Anonymous

 Do you tend to get upset when you are not praised and recognized for your “good” deeds?  Does being ignored bother you?  Well, if your self-esteem is taking a beating, think of your situation as being just like God.  God is pretty much ignored and certainly not praised for all the good stuff we take for granted.  In fact, God gets blamed for not doing more!  If you feel you are doing a lot and people complain that you are not doing “more” than you are just like God.  There is nothing wrong with anonymity.  Lots of people live in anonymity and they are doing just fine.  You can still be of service, pray, do the right thing and be ignored.  Praise is not the purpose.  

Forbidden Fruit

 God seems to like to hide, not be so easily found.  But the forbidden fruit is right out there in the open for us.  We tend to choose that which we prefer.  We choose the fruits we can see, touch and taste.  Easy. God, Higher Power, Ultimate Reality, we have to work a bit, have patience, trust, discipline in meditation, take time.  Spiritual growth requires a sorting of priorities.  That which is easy is not always that which is best, and especially if we are going to grow on the insides.  So if you are not having much of a spiritual life, sobriety, you might ask what your priority list look like.  

Sobriety

 Alcoholics think that their problem is they drink too much and cannot stop.  So they stop drinking, at least in the short term.  Why do they go back to drinking?  Because sober, they realize that their problem is with life.  Sobriety is their problem. If no work is done to change so that you can live life without drink, you are at best “dry.”  Alcohol was the symptom of the inability to live life on life’s terms.  The 12 steps and the recovery process is how a non-drinking alcoholic learns to live life on life’s terms and be selflessly helpful to others.  Substances are escapes, not solutions.  A pill to calm you down won’t teach you how to live life on life’s terms.  Few are the people who are willing to work at it.  

Washing

You wash your clothes and face.  This washing gets rid of dirt and debris to make things clean.  Meditation is the  washing of the mind.  The mind fills up with stuff, much of which you don’t need but which seems to take up space, like a closet full of clothes you don’t wear.  You need the mind to be clean or clear to receive some insight of a more spiritual reality, that will wait for you to make it some space.  I try to wash my mind on a daily basis.  Clothes once a week.  

Yesterday

 I won’t stay physically fit on yesterday’s exercise.  I have found that out time and again.  I won’t stay limber on yesterday’s stretching.  Whatever good happened yesterday is good, but I don’t bet on any carryover.  I will not stay spiritually fit on yesterday’s meditation.  Day’s off from the interior life is like coasting along.  You only coast downhill.  I have to meditate each day, stretch each day, exercise each day.  One day does not have to be a complete repeat of the day before.  I can vary  with both my outside stuff and inside stuff, but I have to do something physically and spiritually.  I come undone too easily.  Know thyself.  

Importance

 To think of your self as having some importance in the world can be a healthy ego sense.  You can be proud of yourself.  You have a sense of purpose and service to others by your presence and efforts.  All good.  But if your sense of importance is based upon what others think of you, that is not good.  Self-importance based upon other’s judgment seems to diminish what you think of yourself.  Your worth must come from within you and not depend on the whims of others.  

Habemus Popam

 What a good choice for a Pope.  He speaks Spanish, English and Italian.  An American who comes from working class South side of Chicago who worked years in Peru.  Can connect the Southern Hemisphere with the Northern Hemisphere. At a time when Fascism threatens Democracy, we get this fellow as Pope.  An American Pope can bring people in our country around to the needs of the suffering in our world.  He is very pragmatic and down to earth, so I think he realizes that governments are not able to do it all for everybody.  What is possible instead of “shoulds.”  An ear and heart for the immigrant, but also for trying to make South America a place where native people will want to live and grow.  His middle name is “Francis” his baptismal name.  Though American, he spent a lot of time outside The USA.  And he is an Augustinian.  Augustine is a favorite of many Cardinals and Bishops.  And Leo XIII in 1891 emphasized a “new thing” when he stood up for the working class in the Gilded Age of the rich getting richer.  And a Cubs fan.