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.”

Your Life Story - What Does It Say About You?

I just saw Les Miserables in the theaters. Shamefully, I have never read the book nor was I very familiar with the content. Entering with no bias, I walked out satisfied and inspired. 

Coupled with this short clip, 

and the advent of New Years, I have decided that I must do better. 

In Les Miserables each character was unique in his/her individual purpose, but none was devoid of suffering. In sorting through the sadness and injustices of life, each life became more defined by choices made in moments of desperation, love, hate, purposeless, and mercy. Each longed for something external to his/herself and gave oneself entirely to it.

It moved me to ponder what it is that I have dedicated my life to? What is it that I serve? Am I serving it well? What truth do I seek? And in loving others do I see the face of God?

My now and my tomorrow resolution is to do better on two accounts: 1) To treat every person in my presence as the most important person.This will require patience and much charity. 2) To learn how to recognize God everywhere and learn how to consciously untie all my moments with Him; now is all I have. If I don't give Him my nows, when will I ever? This will require silence.

My life is a story that God has put into motion according to His Goodness and Mercy. Do I freely chose to partake in it well or do I rebel? Will I hear those coveted words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant"?

The Most Important Person Is...

“Remember that there is only one important time and it is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.” -- Leo Tolstoy

Don't forget the Reason for the season