of love needs patient waiting. We have to give each other a time to grow. There is no way we can make someone else truly love us or we them, except through time. So we give each other that mysterious gift of waiting - of being present without asking demands and rewards. There is nothing harder to do than this. It truly tests the depth and sincerity of our love. But there is life in the gift we give.
So lovers wait for each other - until they can see things the same way - or let each other freely see things in quite different ways.
There are times when lovers hurt each other and cannot regain the balance of intimacy of the way they were. They have to wait - in silence - but still present to each other - until the pain subsides to an ache and then only a memory and the threads of the tapestry can be woven together again in a single love story.
What do we lose when we refuse to wait; when we try to find shortcuts through life - then we try to incubate love and rush blindly and foolishly into a commitment we are neither mature nor responsible enough to assume? We lose the hope of truly loving or of being loved. Think of all the great love stories of history and literature - isn't it of their very essence that they are filled with this strange but common mystery - that waiting is part of the substance - the basic fabric against which the story of that true love is written.
How can we ever find either life or true love if we are too impatient to wait for it?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Feast: Six Steps to Optimal Health: 2. Heal Your Emotions
*Proverbs 17:22
- “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.”
*Sirach 38:9-10
- “My son, when you are ill, delay not, but pray to God, who will heal you: Flee wickedness; let your hands be just, cleanse your heart of every sin;”
*The bigger the trials, the bigger the victory :-)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-What you feel, you can heal.
-Lord puts in us a fantastic system that heals (1. Our bodies have their best repairment; 2. Our bodies have the best army—the antibodies; 3. Our bodies have the best pharmacy in the world—we are able to secrete hormones for us to naturally heal.)
-7.2 M die yearly because of cancer. 85% of all diseases are rooted from negative emotions.
-Pills only relieves us temporarily from pain; but FORGIVENESS is one of the keys to feel better and avoid negative emotions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2 ways to get sick (things to avoid):
Too much negative emotions
Too little positive emotions
1. Too Much Negative Emotions
Stress and sickness are related.
>type A personality are prone to heart disease. (controlling, competitive, always rushing, etc.)
>enjoy life; slow down; trust God
>most heart attacks happen on Mondays
Anger and sickness are related
> other people find it hard to forgive
>people who easily get mad have higher death rate (6x) than those who are not (taken from the hostility test taken among doctors)
How to deal with stress:
Ø you cannot pretend that they’re not there… don’t run away from your negative emotions. You can’t escape from them. If you’ll avoid them, one day you’ll be numbed, and they’re still there becoming worse and manifesting in your body.
Ø feel you negative feelings before the Lord and come to Him…pray to Him. Let your problems press you closer to God (instead of making your problems stand between you and God).
Ø you can be yourself and be true to God—it’s okay to air to Him your emotions, sentiments, questions. (Psalm 22 and Psalm 55)
Ø don’t be afraid to ask the Lord why… but remember, they way you ask must be guided and has limitation that is set on trust in Him.
2. Too Little Positive Emotions
>the oil of gladness will bring us good health
>life is too good to be wasted on little things that won’t bring us good.
>focus on your blessings and on good things.
>acknowledge what gives you pain and pray to God for/about it.
>GRATITUDE!—always look for something to be thankful for and happy about.
>TRUST!—when you know that GOD is:
in love with you
thinks of you all the time
has great plans for you
..what can go wrong?
>the Bible has 7,000 direct promises of God and more than 30,000 indirect promises of God.
>1 Peter 5:7
- “7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
> “Devil, you pick the wrong guy, God cares for me!”
>Thank God for what you have.
>Ask God. Believe that you will have it. Feel the feeling of having it already.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
***Challenges and reminders…
change you emotions
reprogram your mind and heart
decide not to be affected by negative people, events, and things
think happy thought (healthy, wealthy, happy)… your emotions follow your mind.
you have a God bigger than your problems
“Greater is He who’s in me than who’s in the word.”
- “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.”
*Sirach 38:9-10
- “My son, when you are ill, delay not, but pray to God, who will heal you: Flee wickedness; let your hands be just, cleanse your heart of every sin;”
*The bigger the trials, the bigger the victory :-)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-What you feel, you can heal.
-Lord puts in us a fantastic system that heals (1. Our bodies have their best repairment; 2. Our bodies have the best army—the antibodies; 3. Our bodies have the best pharmacy in the world—we are able to secrete hormones for us to naturally heal.)
-7.2 M die yearly because of cancer. 85% of all diseases are rooted from negative emotions.
-Pills only relieves us temporarily from pain; but FORGIVENESS is one of the keys to feel better and avoid negative emotions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2 ways to get sick (things to avoid):
Too much negative emotions
Too little positive emotions
1. Too Much Negative Emotions
Stress and sickness are related.
>type A personality are prone to heart disease. (controlling, competitive, always rushing, etc.)
>enjoy life; slow down; trust God
>most heart attacks happen on Mondays
Anger and sickness are related
> other people find it hard to forgive
>people who easily get mad have higher death rate (6x) than those who are not (taken from the hostility test taken among doctors)
How to deal with stress:
Ø you cannot pretend that they’re not there… don’t run away from your negative emotions. You can’t escape from them. If you’ll avoid them, one day you’ll be numbed, and they’re still there becoming worse and manifesting in your body.
Ø feel you negative feelings before the Lord and come to Him…pray to Him. Let your problems press you closer to God (instead of making your problems stand between you and God).
Ø you can be yourself and be true to God—it’s okay to air to Him your emotions, sentiments, questions. (Psalm 22 and Psalm 55)
Ø don’t be afraid to ask the Lord why… but remember, they way you ask must be guided and has limitation that is set on trust in Him.
2. Too Little Positive Emotions
>the oil of gladness will bring us good health
>life is too good to be wasted on little things that won’t bring us good.
>focus on your blessings and on good things.
>acknowledge what gives you pain and pray to God for/about it.
>GRATITUDE!—always look for something to be thankful for and happy about.
>TRUST!—when you know that GOD is:
in love with you
thinks of you all the time
has great plans for you
..what can go wrong?
>the Bible has 7,000 direct promises of God and more than 30,000 indirect promises of God.
>1 Peter 5:7
- “7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
> “Devil, you pick the wrong guy, God cares for me!”
>Thank God for what you have.
>Ask God. Believe that you will have it. Feel the feeling of having it already.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
***Challenges and reminders…
change you emotions
reprogram your mind and heart
decide not to be affected by negative people, events, and things
think happy thought (healthy, wealthy, happy)… your emotions follow your mind.
you have a God bigger than your problems
“Greater is He who’s in me than who’s in the word.”
The Feast: Six Steps to Optimal Health: 1. Awaken the Healer In You
*You will be healed because God loves you
*The Bible contains all the nice, right, and good things and the truth.
Journey to a healthy you…
-It’s not about gaining or losing weight; it’s about being healthy
-Read 3 John 1:2
-God is concerned about your health
-God is practical God—you don’t have to do complicated things just to be healed…
-Go away from stressful thoughts, temptations, and spiritual, emotional, & chemical toxins before you get sick; or decide to quit while you’re ahead
-Have a simple faith—God loves you very much and He will do something great for you. Just hold fast unto your prayers and live your faith
-God has given you THE POWER TO HEAL YOURSELF
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our bodies are designed to heal itself:
1.) Our bodies have their best repairment—it’s in our system.
>remember your wounds when you were still kids… other don’t even leave a scar on our skin because your body has repaired the tissues even without the help of some medicines
2.) Our bodies have the best army—the antibodies.
>chemo kills even the good cells in once’s body. But the antibodies only kills the bad matters in our system.
>what weakens the healers in us are the toxins that we take and the negative thoughts in our minds.
>Read Mark 2:3-5
>the wages of sin is death… sin is connected to disease (when you destroy the
temple of God, bad feelings or thoughts against other people)
>the state of the heart is always connected to our physical conditions
3.) Our bodies have the best pharmacy in the world—we are able to secrete hormones for us to naturally heal.
>”placebo effect” => we become healed because we hold a mindset and a strong belief that we will be healed through that certain pill, which actually has no medicinal effect.
>our bodies can manufacture anti-cancer cells
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-When you’re praying with profound peace, you feel the strongest
-Laughing (endorphins) heals the body
-“Don’t be moved by all that you see, hear, read… be moved by what you believe in.”
-If you’re walking in Christ, you’ll see miracles happen
-Quantum Physics: our body is like a flowing stream of energy; when something is wrong, the flow of energy is hampered.
Quantum Physicists discovered that:
our brain is renewed/ changed in 1 year
liver is renewed/ changed in 3 weeks
skeleton is renewed/ changed in 3 months
stomach lining is renewed/ changed in 3 weeks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-Your body is the expression of your soul—if your soul/mind won’t change, your body (physical condition) won’t
-95% of our thoughts yesterday are being carried over today; if we will change the way we think today, tomorrow our thoughts will change 95%
-If your thoughts change, so do your expectations (eg: I know I will be healed and God will grant my prayers because He loves me… then you will expect that you will live a life full of vigor as you enjoy good health
-Are you expecting to be healed or to be sick?
-Our bodies manifest our beliefs
-Love life! don’t expect sickness
-The preacher’s lolo who died in his 90’s once said, after many times of being sent to ICU, “You cannot put a good man down. Kaya gusto ko pang mabuhay kasi alam kong mahal niyo ako.”
-GROW OLD STRONG AND BLESSED! Grow old a hundred, with a body of a year-old healthy man.
-Pray that we may all journey towards good health so we can serve the Lord longer and enjoy His blessings more with our loved ones.
-You have the authority to cast out evil
-If you will pray, God will answer.
-Expect healing and do it in faith
-God has put in your body something that will heal you—best repairment, best army, best pharmacy.
-God gives you the ability to dream and fulfill them
-GOD WILL DO SOMETHING GREAT FOR YOU BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU!
*The Bible contains all the nice, right, and good things and the truth.
Journey to a healthy you…
-It’s not about gaining or losing weight; it’s about being healthy
-Read 3 John 1:2
-God is concerned about your health
-God is practical God—you don’t have to do complicated things just to be healed…
-Go away from stressful thoughts, temptations, and spiritual, emotional, & chemical toxins before you get sick; or decide to quit while you’re ahead
-Have a simple faith—God loves you very much and He will do something great for you. Just hold fast unto your prayers and live your faith
-God has given you THE POWER TO HEAL YOURSELF
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our bodies are designed to heal itself:
1.) Our bodies have their best repairment—it’s in our system.
>remember your wounds when you were still kids… other don’t even leave a scar on our skin because your body has repaired the tissues even without the help of some medicines
2.) Our bodies have the best army—the antibodies.
>chemo kills even the good cells in once’s body. But the antibodies only kills the bad matters in our system.
>what weakens the healers in us are the toxins that we take and the negative thoughts in our minds.
>Read Mark 2:3-5
>the wages of sin is death… sin is connected to disease (when you destroy the
temple of God, bad feelings or thoughts against other people)
>the state of the heart is always connected to our physical conditions
3.) Our bodies have the best pharmacy in the world—we are able to secrete hormones for us to naturally heal.
>”placebo effect” => we become healed because we hold a mindset and a strong belief that we will be healed through that certain pill, which actually has no medicinal effect.
>our bodies can manufacture anti-cancer cells
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-When you’re praying with profound peace, you feel the strongest
-Laughing (endorphins) heals the body
-“Don’t be moved by all that you see, hear, read… be moved by what you believe in.”
-If you’re walking in Christ, you’ll see miracles happen
-Quantum Physics: our body is like a flowing stream of energy; when something is wrong, the flow of energy is hampered.
Quantum Physicists discovered that:
our brain is renewed/ changed in 1 year
liver is renewed/ changed in 3 weeks
skeleton is renewed/ changed in 3 months
stomach lining is renewed/ changed in 3 weeks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-Your body is the expression of your soul—if your soul/mind won’t change, your body (physical condition) won’t
-95% of our thoughts yesterday are being carried over today; if we will change the way we think today, tomorrow our thoughts will change 95%
-If your thoughts change, so do your expectations (eg: I know I will be healed and God will grant my prayers because He loves me… then you will expect that you will live a life full of vigor as you enjoy good health
-Are you expecting to be healed or to be sick?
-Our bodies manifest our beliefs
-Love life! don’t expect sickness
-The preacher’s lolo who died in his 90’s once said, after many times of being sent to ICU, “You cannot put a good man down. Kaya gusto ko pang mabuhay kasi alam kong mahal niyo ako.”
-GROW OLD STRONG AND BLESSED! Grow old a hundred, with a body of a year-old healthy man.
-Pray that we may all journey towards good health so we can serve the Lord longer and enjoy His blessings more with our loved ones.
-You have the authority to cast out evil
-If you will pray, God will answer.
-Expect healing and do it in faith
-God has put in your body something that will heal you—best repairment, best army, best pharmacy.
-God gives you the ability to dream and fulfill them
-GOD WILL DO SOMETHING GREAT FOR YOU BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU!
Soul Feeding
“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.” - Bernice Johnson Reagon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)