A Heart Open and Enlarged
February 27, 2024
Hi! How is each
and every one? Childlikeness is a virtue that characterizes the natural way
children acquire and cultivate their knowledge about things, persons and
events. Children are curious, and they
use all their five senses- touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight- to experience
and know the truth. They also ask a lot of questions and they really can be
persistent and insistent and eager to receive answers to their battery of
questions. They ask why, why, and why? They
ask questions why and what about persons, things and events. Simultaneously
they judge and confirm what is true, what is good, and what is right. They
connect what they actually see and experience with the answers they
receive. Gullible as they are in asking
they are equally gullible in receiving the answers. It is indeed important that we, adults, take
their questions seriously and give them true and sincere answers, protecting
their innocence and their intelligence.
Nurturing such a disposition will also make us cultivate childlikeness
that is crucial in the search for truth and defending it in our own life.
Openness
OCSDNet
I often encounter this close-mindedness in my
clients. Memories or insights come
forward and they bat them out of the way.
“That’s ridiculous!” they’ll say.
Or “That couldn’t have anything to do with this!” They may even be right. But being unwilling to consider the
possibility that God is revealing something to us is simply foolish. Before we reject a memory or insight, we
should at least take it to prayer. Our
minds are not random. They are
orderly. They recall things for a
reason. If I am prompted to recall a
thought, insight, or memory while I am prayerfully reflecting on some struggle
in my life, then it is worth meditating on whether there is at least a tenuous
connection. It can be helpful to pray
further about those connections even if we ultimately reject them as
irrelevant. Being open does not require us
to accept, as gospel, every silly thought that pops into our heads, but it does
require us to admit that there might be more to our initial thoughts than meets
the eye. Our prayerful openness gives
God the chance to develop the pictures that begin to emerge under the light of
his grace.
Acceptance
Acceptance
is the third quality that facilitates spiritual transformation. Although acceptance is the opposite of self-criticism,
it is not the same thing as approval.
Imagine that you are a service technician called to repair a broken
piece of complicated machinery. You
arrive at the job site and take it all in.
When you see what is wrong, how do you react? Do you take it personally? Of course not. Instead, you accept things for what they are
and patiently set about addressing the problem.
You know the more impatient you are, the more likely it is you’ll just
end up breaking something else and making the job harder.
When we are refocusing on the process of repairing ourselves, acceptance is the quality by which we trust that “God’s grace is sufficient” and rest in him when we find our efforts are not up to the task at hand. Yes, of course we have to make what changes we can in our life, but, like the service technician, we must realize that the job takes what it takes. Any attempt to rush things just mucks up the process.
Acceptance does not mean that we rejoice in our
brokenness as the addict does. It simply
means that we are willing to take, at face value, what appears to be wrong and
what needs to be done to address it. We
address what we can, and we rejoice in what we find ourselves unable to do,
knowing that God’s infinite mercy will make up the difference.
Yes, an open mind and an open heart are ready to welcome new and
fresh ideas, information towards what is true and what is good; enlightens and activates the mind and heart
to decisions and judgments that are equally true and good leading to joyful and hopeful acceptance.
Oh! Before I say
adieu, may I share with you the idea I am contemplating on. I would like to message each one of you to
ask you for feedback, comments, and suggestions regarding the posts so far
published and the ones you hope to see and read forward on. I am still asking
around how to make it easy for each one of you to do so by sending you an
evaluation form of some kind. I am curious, open and ready to accept whatever
you speak with your heart and mind. I
will try my utmost best to fit in accordingly. My birthday wish on the coming
month.
See you in the next post,
“May tomorrow be a perfect day; may
you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care;
‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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