Rule 1: No complicated answers.

So, what do you do when you are asked a question about something that is really important to you, but you have no idea how to answer it?

Well, if you are me, you might bumble around spurting out stupid things, hoping that the other person will grab on to something you can explain... until you realize that you are just shooting yourself in the foot, so then you just shut up.

This happened to me recently.

The question was something to the effect of: "Why pray, when you can spend the same amount of time doing something practical?"

Basically: contemplative nun vs normal person.

In other words, do cloistered nuns have a place in today's society? If one must be a nun, why not be a religious nurse, or teacher, or something that requires physical/visible contributions to society?

Well... I can pull out my Bible, my Catechism, Church Fathers, Lives of the Saints and repeat the traditions of 2,000 years + some. However, this would only be helpful if I were talking to someone who believed in the power of prayer. But when someone doesn't have the same founding premises as I do, what can I say? And how can I prove the benefits of a life dedicated to prayer naturally, from purely a philosophical/natural level? And simply?

This person is a blessing in my life, because he helps me get rid of the fluff. In talking to him there is a rule:

Rule 1: No complicated answers.

Ok. So here is my non-complicated answer... I hope:

       • For a society to excel, the people must be virtuous. (Read Aristotle's Ethics & Politics, Aquinas' On Kingship, De Toqueville's Democracy in America.)

       • Virtuous people (i.e., the happy people) are focused on the greater good. (Aristole, Plato, Scriptures, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, experience, etc.,.)

       • Virtuous people become closer to perfection by continually striving to be better. These heroes are civil servants, volunteers, who do good things because they are good. "No greater love than giving up a life for a friend." They live to serve.

       • Holy nuns live to serve. Some serve as nurses, etc.,. however, even as contemplatives, they view themselves as raising up humanity. They dedicate their whole life to contributing to the greatest good: valuing every person and helping every individual to heal from his/her own brokeness, or in their language, sinfulness. They do this by offering up prayers and supplications.

      • Now say there is no God; and/or say their prayers don't really do all that they believe. Are their lives a waste?

       No. They offer hope. They offer a place of peace. They are real examples of total self sacrifice, a virtue that even Hollywood tries to capture. Millions of people over centuries and even at this moment flock to places dedicated to prayer and healing, because at some point, all persons seek release from suffering.

        Contemplatives offer real solutions: they live redemptive suffering (using suffering for good) and teach others how to do the same. Thus, they inspire others to be first class citizens, to walk the better, though harder road. They, by their own lives of prayer, learn how to rely not on events or persons to make them happy, but to find happiness in what cannot be taken away. In this, they are grounded and centered. This centeredness is very attractive to "normal" persons, who try to find this in everyday ways, such as in yoga. (Every culture has some form of persons specifically assigned to contemplation.)

         AND even, if they have no contact with "normal" persons, they can be happy with themselves because they are living for a cause and entirely dedicating themselves to it.

        • Now say there is God; and say their prayers really do all that they believe.

         :-) Wouldn't you say they have the most noble life?

          1. They strive to in every moment be focused on the will of God and conform themselves to perfection.  In their seclusion and prayer focused life, they limit the distractions that the more "practical" secular life offers.

         2. They are spending their lives in serving others, and not just anybody. They serve complete strangers and often the rejected, lonely, sick, and the hated.

         3. The hope and peace that they offer others is greatly magnified because they have a unique connection with God, who is the Author of healing, joy and peace. Miracles through their intercession are possible and are more valuable than anything science can offer.

Need You Now - Plumb

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE - Day 7

Prayer against sloth:

O Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Love, who in the garden didst pray so long so fervently that Thy Sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground: put away from us, we beseech Thee, all sloth and inactivity both of body and mind; kindle within us the fire of Thy love; strengthen our weakness, that whatsoever our hand is able to do we may do it earnestly, and that, striving heartily to please Thee in this life, we may have Thee hereafter as our rewarding exceeding great. Amen.

Novena To Saint Francis De Sales

Today is the feast of St. Francis De Sales.

Here is a beautiful novena I found:

O Blessed Francis de Sales, 
who in your mortal life did excel in all virtues, 
especially in love of God and of neighbor, 
I earnestly entreat you to take me under your immediate protection, 
to obtain from God my perfect conversion, 
and that of all sinners, especially of 

(the names of persons for whom you wish to pray should be mentioned here). 

Teach me, O Father, 
to fix my eyes on heaven, 
that I may generously trample under foot 
every obstacle that presents itself in my way, 
and attain that degree of glory 
which You in Your mercy hold out to me. 
Obtain also that particular favor for which I now pray. 

(mention intention)

Assist us, O Lord, we beseech You, 
through the merits of St. Francis de Sales. 
That what our endeavors cannot obtain may be given us by his intercession. 

Let us pray: 

O God, who for the salvation of souls, 
did will that St. Francis de Sales, 
Your confessor and bishop, 
should become all things to all men and women, 
mercifully grant that we, 
infused with the gentleness of his charity, 
guided by his teachings, 
and sharing in his merits, 
may obtain eternal happiness. 
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

SLOTH vs. DILIGENCE - Day 6

"The Servant of Charity must go to bed each night so tired from work that he will think he has been beaten." St. Louis Guanella

If You Don't Want to Change the Way You Think...

than do not listen to this!

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE - Day 5

http://www.catholicbook.com/AgredaCD/MyCatholicFaith/mcfc045.htm

What virtues are opposed to sloth?

The virtues of diligence and zeal are opposed to sloth.

From the days of Adam work has been an obligation for man. 

God said to Adam: "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, until thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken" (Gen. 3:19)

"If any man will not work, neither let him eat." (2 Thess. 3:10). 

Jesus Christ worked all His life, and chose working people to be His Mother and foster-father. 

What is dilegence?

Diligence in labor is a shield against temptation; thieves do not break into a house full of busy people.

What is zeal?

Zeal is fervor for our salvation and for that of others, out of love of God. It manifests itself in the propagation of the faith, the sanctification of souls, and making God better known.

The zealous man talks to God as often as he can in prayer; he does not forget his religious duties. He loses no opportunity in doing good works, and cheerfully makes sacrifices for the love of God. All his works and sufferings he offers to God, for his own salvation as well as for that of others. He works hard, remembering that "The kingdom of heaven has been enduring violent assault, and the violent have been seizing it by force" (Matt. 11: 12).

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE - Day 4

Two Parables & One Prophecy (Matthew 25)

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise replied, ‘Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he replied, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

¹⁴ “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; ¹⁵ to one he gave five talents,to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more.¹⁷ So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸ But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.¹⁹ Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ ²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²² And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ ²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’

³¹ “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,³³ and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? ³⁸ And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?³⁹ And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ ⁴⁶ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE - Day 3

Dorothy Sayers describes sloth as “a sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” 

What a sad, sad, existence. 

The following article claims that sloth can be tolerance and it can be hidden by purposeless activeness:  http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=32656

We are given an allotted amount of time, what are we doing with it? 

How many hours a week do we spend watching tv, day dreaming, doing purposeless tasks, counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until we can do something else?

How much time do we spend with God?

He will ask for an account of our lives: what did we live for?

SLOTH VS DILIGENCE - DAY 2

Lazy people should learn a lesson from the way ants live. They have no leader, chief, or ruler, but they store up their food during the summer, getting things ready for winter. How long is the lazy man going to lie around? When is he ever going to get up? "I'll just take a short nap," he says; "I'll fold my hands and rest awhile." But when he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber. - Proverbs 6:6-11

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE

Grrr... one of my email accounts got hacked into over the weekend. It is stressful for me to try to minimize the damage.  I am also frustrated with all the time and energy that needs to be spent in re-securing my identity.  Without this invasion, I could be doing more things that are actually on my to do list, such as finishing my Devote Life Series.

However, this experience has provided me with two benefits:

1) It has given me immediate motivation to organize and minimize everything I have online.
2) It gives me an opportunity to extend mercy to the perpetrator via praying for his/her/their conversion/s. "Forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those tresspasses against us" (Before you continue, I invite you to offer up a Glory Be or other preferred prayer for whoever did this.)

... thank you for your prayer.

When I get angry, it is easy for me to feel justified in remaining in my anger. Something unfair was done to me after all!!! However, I am learning more and more that anger just makes the bad situation last longer. Are these frustrating moments going to effect me two years from now? No.  So I am not going to spend another second more on a situation now out of my hands. Instead, I am going to consider sloth and it's virtue.

SLOTH:

Sloth is a sin associated with laziness.  It is apathy for both physical and spiritual duties.

Sloth is "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds." (2,35, ad 1) - St. Thomas Aquinas

What is it's corresponding virtue?  Diligence. 

"Diligence seems to be the same as solicitude*, because the more we love[diligimus] a thing the more solicitous are we about it. Hence diligence, no less than solicitude, is required for every virtue, in so far as due acts of reason are requisite for every virtue." (1,54, ad 1) - St. Thomas Aquinas

*Solicitude is an attitude expressing excessive attentiveness: to show great solicitude about his wife's health. 

January is a great time to learn (and keep) the habit of diligence as every one seems to be focused on it to some level -- New Year's resolutions and all.

Since St.Thomas believes that it is easier to be attentive to the things we love, I am trying a new approach to tackling laziness this year. If say, I want to shed some pounds, instead of scheduling exercise times for the sake of exercising, I will instead find an activity or a goal that will require me to meet the desired level of activity.  It will be a subplot to the story of my life.

Try turning your resolutions into stories too! How? 

Take five and pray. Ask God to inspire you.  Then write down the main goals you want to accomplish before 2014. Then rewrite the goals as individual events/stories:

1st draft:  I will lose weight.

vs.

2nd draft: I will run in a marathon on (date) to raise money for (cause) that will benefit (person I know).

Because your goal is now a subplot in your life, it is easier to avoid the temptations of laziness, and it gives you a purpose beyond a mere item on an overwhelming list. 

Recipe for Inspiration (Repost)

I think this is a very inspirational story. I hope you enjoy it as well. May God bless you in this new year: (reposted from: http://www.rdasia.com/recipe-for-inspiration)

Maricel Apatan, 22, stands in the kitchen of the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Manila, preparing to decorate a cheesecake. It would seem to be a routine task for a pastry chef, but Maricel is no ordinary chef – she has no hands.

Her disability, however, barely slows her down. Using her wrists, Maricel coats the sides of the cake with crushed nuts. Next, she grips a chef’s knife tightly between her hip and left inner elbow and uses her left wrist to delicately slice grapes, kiwi and strawberries in half. In short order, she arranges the fruit on the cake, adds blueberry filling, and sets an elegant chocolate curl on top.

“When I first saw Maricel, I was worried she might hurt herself when using a chef’s knife but that has never been a problem,” says Sous Chef Ariel Reyes, Maricel’s manager. “She does not get special treatment and works just as hard as the rest of the chefs.”

Maricel has come a long way since the day in September 2000 when she and her uncle were attacked near their farm in a remote area of Zamboanga City, Mindanao. Five machete-wielding men, who were trying to force Maricel’s family off their land, brutally hacked into her uncle, then turned on 11-year-old Maricel. She passed out as she tried to protect herself from the savage blows.

After she came to, Maricel pretended to be dead until she was sure the attackers were gone. As she staggered home, she looked down to see her hands dangling loosely on threads of bloodied flesh. Miraculously, she survived a long, arduous trip to the hospital, but doctors could not save her hands. Her uncle also survived the attack and eventually they testified against two of their attackers, who are serving life sentences.

Despite financial help from Catholic Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, a distant relative, Maricel struggled to cope with her disability. “I was totally dependent on my mother,” she recalls. She returned to school, but teasing by classmates often left her in tears.

In 2004, Archbishop Ledesma arranged for Maricel to live in the House with No Steps, a Manila rehabilitation and training centre for people with disabilities. She learned how to write and do chores and, more importantly, came to terms with her disability. “Trusting in God, I became more determined to strive to have a normal life. I believed I had an important mission in life because I survived the attack.”

Maricel eventually graduated from high school and enrolled in a two-year Hotel and Restaurant Management course in Cagayan de Oro City. “I have really enjoyed cooking since I was seven years old.”

Thanks in large part to her parents’ unwavering support, Maricel flourished even though she was the only disabled student in the course. “I wasn’t shy or intimidated to sign up for class competitions like cake decorating.”

After Maricel moved back to Manila to continue her studies, the media started reporting on this indomitable young woman. She didn’t shy away from the attention. “I wanted others living with disabilities to believe it’s possible to live a normal life,” Maricel says.

When managers at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel saw Maricel on television, they hired her as part of the hotel’s Care for People project. Fellow chef Aljamil Borja marvels at Maricel’s skills. “She asks for assistance only if she needs to move a hot kettle or large saucepan from the stove, or open slippery bottle caps,” says Aljamil.

Maricel has also accomplished her goal of inspiring others. One of them is Ronelyn Calumpiano, a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy. Confined to a wheelchair, she rarely left her Manila home and had never attended school. Then she saw Maricel on television. “I watched her demonstrate how to prepare vegetables for a salad with so much confidence,” she recalls. Ronelyn, who now lives at the House with No Steps and will soon start classes, is already planning a career in IT.

Maricel’s three younger siblings have moved to Manila. She pays for the rent of their small apartment, while their parents look after the family farm in Mindanao. “It is difficult to make ends meet but I don’t lose hope. I believe anything is possible if you dream, work hard and pray.”