I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Mind
Looking back at the month of July through the eyes of grace
So looking back at this month, using St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Examen as a guide, I ask myself and ask you to ask yourself:
For what am I/are you least grateful this past month?
For what am I/are you most grateful this past month?
Least grateful
Body: Earlier this month, a button on my shirt popped off and then later this month, only this past week, in fact, I noticed a hole in a pair of shorts in, as my wife calls it, “the crotchal region.” I’m thinking it’s time to lay off the roast beef sandwiches, ice cream and root beer at the local eating establishment, plus The Soda. Like The Boob Tube, it will kill you. 
Oh, it might be time to exercise again and actually walk to work instead of driving. With my wife currently unemployed, it’s been easy for me to drive our car places instead of walking. Time for that to change.
Mind: While I’ve read quite a number of books this month, I’ve also spent too much time not reading when I could have, playing games on Facebook (with which there is nothing wrong intrinsically, but with which I feel I need to curb to be more productive than I have been: not only with reading, but also with writing).
Soul: As I approach my first year as an oblate of Mt. Savior Monastery, I realize I haven’t been that faithful in what is supposed to be my daily readings of the Liturgy of the Hours. This past month, in particular, I have been extremely lax and quick to find an excuse not to “do” the Liturgy.
Most grateful
Body: On the positive side, I didn’t gain 100 pounds. I might have gained 20 additional pounds, but not 100. Woo hoo!
Mind: This month as mentioned earlier has been a productive month in terms of reading, I’ve read 11 (technically 12 with one of those books being a combination of two books) books so far this month. The lists can be found either on my listography list of 2010 books read, No. 28 through No. 38 or my Goodreads 2010 read list. By tonight, I should have finished Don’t Ask, another Dortmunder novel, by Donald E. Westlake and most likely will finish at least one more novel before the month is complete, as I picked up a few more books at the library today (more on that in another post, probably on Sunday, as I look ahead to the new month of reading in August). I also plan on taking back a few in my pile, to which I most likely won’t get (shock of shocks, they’re nonfiction).
Soul: Not to pat my own back or anything (okay, maybe just a little) but while I might not have kept up with daily reading of the Liturgy of the Hours, I have kept up with corporal works of mercy. I volunteer at a senior center in our town and I continue to do that, and in my paid work at the library, I try to show compassion and bring good cheer to patrons. I won’t say that I’m perfect in acting merciful all the time, as I have lost my patience a couple of times with people at the library and get frustrated sometimes with other volunteers at the senior center, but I do my best to show mercy and compassion to those at both places. Now if only I can show the same mercy and compassion to my wife at home in the next month, I’ll be doing well.
So for what are you least/most grateful this past month?
Oh, two other things for which I’m grateful this past month: these two movies, which were awesome:
Posted in Body, Books, Flashback Friday, Mind, Soul
Tagged Body, Books, Flashback Friday, Mind, Soul, St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Examen
Still struggling, but continuing to fight the good fight
So looking back at this week, through the prism of the Sleeping with Bread meme, I ask myself and ask you to ask yourself:
For what am I/are you most grateful this past week?
For what am I/are you least grateful this past week?
For what am I most grateful this past week?
1. Body: Continuing with giving up candy bars for Lenten, even after being sorely tempted (yea, sorely tempted) by peanut butter eggs at counters at stores. I love peanut butter and chocolate.
2. Mind: Starting to read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and finishing Smoke: The Disappearing Novel by Donald E. Westlake and Tears of The Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith, the second in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.
3. Soul: Putting in an application to be a volunteer at our local senior center. I had seen an item in our church bulletin requesting volunteers for several months, but thought that it had been kept in by mistake. Finally, this past week, I called and filled out an application yesterday. Mostly, it involves helping out with lunches at the center a few days a week.
For what am I least grateful this past week?
1. Body: Still struggling with getting up earlier each morning so I have more time to run/walk, but on the positive side, I have stopped playing a few Facebook games that keep me up at night. So that ought to see fruit here in the near future.
2. Mind: Still struggling with selecting assignments at a freelance writing site. Perhaps it’s that the site gives you topics on which to write, which seems to limit my creativity. I like to think that’s what it is. It’s also that the site pays a minimal amount for most articles and I don’t know if I can sell myself that cheap. On the flip side, I’m earning nothing extra otherwise and we need the extra income from what little I make as a newspaper correspondent and a library worker. Perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere, but where?
3. Soul: Missing a couple of days of praying the Liturgy of the Hours, especially Morning and especially during this Holy Week.
So for what are you most grateful and least grateful this week?
This is how I felt after this past week:
But this is what I will continue to do:
Maybe it’s only appropriate with it being Holy Week.
Posted in Books, Flashback Friday
Tagged Body, Mind, Sleeping with Bread, Soul, The Examen
Pausing before I reverse direction again
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us…
Hebrews 12:1
When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.
From the book On The Holy Spirit by Saint Basil, bishop
In today’s Scripture and reading in The Office of the Readings in The Liturgy of the Hours, these two sections spoke to me once again on the subject of running and life as it did when I wrote on these two sections last year.
In fact, what I said in that post then:
As a runner, I have not been persevering in running the race that lies before me. In fact, I haven’t been even running and barely walking. I’ve been ignoring that first part: “let us rid ourselves of every burden…” My burden: being a night owl and not getting up early in the morning to run. I get addicted to Facebook and Twitter, which I gave up for Lent, but then substitute them with another application called blip.fm (I will not provide the link lest you get trapped too, I say half-jokingly) and am up until all hours of the night…
still applies now, to some degree. Even though I didn’t give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent this year, I still am burdened by my proclivity toward being a night owl and letting myself get distracted by games on Facebook. I’ve just traded Mafia Wars for Bejeweled Blitz and still surf on blip, to no end.
So two seconds ago, I just deleted my blip account, and as of this moment, I also have removed the Bejeweled Blitz application and another game, which I just have started to play. Last week, I wrote about Increasing The Time I Am Living My Own Life and mentioned a couple of quotes from the late George Sheehan in that regards, including this:
“We cannot add a new activity to our life without taking something else out.”
He also went on to explain that it isn’t easy to decide what is to be thrown out, because often we have to decide between good things, not good and bad. Such is the case here. It’s not as I’ve mentioned in the past that I think Facebook games (or applications like blip for that matter) are intrinsically evil. It’s that I need to make room for running, for writing (both for myself personally and also for my job as a freelance writer) and for reading.
I will end this post as I ended last year’s post:
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.
Hebrews 12:11-13
It’s time to pause, then keep on moving and keep the faith.
