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richie_73
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Name: Richie
Country: Canada
Gender: Male
Interests: Roman Catholicism, Hockey, Football, College Basketball, Hip Hop, Christian Music, Cartoons, Poetry, Literature,
Expertise: communicating nonsense that actually makes sense, confusing the organized and eating large portions of raw fish
Occupation: CFC Youth for Christ Pastoral
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
6/2/2003
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| I’m a big fan of Star Trek…check, I’m a big fan of the last Star Trek movie that came out earlier this year (Sorry Star Trek fans, I gotta be real). One concept that really intrigued me is the idea of being the last of your kind. What if you were the last human in the universe? What would you do? What would you think? Sound difficult? How about we shrink it a little bit…
What if you were the last of your nationality. No books. No songs. No country. Nothing. Just you representing the whole of your country, its history, its heritage, its culture, its music, its art, its values. What would you do? Would you work as hard as you could to preserve it? Would you tell stories of your country’s heritage, visits you may have taken when you were a small child. Would you furiously write down all the stories that you remember your parents telling you? Would you tell people about how Filipinos could turn a single coconut tree into a village sustaining resource? Would you tell stories of the hockey obsessed culture of Canada? Would you draw what you remember of the land mass of your country? Would you tell stories of George W. Bush? What would you do if you were the last of your country on Earth?
What would you do if you were the last musician in the world? Even if you can’t play anything, you were the last person in the world to hear music, what would you do? If you were the last person in the world remember songs, what songs would you try to preserve? Toxic by Britney Spears? Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik by Mozart? Would you try to train your voice to sing? Would you try to teach people how to play guitar? How would you describe music? How would you ensure that you weren’t the last person in the history of mankind, in the history of the universe to ever hear, play or write music?
What would you do if you were the last athlete in the world? The last person to witness and see a sport? Would you teach people? Would Would you share about Lebron James or Peyton Manning? Or about the Olympics?
Admittedly, these questions are highly hypothetical. They’re difficult to imagine and even more difficult to answer. But there is a greater truth deeply imbedded in these questions.
The truth is…you are the last of something. You are the last you. So what are you doing to share this beautiful gift? How are you sharing all the beauty, all the goodness that is you? How are you preserving the gifts that you are? How are you ensuring you aren’t the only one to witness, to remember, to experience the beauty that God has gifted you?
Some write songs. Others dance. Some design. Others play sports. Whatever it is, whoever we are, we can’t be afraid to share it.
Otherwise, we may be the last person in the whole universe, to ever experience such a wonderful, blessed, gift. | | |
| Now be patient brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!. You too must be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon". James 5:7-8
Advent is a time for waiting. A time to be patient. A time to trust in the Lord. It is a time of great joyful anticipation, when we make certain preparations for the coming of Christ our Saviour. We wait with great eagerness not only the fulfillment and offer of God's covenant with man, but also He who is our response to His covenant. Advent is truly a beautiful time.
With Advent, we learn how beautiful it is to patiently wait for the coming joy. And though this waiting may be in many ways untroubled compared to waiting for other things, (we do in fact wait fully aware of how soon Christmas will come) I am reminded of a joyful truth: as we fully anticipate the coming of December 25, so too can we fully anticipate the promises of God. So too can I joyfully await that which He has lovingly prepared for me.
Prayer, both in Advent and in the total of spiritual life, is the school of patience. I may not fully get what my heart desires, but I can trust in the Lord that He will fully give what my life requires.
Therefore, the waiting I must endure, becomes a period of joyful anticipation, splendid eagerness and the school of beautiful patience that God could only teach. | | |
| I don't think it's that much of a surprise for anyone that knows me to learn what I miss most about home is people. I miss my brothers and I miss my sisters. I miss the guys playing hockey on ps3, basketball at the 'cage,' and pizza at Skwirrel's. I miss hugging my sisters when I see them, making them laugh and then annoying them thereafter. I miss hand shakes and pounds, coffee at all hours of the day, the battle between rock and rap. I miss teasing my brothers about jeans that are too tight; I miss teasing my sisters for the boys that they like. I miss my family.
I want to believe that I didn't have to move up here to reflect on the beauty of my family. I love my family and I'd like to think that I wear my affection for them on my sleeve. But as I have come to discover, expressions of love and affection can quickly resemble monotonous chores dead to the love that once inspired them.
For example, "how are you?" It's a simple enough question often met with a simple enough response. But this question serves love in a most excellent way. I asked my sister how she was the other day and she went in depth with her answer. Because of it, I was able to pray with her, listen to her, be her brother. And this gave me great joy because although I do miss her, and the little expressions we share with each other when we're physically together, the distance does not prevent me from loving her in an affectionate way.
I mean really, how else do we learn how to pray for each other? How else do we determine what other expressions we use to communicate our love? How else do update each other on how we're doing other than asking?
But this question is often met with a cookie cutter response. "Good." "Tired." "Okay." I'm not suggesting that we have to go in-depth with our response every single time, but to recognize the question as having a valuable purpose in our growth with one another. It would do us well to recall every few instances that just how this simple question can serve love, and not transform into a monotonous, substance-less question.
In reality, I do miss the little nuances and expressions of love that I share with my brothers and sisters. But that should not prevent me from developing new expressions. What is it worth to miss a handshake, if I neglect the love that's behind it? What is it worth to do the dishes, if I do not reflect on the love that it serves? What am I if I do not love.
Paul in his letters to the Corinthians, answers quite eloquently...
"Nothing." | | |
| "I charge [you] before God, who gives life to all things [...] to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tm 6:13-14)
"Some of us are called, as Saint Timothy was, to work within the Church, others work in the world, others within the family, but wherever we are placed, most of us have to deal with other people, and frankly this often the part of the task that causes the most stress. Sometimes we may feel that things would be easier if only other people would do what we want them to do. If we allow this thought to fester, we can become angry or bitter.
It is easy to be tempted to think that our plans are so good, so wise that everyone should follow them. We may become discouraged because others do not join our organization or come to the event we have worked so hard to plan. We may see our hard work as wasted. We can become so concerned about the success of a particular project that we forget the people involved.
Yes the tasks matter, but what matters more is love. Have we done everything with love? If one person comes when you expect twenty, will you serve that one person with the same love? If, on the other hand, the event is a great success, will you give glory to God or keep it for yourself.
If we do everything out of love - love of God and love of neighbor - every project, regardless of the natural outcome, will be supernaturally successful."
Dale O'Leary. Praying with St. Paul. ed. Father Peter John Cameron, OP. Magnificat. 2008. | | |
| Battle scars never leave you. They remind you about the past hurts, the past pains and the past weaknesses. They can either devastate your confidence, destroy your self-esteem or send you tumbling down the hole of self-pity.
Or, they can push you to work harder, to get better, to ensure that tomorrow's version will better than today, and today is better than tomorrow. It can make you hungry; The kind of hunger that hurts more than the scars, and there's nothing you won't do to get better and overcome.
That's the great thing about about battle scars...
No matter how many you have, fresh ones are always ready to be made. | | |
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