Thoughts on hope

A person with hope does not get tangled up with concerns for how his wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, his prayer is not directed toward the gift, but toward the one who gives it. His prayer might still contain just as many desires, but ultimately it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith is the giver of all good things....For the prayer of hope it is essential that there are no guarantees asked, no conditions posed, and no proofs demanded, only that you expect everything from the other without binding him. Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the other to make his loving promise come true, even though you never know when, where or how this might happen.

Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on work

Our God is a God of purpose. He's a God of purpose. He does things on purpose, with purpose, for purpose. And there are a lot of people who think that, “Oh, we have to work, you know, because Adam and Eve messed things up in the garden.” Not so.
If you pick up your Bible, and you open up Genesis, what you'll read is that, long before the fall, God put Adam in the garden. And what did he put him in the garden to do? He put him in the garden to turn and till the soil. He put him in the garden to work.
We need work. Work is important to us. We need something to do. And the reason is because work is part of God's original design for humanity, not a result of the fall—not a result of Adam and Eve messing up in the garden so we've all got to go to work every day. No. It's part of God's original, purposeful, intentional design for the human experience.
So what's the purpose of work? What's the meaning of work? The purpose of work is that when we work well, when we work hard, when we pay attention to the details of our work, we become a-better-version-of-ourselves. And it's like you can almost feel it happening.
We live in a culture that says the meaning of work is to make money. Absolutely wrong. Do we need money? Yes. Do we need to pay our bills? Absolutely. Does that need to be part of the consideration when we take a job? No question. But it is not the primary purpose of work. It's a secondary outcome of work. The primary purpose of work is that when we work hard, when we apply ourselves to our work, when we pay attention to the details of our work, we actually become better human beings. We become more perfectly ourselves. We become a-better-version-of-ourselves. We take a step closer to the-best-version-of-ourselves. We grow in virtue, we grow in character.
We live in a culture where work's got a bad reputation: “Oh, I've gotta go to work.” No. We get to go to work. We get to go to work. And work plays a very important role in the development of the human being.

Matthew Kelly

Thoughts on greatness

There is much emphasis on notoriety and fame in our society. Our newspapers and television keep giving us the message: What counts is to be known, praised, and admired, whether you are a writer, an actor, a musician, or a politician.

Still, real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility. Some of the greatest works of art and the most important works of peace were created by people who had no need for the limelight. They knew that what they were doing was their call, and they did it with great patience, perseverance, and love.

 

Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on happiness

People are obsessed with happiness. People are obsessed with being happy. There's a reason, a really good reason. The reason is because God created us for happiness. God created us for happiness. He created you to be happy. God wants you to be happy. It's the will of God that you be happy.
Now, that doesn't mean happiness all the time. And that doesn't mean euphoria all the time. And that doesn't mean that there isn't a place for suffering and sacrifice in our lives. But God created us to be reasonably happy in this life and eternally happy in the next life. It's that “reasonably happy” thing we're not that comfortable with. We don't want to be reasonably happy; we want to be euphorically happy all the time. That's why people do so many stupid things. Most of the stupid things we do, we do because we're looking for an elevated experience. Why do people become addicted to drugs? They're looking for an elevated experience. They're not satisfied with being reasonably happy. They want to be euphorically happy. And of course, then they want to be euphorically happy all the time. And so they need more and more of this substance to create that false euphoric happiness and . . . and well, we know how that goes.
The other thing that I think is really important for us to remember is that, very often, we are the creators of our own unhappiness. Because the reality is, happiness is a choice. A thousand times a day we have a choice between happiness and misery. And yes, there are some things that are outside of our control, but a thousand times a day we have a choice between happiness and misery.
Are you choosing happiness, or are you choosing misery? We create unhappiness in our own lives. How are you creating unhappiness in your life at the moment?
If you are in a place where you don't like who you are and where you are . . . if you are in a place where you don't like your life . . . what do we do about that? Just do the next right thing. It's always the path that leads to happiness. Just do the next right thing. Don't worry about what you have to do tomorrow—just do the next right thing. It's amazing how quickly adopting that attitude, that approach, can change the happiness levels in our lives.

Matthew Kelly

Thoughts on social justice

Social justice is both simple and complex. Simply, it is really doing what is right, being respectful, and honoring each person as he or she is, as an image and likeness of God.

On a more complicated level, the concept of social justice has been around for nearly four hundred years. It is a philosophical construct that Pope Leo and the Catholic Church adopted from its application to workers at that time. Social justice has many parts and it’s kind of a balancing act. Participative justice is the idea of “no decision without me.” That means that if something is going to affect people all the way at the grassroots level, then people at the grassroots level need to be involved in the process. Distributive justice means that “right justice” is distributed equally across all people. Social justice is the mechanism that is used to make sure that the participation and distribution are fair and just. It is a bit of a misnomer to say that social justice is an entity in and of itself. It is actually the term that is used to identify a result, which is everybody participating in the life conditions that affect them, and everybody receiving the goods that make their life conditions meaningful and purposeful.

It is a concept, similar to the common good. Everybody has what they need to have a meaningful and purposeful life, both at the system level and across all the sectors of a culture.

 

 Carol Zinn, a Sister of St. Joseph from Chestnut Hill, outside Philadelphia, is a member of CMMB’s board of directors. Sister Carol has taught at all levels, from pre-kindergarten through post-graduate, and has worked in educational leadership and religious education. She has also worked with international grassroots movements as a consultant and facilitator, as well as with multi-sector and multi-issue groups to help deepen members’ understanding of global realities. 

CMMB - Catholic Medical Mission Board Inc. is an IRS Section 501 (c) (3) organization

Thoughts on following Jesus

Luke 5:27-32

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus tells Matthew, "Follow me." The call of Jesus addresses the mind, but it is meant to move through the mind into the body, and through the body into the whole of one’s life, into the most practical of moves and decisions. "Follow me" has the sense of "apprentice to me" or "walk as I walk; think as I think; choose as I choose." Discipleship entails an entire reworking of the self according to the pattern and manner of Jesus.

Upon hearing the address of the Lord, the tax collector, we are told, "got up and followed him." The Greek word behind "got up" is anastas, the same word used to describe the resurrection (anastasis) of Jesus from the dead. Following Jesus is indeed a kind of resurrection from the dead, since it involves the transition from a lower form of life to a higher, from a preoccupation with the temporary goods of this world to an immersion in the goodness of God.

Those who have undergone a profound conversion tend to speak of their former life as a kind of illusion, something not entirely real. Thus Paul can say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"; Thomas Merton can speak of the "false self" that has given way to the authentic self; and, perhaps most movingly, the father of the prodigal son can say, "This son of mine was lost and has been found; he was dead and has come back to life." 

 

Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on failure

History is unrepeatable, historians say, but it can be re-lived many times in one's memory. I like to savor my successes; my failures I'd rather forget. I'm gradually wondering, however, "How much I owe to the day that, when called to failure, my steps were constrained to go."

Blunders, mistakes and missed opportunities could then be a means of grace and great blessing if I accept them as part of my call. "Souls that conquer must at first be the souls that fail." I wish there was another way.

Through humiliation "strength is baffled," I am disabused of my illusions of grandeur and brought very low. I do not like this. There, I am learning "to meet with the lowly."[1] with my losses enabling me "to find the heart of man," i.e., to get "in touch" with others' feelings. I can surely empathize with those who have fallen; I can quickly accept and love them as no other can.

But must I let go of regret. "As long as I remain [constrained] by things that I wish had not happened-mistakes I wish I had not made-part of my heart remains isolated, unable to bear fruit in the new life ahead of me."[2] Brooding over past disasters has and will continue to intimidate me, turning me away from love; feelings of inadequacy will always isolate me, making me afraid to venture out again.

So I guess I can say that accepting my failures is simple proof that I am inadequate indeed. In the core of my being, God's strength is made perfect in this weakness with grace to turn outward to others and to do so with greater compassion, sensitivity, wisdom and understanding. Thus it logically suggests that my mistakes are redeemed and put to God's intended purpose.

Failure is not ruinous; I am called to failure and owe much to each day that I fail. The lessons that we learn there, "are worth the price of the gale."

[1] I think Matheson is thinking here of Romans 12:16 and Paul's admonition to "associate with the lowly."

[2] Henri Nouwen 

John Fischer