Good Advice

A long time ago in Germany, a man kept a diary. And some of his words are worth sharing today.

The man wrote: “Speak both to the powerful and to every man—whoever he may be—appropriately and without affectation. Use plain language. Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance, and be ready to let it go. Order your life well in every single act. Behave justly to those who are around you. Be vigilant over your thoughts, so that nothing should steal into them without being well examined.”

“Every moment, focus steadily on doing the task at hand with perfect and simple dignity, and with feelings of affection and freedom and justice. Put away hypocrisy. Put away self-love and discontent with your portion in life. We were made for cooperation, and to act against one another is contrary to nature. Accept correction gladly. Teach without anger. Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, a friend of justice, kind, affectionate, and strenuous in all proper acts.”

“Take care never to feel toward those who are inhuman, the way they feel toward other men.”

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We've Become Sheep

When Christian spirituality declines a vacuum is created and the devil enters.  Dr. Peter Kreeft states:

“Well, in Western civilization, at least, there is certainly a moral and religious decline…we’re losing the faith. Europe is already almost lost,” he said. “Nature abhors a vacuum, spiritually as well as physically. So when the Faith weakens, another faith enters, because no one can live without faith, and Islam is a very strong faith. It has its good points; it has its bad points. But when we withdraw from the battlefield, someone else enters. It’s as simple as that.”

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Accept God's Consolation

Sometimes we are afraid to approach God when we suffer.  We become too comfortable in our misery and do not accept the tenderness of the Lord.

The Holy Father recently broached the issue,
“Sometimes I've seen consecrated people who are afraid of God's consolation. Poor men, poor women, they are consumed with sorrow, because they fear God's tenderness. But don't be afraid! Don't be afraid, the Lord is the Lord of consolation, the Lord of tenderness. God is our Father and He says he will behave with us like a mother with her child, with tenderness. Never be afraid of God's consolation!”

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Consecration

Consecration (solemnly commitment or dedication to God) is powerful in battling evil and suffering.  In recent decades the Church has been embroiled is serious sin by some of her members.  As a result the Holy Father went on to consecrate Vatican City State to St. Michael “asking him to defend us against evil and to banish it.”   

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Conscience

Disregarding conscience causes unneeded pain and suffering.  

According to pope Francis we must learn to listen more to our conscience. Be careful, however: this does not mean we ought to follow our ego, do whatever interests us, whatever suits us, whatever pleases us. That is not conscience. Conscience is the interior space in which we can listen to and hear the truth, the good, the voice of God. It is the inner place of our relationship with Him, who speaks to our heart and helps us to discern, to understand the path we ought to take, and once the decision is made, to move forward, to remain faithful.

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