WHERE WILL YOU HAVE YOUR POWER LIE

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Lifted off the book - 'Good Morning... God" - (Pamela Steinke)
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UNHAPPINESS
Philippians 4:11
January 21

  "You must realize that no circumstances in life have the power to make you unhappy, it is only your attitude towards the circumstance, your failure to trust ME in that circumstance that causes unhappiness. Things or situations in themselves have no power over you. You are the one who chooses where the power lies --- whether it be in self, in circumstances, or in ME. Where will you have the power lie?"
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Where will you have the power lie?
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That's a good question, isn't it? .Many of us are so unhappy (C'mon. admit it) --- here in the silence of our souls or in the trappings of discontent that soaks up our being from top to bottom. And which many of us are not ready nor able to answer, particularly those who pride themselves to be self-contained, independent, or self-made. I have learned this that to see the answer one must lift one's gaze or shift one's focus or turn one's head away from the self. It's the 'I' 'Me' 'My' 'Mine' of things which clouds our view from seeing with clarity the answers to questions such as this.
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Let me tell you a story...
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Inday, not her real name, is my laundrywoman. She comes to the house for the weekly laundry schedule. She's a widow in her sixties, struggles to support her adopted child through school, and lives a stark simple life not very far from my place. Yet she can be so happy that she succeeds to rock the whole house with her laughter over the slightest joke she hears. In our chats, I hear no such words as ------- 'I'm so sad I could die' ... 'I'm choking to death with all of these problems' ... 'This phone sucks, I gotta buy a new one.' ... 'I have nothing to wear.' ... 'I have to have those shoes or my day is spoiled.' ... and all that stuff selfie lives are prone to engage in.
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What I hear instead are these ---
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'Sakit ng buto-buto ko pero okay lang. Kelangan ni apo mahatid sa eskuwelahan kaninang maaga.' -- 'Not feeling too well but it's okay. Took grandchild to school early this morning.'
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'Madami akong problema. Minsan di ko alam kung saan ako babaling. Pero andyan naman ang Diyos. Tutulong Siya. Siya na ang bahala.' -- 'I have tons of problems, sometimes I don't know where to turn to. But God is there, he'll help; he'll take care of things.'
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'Minsan nalulungkot din ako. Sana hindi ganito ang buhay ko. Pero kung iisipin ko, mas blessed pa ako sa iba. Kasi eto ako sisenta na at umaaray sa sakit ng mga buto-buto pero...... may konting trabaho, nakakakain ng tatlong beses sa isang araw, at nagigising pa rin sa umaga para sa panibagong sikap uli. Salamat sa Diyos!' -- 'I am lonely too. Wishing life wasn't like this for me. But I also think I am still blessed...... look at me at sixty with aching bones, yet have a little job to work at, with three meals a day, and still waking up to a new day every morning for a fresh new start to my life. Thank God!'
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Inday moved her gaze away from her personal pains and set it down on what a beautiful day and life can still be in the midst of it all. This was the source which brought the tiny glimmer to her weary eyes and laughter to her face. She stood ten-feet-tall in her wrinkled small frame as she displayed her trust and faith in the goodness of the Magnificent ONE.
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This was and is the same light and faith we saw in the faces of the crowd in the recent pastoral visit of Pope Francis in the country.
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So where will we have our power lie?
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Blessings, everyone. Seek your power in the Lord.

GENEROSITY WITHOUT A SELFIE

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Lovely post I saw this morning and gladly sharing on my page. Good words to live by.....  "Magis is generosity without a selfie."       - Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ

I pray this takes root in the hearts of many. As it thrives in the hearts of volunteers and workers and foreign friends near and far for/in the Visayas. Thank you, Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ for this blessed piece...  and to Mark Lopez for sharing.
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To quote:

Two Saturdays ago at the Richie Fernando Covered Courts, I was in a human chain with some young people whose faces were awfully familiar. We were unloading a truck of rice and we were laughing at how we struggled with the weight of those darn sacks. I couldn’t quite put names to their familiar faces, let alone remember where I had met them. 

When we had fully unloaded the truck, Brother Mark walked up to me and said: “Fr. Arnel, I saw you in the chain with our Payatas boys.” 

Well, there was my answer. I met these kids in Payatas when I said mass there in October. The picture now was complete…and very moving: boys living in a landfill and now happily uplifting the hungry and homeless of Yolanda: the “widow’s last coin” happening before my very eyes. It was magis in its truest sense of not counting the cost but still giving, of not heeding the wounds but still fighting, of not seeking any rest and reward, but still toiling and laboring…and even having fun while doing it. In other words—offering from what little you have, enriching others from your own poverty, giving from your dearth.

For many years, I’ve noticed how our students and alumni understand magis in quite a different sense (and I blame us, Jesuits, first of all for having let it go unchecked, surely we dropped the ball on this one.) They describe magis like this: soar higher, fly faster, achieve more, be smarter and hipper, not just 3-peat, go 4-peat, no, go 5-peat; more distinction, more fame, more glory to God, yes, but glory to us doesn’t hurt along the way!

Go back to Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and we realize that magis in the quintessential sense means—are you ready?—more humility, more simplicity, more self-outpouring, more poverty of spirit, and should God desire it, more material poverty, even. See, the Prayer for Generosity is the incarnation of the spirit of magis. Run the lines in your mind (give and not to count the cost, fight and not to heed the wounds, etc.) and you’ll realize that true magis is giving to others from our own dearth, building others from own homelessness, healing others in spite our woundedness. In other words, think of the Prayer for Generosity when you think of the true spirit of magis. For magis is generosity without a selfie.

See the difference, sisters and brothers? Magis is all about God, therefore, it is all about our neighbor, therefore, it is not all about us. This is the magis behind the widow’s last coin, behind the Payatas boys’ willing and joyful hands.  Magis is to do both the great and the small for God, but without the selfie…because then it becomes all about us, really.

Incidentally, I was thinking, if I were to change a line in our alma mater song, I would probably replace the one that says, “Win or lose, it’s the school we choose.” I wonder if that line does not in fact belie the spirit of “down from the hill, down to the world go I.” I have a creepy feeling that the line is a selfie. And I’m sure you’ve noticed, dear sisters and brothers, that this thing we call “selfie”, it comes in a thousand different forms. But in all of those forms, the thing that comes between our eyes and the world that we should be looking at — is us looking at ourselves.

Dear Father Ignatius, help us remember the generous widow in our Lord’s story whenever we think of your magis. Amen.

*delivered at the ADMU College Chapel noontime mass, Nov 25, 2013

Unquote.

(I stumbled upon these beautiful posters (thanks to the internet) to further essay such beautiful thoughts.)