Does Your Ass Speaks?

Is an ass better than you?

What is your excuse for not doing the work of the Lord? You are imperfect? You are sinful? You are lack the talents?

If God wants to use you, He can. With all of your weakness, God still can work miracles through you. God can speak through an ass if He wants to. And He did. That is how he spoke to Balaam the prophet at the book of Numbers (Num. 22:28-30). And that is encouraging!

My friends once said, “God does not call the equipped, but equips the called.” You don’t have to be a genius or to be super holy to do God’s work. The only thing God needs from you is a willing heart. From there God will give you the grace and the talents you need to His work. God is the God of the impossible; He is not limited by your limitations. In every one of us lies the seed of greatness, waiting to spring up.

So if the ass can do it, why can’t you?

How Deep is Your Life?

Is your life shallow?

Most of us like to live in our lives in shallow waters, where it is safe and easy. You ain't gonna drown on shallow waters right? For many of us our days become a daily routine of monotonous activities. So we live our life with certain boredom and even some kind of jadedness.

Yet, there are those who live life in deep waters. They are not contented with mediocrity. They long to live life to the full. They desire to live a life that is meaningful and significant.

I remember when Jesus first saw Peter. Peter was on his boat, and his boat was on shore. Jesus just suddenly jumped on Peter’s boat and asked him to go to deep waters. Peter obliges. When they reached deep waters Jesus asked Peter to throw the nets. Peter replied, “Master we have worked all night and caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets” Their nets caught great numbers of fish that it was almost tearing!

Years ago I promised myself that I will not live a shallow life. So from then on I have been in a journey of seeking something deep and meaningful in my life. I am still long way on the journey of going to the deep waters and discovering what lies there.

I remind myself, like Peter, that God does not want me to live on shallow waters. He constantly draws me to the deep. Only in the deep shall I find the fullness of God’s grace and the fullness of my being. It is in the deep that Peter caught the great numbers of fish.

Right now, the deep waters is more of a mystery for me to discover. But I am sure about 3 things that I will find in there in the deep. Life, Love and God.

I Am the Center of the Universe…

Around me revolves the planets…

There is a new phenomenon going on. The universe seems to stop revolving anymore around the sun! The universe is revolving around ME!

Many people these days think that they are the center of the universe and the world is revolving around them. As if the universe is obligated to please that them. “Its all about ME” is their battle cry!

Their god is the unholy trinity, Me, Myself and I.

These self-centered people live life as if they are the only important person in the galaxy. Their needs and wants come first! They encapsulated the world inside their tiny head and ego. In effect they live shallow, limited and in the end meaningless lives. It is like a person who lived his life looking at the monitor of his cell phone. He failed to see the BIG picture!

When we make ourselves the center of the universe and not God, we have just shrunk the universe. We live inside or heads and miss out the vast beauty of life and of creation. We loose the awe of how big God is and the universe, and how small we are. We fail to see how big life is. We loose the excitement of searching to experience things that are bigger and beyond us.

But most of all, if YOU are the center of the universe, that is a sad and boring universe indeed.

Are you a successful person or a a significant person?

by Fr Jerry Orbos, SVD

Are you a successful person? Congratulations! But, are you a significant person?

A successful person is one who earns and accumulates wealth or honors for himself. On the other hand, a significant person is one who, with or without wealth or honors, affects positively the people around him/her.

Indeed, a person is worth not for what he/she has, not even for who he/she is, but, bit for what others have become because of him/her.

“Are You Pointing Your Finger at Me?”

t is all your fault! If it was not for you, I could have been living a better life!

Sounds familiar?

A Chinese proverb says, “He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is half way there. He who blames no one has arrived.” Sounds interesting right?

Why do people, who like blaming others for everything that goes wrong, has a long way to go? Well, this people have no sense of reality. Why? Because they think they are perfect! Most of them are arrogant people who always believe they are always right and everybody is wrong. They are a long way on their journey because they are not moving or going anywhere. In their disillusioned mind, they have arrived!

People who blame themselves are half way there because they are aware of their own weakness. Everybody makes mistakes. They take responsibility for their action and its consequence. They already have some self-knowledge. Yet, these people have still a tendency to pride by expecting too much of themselves. Their blame comes from unrealistic self expectation.

Those who have arrived are those who do not blame anyone. They realize that people are imperfect and make mistakes. They too are imperfect and make mistakes. They have a deep sense of self-knowledge. Most of them are humble people. They know that except for the grace of God, they could have done worst.

These people also have arrived because their minds are more like God. Bo Sanchez said in one of his book, “God is not in the business of blaming!” God is more concern that we move forward, to live life to the full. So these people after making a mistake, stands up from their fall, ask God for forgiveness, forgive themselves and move forward. These people have inner peace and joy! Thus they have arrived.

I would like to end with a person who himself “has arrived”, St. Paul.

“Forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what lies ahead.” - Philippians 3:14

When Pigs Fly!

When was the last time you imagined doing something crazy and actually believed that you can do it? Or when was the last time you dreamed to be a person far better than you are now and really believed you can be that person? Some of you might answer, “It will be the day that pigs fly.”

One sad phenomenon when people get older is that they slowly loose their imagination. When I say to a little child that pigs fly, he would have replied, “how high?” or “what does his wings looks like?” To a child anything is possible.

We matured people like to put limits on our imaginations. If we are inspired by a crazy or grand idea, we say to ourselves that it is not practical and not realistic. Even before the inspiration starts to take shape and form we crush it to the ground. We like to put limits on ourselves even before we actually hit that limit. We put imaginary walls and boxed ourselves in by their own doing.

Sometimes when we limit our imaginations, we limit ourselves, and thus limiting God’s power to work in our lives. There is nothing impossible for God, but he needs our imagination to be big enough so he can work his wonders in our life. Remember when Yahweh promised Abraham a child when he and his wife were really, and I mean really old? Abraham had that big enough and crazy enough imagination to believe that Yahweh will keep his promise and give him a son. Isaac was a product of an old man’s magnanimous and crazy imagination.

What is impossible for man is possible for God.

So let your imagination free!

Are you hare-y or foxy?

Do you pursue your dreams with much passion? Or do you easily give it up when trials arise?

Let me share a story of “The Fox and the Rabbit”. A Zen Master and his student were out in the woods. Suddenly a rabbit jumps out of nowhere and running furiously. A fox also appeared running after the rabbit, obviously wanting the rabbit to be his next meal.

After watching sometime, the Zen master asked the student, “Who will win?” The student without thinking answered, “Well of course the fox. He is stronger and faster.”

The Zen Master was silent for some moments and then said, “No, the rabbit will get away.” The puzzled student replied, “I don’t understand.”

“The fox,” replied the Zen Master “is chasing the rabbit for a meal. The rabbit is running for his life.”

Motivation is an irreplaceable key to achieving your dreams. Many of us fail to attain our dreams because we are like the fox. After chasing our dreams and encountering obstacles, we just simply give up. We look at are dreams and then we realize the hard work and hardships we have to go to attain them. We get discouraged. We say and justify to ourselves, “I aint gonna die if I don’t pursue and realize my dreams.” So we choose to live a safe and mediocre life.

There are some few who are like the rabbit. They chase their dreams with much passion and zeal. You might even say that they have a kind of “desperation” to realize their dreams. They pursue their dreams as if their life depends on it. These people are those who achieve much in life. They stand out from the sea of mediocrity that plagues us. Often when you meet such people, you will have an impression that they are crazy! These people do not conform to the norms of society, thus most of the times they are taught foolish and misunderstood.

I love reading biographies, specially the saints. What I have come to learn from their lives is that they dared to do the impossible. They took risk. They live life with much passion. They knew what they have to do and did it no matter what the cost. And now their names are forever remembered.

So now the question is, am I the rabbit or the fox?

What will you do when life throws dirt on you?

Let me tell you a story about an ass and a hole. Once there was a donkey that fell in to an old empty well. The farmer who owns the donkey looked at the ass and tried to figure out how to get it out of there. Having thought of nothing to get the donkey out of the well, he decided to simply bury his donkey alive. So the farmer called his neighbors to shovel dirt into the well. At first the donkey got frightened and panicked. After some time the ass realized that if he shakes the dirt of his back, he can step up. He continued to shake the dirt off and step up until the well was full. I will leave to your imagination what he did to the farmer and his neighbors when he got out of the well.

Looking back in my life, I had my share of dirt thrown at me. I suffered from depression, ridicule, failure and worst of all rejection so many times growing up. Trying to survive all of these for a long time, I somehow learned to shake them off. It really took years before I actually learn to shake off the pains that I suffered much in my life. But now looking back, those painful moments actually helped me get stronger and wiser in living life. Like the donkey, I was able by the grace of God to use all those pain to “step up”.

St Thomas Aquinas describes wisdom as the view from the hill top. We can raise our hilltops with whatever life gives or throws at us. The good, bad and even the most painful experiences can be an opportunity for us to grow in wisdom.

With much dirt under my feet, I have a better view in life. And all I can say is that the view is awesome up here.

Q. Doesn't chastity ruin the excitement of dating?

A. The media tell us that the most exciting sex is outside marriage, but in reality the opposite is true. In 1999, USA Today published an article titled, "Aha! Call It the Revenge of the Church Ladies."(1) This report summarized the findings of the most "comprehensive and methodologically sound" sex survey ever conducted. The first three sentences of the report say it all:

"Sigmund Freud said they suffer from an 'obsessional neurosis' accompanied by guilt, suppressed emotions and repressed sexuality. Former Saturday Night Live comedian Dana Carvey satirized them as uptight prudes who believe sex is downright dirty. But several major research studies show that church ladies (and the men who sleep with them) are among the most sexually satisfied people on the face of the Earth."

Now isn't that special?

The article concluded by saying that the Bible's teaching on sex would "come as a shock to those who believe that God is a cosmic killjoy when it comes to sexuality." The world constantly tells us that when it comes to sex, everyone is doing it, and the people having the most fun are the wild singles depicted on television sitcoms, while married life is dull and unromantic. However, according to widely-accepted research on the matter, "The public image of sex in America bears virtually no relationship to the truth."(2)

Of those having sex, researchers found that the least satisfied were unmarried people.(3)Those who had sex outside of marriage were aware that while it felt good during the act, that did not mean they felt good about themselves afterwards. The guilt coupled with the anxious fear of being used, becoming pregnant, or contracting a disease lessened the sexual satisfaction of those who were promiscuous.

On the other hand, research showed that those who were married to a faithful partner had the highest reports of sexual enjoyment on both a physical and emotional level, and they were most likely to feel "satisfied," "loved," "thrilled," "wanted," and "taken care of."(4) Contrary to what the world incessantly says, research shows that marriages benefit from a lack of premarital sexual experience.(5) In other words, great sex is not the result of sexual experience and technique. If anything, great sex is the fruit of a happy marriage, not the cause of it.

Physiological research has also shown that the human body is not designed for promiscuity. Dr. Winnifred Cutler is a leading authority in the biology of human reproduction and sexuality. She demonstrated that within a monogamous sexual relationship (marriage), the two bodies actually adapt to each other. The testosterone level in the man tends to reach its highest point at the same time that the estrogen peaks in his wife, creating even greater pleasure. This creates a kind of "hormonal symphony," that is impossible in passing promiscuous relationships.(6)

It has also been discovered that "married couples who pray together are ninety percent more likely to report higher satisfaction with their sex life than couples who do not pray together."(7) So if we are only interested in doing what gives the most pleasure (which we should not be), the facts point back to God's original plan: "A man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).

The bottom line is that there is something exciting in restraint, something that makes a chaste couple seem to glow in their wedding pictures. One woman in her mid-twenties pointed out that chastity "may be the proof of God, because it means that we have been designed in such a way that when we humans act like animals, without any restraint and without any rules, we just don't have as much fun."(8) In fact, people who misused their sexuality are longing for this kind of enduring love. After all, being loved is much more exciting than being used.

When a couple is pure, they exercise self-control not because of an absence of passion but because of the presence of love.
____________________
1. William Mattox Jr., "Aha! Call It the Revenge of the Church Ladies," USA Today, 11 February, 1999 (www.usatoday.com).
2. Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael, and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 1. As quoted by Glenn T. Stanton, Why Marriage Matters (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Piñon Press, 1997), 41.
3. Laumann and others, The Social Organization of Sexuality, table 10.5, 364. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 41.
4. Laumann and others, The Social Organization of Sexuality, table 10.7, 368. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 41.
5. W. R. Mattox, "What's Marriage Got to Do with It? Good Sex Comes to Those Who Wait," Family Policy 6:6 (1994): 1–8. As quoted by Wetzel, Sexual Wisdom, 23.
6. Winnifred B. Cutler, Love Cycles: The Science of Intimacy (New York: Villard Books, 1991), 108–109, 244. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 46.
7. Les Parrott III and Leslie Parrott, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 145.
8. Wendy Shalit, A Return to Modesty (New York: Touchstone, 1999), 193.


Article from:http://www.pureloveclub.com

I want to die penniless.

Now you might be thinking that I have lost my rockers! Why on God’s green Earth would I like die penniless?

Well, let me share to you where did I get such idea. I love reading the life of St Francis of Assisi. Before St, Francis died he gave up everything he own, even his habit. His friars not wanting St. Francis to die naked convinced Francis to borrow one of the friar’s habits. Only then did Francis put something on his body.

Now the story might seem nutty to you. But I was really inspired when I read that. Here was a man who literally lived only for God. God was his sole possession! After I read how Francis died, I said to myself I want to die like that as well. It will be a great exit from this world to the next.

You see I want to face God naked, having nothing, owning nothing. Naked I came to this world naked shall I shall go forth. I want to say to God when I face Him, “Lord you are the only one I hold dear. What you have given me freely I freely gave away.”

GK Chesterton said that angels fly because they take themselves lightly. I think angels fly because there is nothing burdening them. The only thing they hold dear is God’s love. When I die I want to get to heaven as fast as I can. I don’t want the things of this world on my back burdening me and slowing me down. I want to run naked and free towards heaven!

I want to end with this quote.

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me".- Erma Bombeck

What does success means to you?

I just finished last Monday my training as an insurance agent. During the training there was much talk about success or being successful. Everyday on my way home I ask myself what does success means to me. I do not want to accumulation of wealth be the standard of my success, life is far deeper than material things. I do not want it also to about power and prestige, for too fades away and does not necessarily adds anything to my being. So what does success means to me?

The ultimate success for me is to be a successful human being. A successful person to me is someone who is fully alive. Someone who uses all that is good in him and all his talents to make this world a better place. He is a person who finds joy and meaning and life. He is also a source of joy, light and hope to others. Money, power and fame is only a means he uses to make this world a better place.

External successes will always fade away, as time fades away. But success that happens from within us, in our soul, will stay with us. Whatever success we have accomplished in our souls, we will take it to eternity.

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” - William James

Q. Do chaste people just have lower sex drives?

A. Chastity is not the absence of sexual desire. Chastity is the refusal to place your sexual desires above the demands of love. You put love before your hormones. It's about having character. One young man said, "I heard somebody say that you can judge your own character by the things you do in private. I'd take that a step further and say you can judge your own character by the things you do with your girlfriend."(1)

I travel around the country frequently to give talks about chastity, and I often end up in conversations aboard airplanes about my line of work. Inevitably, people ask if I practice what I preach. After I explain that I did save my virginity for my wife, the person--without fail--looks bewildered. Then comes the universal question: "So . . . you just didn't have the desires, then?" I have pondered all sorts of amusing ways to answer this, but the bottom line is that the world can not fathom a young person who has sexual desires and does not surrender to them. Working toward God's plan for love does not eliminate sexual desires, it orders them. The chaste person experiences sexual attractions in all their intensity but places love for the other above the temptation to lust.

When you refuse to do this, you may claim to be sexually liberated, but you've really just become a slave to your hormones. Instead of loving an entire person, you begin to love only their body--which isn't love at all. When lust overpowers love, the person reduces the other to their flesh.

Take, for example, the song "Mambo Number 5." The lyrics read, "A little bit of Rita is all I need, a little bit of Tina is what I see, a little bit of Sandra in the sun, a little bit of Mary all night long, a little bit of Jessica here I am, a little bit of you makes me your man!" Why only a little bit? Because the rapper is not man enough to handle an entire woman. Lust allows us to reduce others to "bits."

This is why the impure are never satisfied or free. They have yet to learn that they can not be filled unless they empty themselves. Ironically, the satisfaction and freedom they yearn for is waiting for them in the place they least expect it--chastity. It trains us in self-control so that we can become truly free. "The alternative is clear," the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, "either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy."(2)
_____________
1. True Love Waits, "Interview with a Non-virgin," 15 April 2001 (www.lifeway.com/tlw/tns_adv_wjjarc.asp).
2. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2339 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994).

Article from http://www.pureloveclub.com/