Loving oneself


“Intimate love is the true temple that we all desire. This longing seems to be hardwired into our beings in spite of our survival instincts. You have to want to love and to be loved very badly or you will never go to this strange temple and will never find your True Self. So God obliges and creates you in just that way, with a bottomless and endless need to be loved and to love. Today, the Feast of Epiphany, is symbolized and enacted by three important men who fell to their knees, finding themselves seduced by the vulnerability of God—sleeping in straw among the animals. (Richard Rohr, OFM)”

http://cac.org/intimacy-2016-01-06/

Loving oneself is one of the hardest things for me to do.  I just do not know how to do that. I need to learn or start practicing with few simple actions:
1)      spending more time with and by myself
2)      be patient and learn how to love spending time with myself
3)      be creative with this time, e.g. no TV, radio, iPod, etc
4)      do fun and healthy things for and by myself
5)      appreciate my own qualities and enjoy them myself
6)      as a believer in G-d be aware of his presence with me (the topic of next mediation)


The words myself, appreciate and aware are important in these exercises  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ignatian Spirituality

Image
I have been practicing Ignatian Spirituality/Exercises for the last nine years. It has been a powerful experience for me. Each year, practicing that spirituality helps me to go deeper and deeper in my life and relationship with God, the world and myself.  It is just amazing how much they help us to become a more independent person and make better choices for ourselves.  As a person who believes in God I know that God gave me all kinds of gifts.  One of them is my own mind.  I need to use it.  I need to make sure that it is being developed and nourished.  Ignatius wanted us to use that gift.  Also, he wanted us to look and learn from our own feelings and desires.  Sometimes Ignatius of Loyola is called a modern Catholic psychologist. Adlofo Nicolas, the Superior General of the Society gives one of the best explanations of them.   
Read more

The New Peripheries

Image
Another Interview that I found of Bishop Athanasius Schneider.  Bishop Schneider is from Russia but he is of German origin.  He is very much open to discussion and he is very rooted in the Tradition and the Scripture.  I like his way of thinking about: issues of life, ecumenism, liturgy.  I know it is a long interview but very worthy of listening.  Issues of life: saving children are more important than housing and gender equality.  Ecumenism: cannot celebrate a heresy (500 years of Reformation) and unity with Orthodox Christians is very difficult because of the original sin and the question of papacy. With the Orthodox we are of this same faith but papacy.    Bishop Schneider teaches us not to loose faith, hope and charity.  There is a very funny beginning of this interview.  Bishop Schneider - we are on the peripheries of the Church.  It is good to be there with Christ and with you. 
Read more

The Neocatechumenal Way

Image
The Neocatechumenal Way is a Catholic group founded in Spain in 1964 by Kiko Argüello.  It is not a movement but an instrument for evangelization.  It helps people to enter more deeply into the faith experience and share with others this faith experience.   The philosophy of this instrument is based on the early church preparation for non-Jews to become Christians.  It uses some Jewish elements e.g. Eucharist on Saturday evening with the commentaries on readings done by congregation and a presider.   In their spirituality the story of calling of Abraham is in the center.  All the members go on the journey together with him.  We are all called by God like Abraham was.  The question for the people of the Way is: where is my holy land? More on the Way we can learn from their webpage: http://www.camminoneocatecumenale.it/new/default.asp?lang=it
Read more