That is my favorite new motto, which came to me yesterday during Mass. It seems odd that this would come to me during a community prayer meet, but such is life. You just never know where or when you will be inspired.
God loves when we come together in a communal celebration of worship and thank Him for all the good things in life. Many times our community is what sustains us. You can see that phenomenon often after tragedy strikes or even daily by the donated food that lines the pantries across our nation. Yesterday we had one of our visiting priests, who used to be a part of our community, get up and thank us for our past support of his parish in Nigeria. It was our community that provided the funds for his parish to build their own place of worship. This is the second church that we have built in Nigeria and both were done so through our financial support. We have also built a school, in the last few years, and provided the books and computers and other items necessary for a good education in today's world. That is certainly the beautiful side of humanity and is the definition of living externally. It is giving to others what you have of your excess, or better yet, doing without so that you can enhance someone else's life. A sacrifice is the most beautiful act that you can do for another and so much more rewarding. You do not have to build schools and churches in a far off country to live externally; there are things much closer to home that you can do. It is as simple as acknowledging your neighbor.
After all, it is the simple things that mean so much, a smile, a gesture, a friendly touch...
Get out of your own head and small little world and treat others the way that you want to be treated. Hold the door for the next person coming out behind you; take your neighbor's garbage can in; be kind to cashiers and the others in line; lay off the horn ~ that will not make traffic move quicker. For God's sake SMILE. It's true, a smile does not cost you anything. It can, however, be priceless for the one receiving it as well. You cannot change the world, but, you can change the way that you interact with all of the people in it, particularly those that come in contact with you. You don't live in a bubble, therefore, what you do does have an affect on people. Make it a positive one.
BTW, keep your good actions to yourself for your good acts are between you and God and nobody else.
As for praying internally, well I'll leave that part of my motto to the big guns. Nobody said it better than Our Lord in Matthew 6:5-15:
God loves when we come together in a communal celebration of worship and thank Him for all the good things in life. Many times our community is what sustains us. You can see that phenomenon often after tragedy strikes or even daily by the donated food that lines the pantries across our nation. Yesterday we had one of our visiting priests, who used to be a part of our community, get up and thank us for our past support of his parish in Nigeria. It was our community that provided the funds for his parish to build their own place of worship. This is the second church that we have built in Nigeria and both were done so through our financial support. We have also built a school, in the last few years, and provided the books and computers and other items necessary for a good education in today's world. That is certainly the beautiful side of humanity and is the definition of living externally. It is giving to others what you have of your excess, or better yet, doing without so that you can enhance someone else's life. A sacrifice is the most beautiful act that you can do for another and so much more rewarding. You do not have to build schools and churches in a far off country to live externally; there are things much closer to home that you can do. It is as simple as acknowledging your neighbor.
After all, it is the simple things that mean so much, a smile, a gesture, a friendly touch...
Get out of your own head and small little world and treat others the way that you want to be treated. Hold the door for the next person coming out behind you; take your neighbor's garbage can in; be kind to cashiers and the others in line; lay off the horn ~ that will not make traffic move quicker. For God's sake SMILE. It's true, a smile does not cost you anything. It can, however, be priceless for the one receiving it as well. You cannot change the world, but, you can change the way that you interact with all of the people in it, particularly those that come in contact with you. You don't live in a bubble, therefore, what you do does have an affect on people. Make it a positive one.
BTW, keep your good actions to yourself for your good acts are between you and God and nobody else.
As for praying internally, well I'll leave that part of my motto to the big guns. Nobody said it better than Our Lord in Matthew 6:5-15:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."
Have a blessed week. Peace,
Mare
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