Hi!

Every year I get some presents from relatives and friends for my birthday. They always make me very happy and I am very grateful for each and every one. This year, however, I decided to give a present to others. That’s why I created this new blog, through which I want to bring joy and make happy as many people as possible.

They say a man is never so poor, that he could not donate anything - if nothing else at least a smile. And I give you these few encouraging words and thoughts that should brighten your day and make you happy.

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – LET’S BE VIGILANT AND PATIENT

“The Season of Advent invites us, more than any other in the liturgical year, to embrace the spiritual discipline of expectation. Advent time is not a time of hurry. Advent songs must be sung, Advent candles must be lit week after week, and Advent calendar sheets must be turned from day to day. Christmas will finally come when all the prophecies of the Bible will be fulfilled and when the child is finally born.”

This is a wonderful description (by an author unknown to me) for the first season of the new Christian liturgical year – Advent. This four-week period, which ends on Christmas Eve, in many ways contradicts our daily attitudes and way of life; we don’t like to wait for anything; we expect immediate satisfaction, even in our spiritual life. However, you can’t rush with God. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin advised, we must “trust in the slow work of God”. This was done by the Israelites during their forty-year period in the wilderness and the Christians during Advent.

Patient anticipation is a sign of humility. Let us remember that once upon a time, people of lower rank who served the nobility and kings “waited” for them. However, waiting for the Master does not just mean passively sitting in front of the television or lying in bed. To be awake with eyes wide open, as Jesus is inviting us in the Gospel on the first Sunday of Advent, means to be actively present – to listen carefully to God’s voice and to observe carefully the evidence of his work in our lives and in the world around us.

No, with all this, I have not overlooked those who may be experiencing moments of desert and trials at this very moment. Although it may seem that this awaiting time for salvation will never pass, this same time is also very fruitful, gracious, and has its meaning and great value in the eyes of God. In fact, this expectation of the salvation is perhaps the most important spiritual work we can do in Advent. While you are faithfully expecting the Savior, you are also allowing your hope to grow. Moreover, who cannot wait and trust in calm cannot become the person God intended him to be in the beginning.

Expectation also helps us learn a life lesson: Just because dreams don’t come true right away doesn’t mean they’re lost. As we continue to patiently trust God and His schedule — not ours — we begin to learn to look long distances. This gives man peace even as the storms of life rage around us. With trust in God, we can wait for the storm to pass and see the sun breaking through the clouds. When we trust in him, we will eventually see his coming and the rebirth of our hopes and dreams.

Encouraging thoughts, written by my gratitude to you and for you, dear brothers and sisters, who support me. If anyone else would like to give me a helping hand, click here:

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THE GRATITUDE – THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE

Man longs for happiness, peace and salvation. However, we live in a world that often presses on us with all its weight, wants to steal from us the true peace and tear us away from our neighbors and God. The great danger is that a man would only see all the negative in life. That we get upset, angry, and desperate because of that. Yet our salvation is so close, at our fingertips. There is no need for anything other than to focus our gaze on God, on the beautiful and good things that surround us. And how far away is salvation for those who cannot do it. Every battle (especially the one we fight with ourselves) ends where gratitude begins.

I say many times that a man’s spirituality is recognized by how grateful he is. This is an essential characteristic of a Christian and the first step to becoming satisfied with our life. Do I notice beautiful and good things in my life? Am I grateful enough for them? And while it often takes a lot of effort and energy to shift our view from the negative to the positive, it’s still worth it. For only then will our life in the midst of this world become wonderful.

Gratitude is also the highest form of prayer, for with it we bless everything we can remember. Not only religious people, but also many psychologists acknowledge the positive effect of gratitude on our mental and psychological state. It is advisable to write every evening in a diary at least five to ten things for which we are grateful that day (and thank God for them).

The greatness of man is not in his physical strength, intellect, or material wealth. Someone can have it all, but that does not necessarily mean that this person is also a great person. Physical power, intellect, or material wealth can be quickly abused for evil purposes. What makes a man truly great is his gratitude, love, faith, kindness, and humility that he carries in his heart. For such a man we can always say:

“Wow, this is really a great man.”

Let these few words encourage us for the next time when temptation will seek to seduce us into negativity, we will consciously choose good, gratitude and (L)love, strive for it and spread it among our loved ones. Let nothing be taken for granted. In addition, we do not have to worry about being left empty-handed. Love itself will fill our laps, and more importantly: our heart.

GOD BLESS YOU!

Encouraging thoughts, written by my gratitude to you and for you, dear brothers and sisters, who support me. If anyone else would like to give me a helping hand, click here:

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LOVE – THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT

Jesus makes it clear that the first and great commandment is love for God and neighbor. (Matthew 22:37) To understand the power of these words of Jesus and the sublimity of this commandment, I first ask you a simple question:

“Is it allowed to drive 90 km/h on a road where the legal speed limit is 50 km/h?”

Immediate answer, of course, would be, “No, of course not!”

Good. Now I add: “What if you had your dear neighbor in the car, whose survival hangs in the balance and it is urgent that he get to the hospital as soon as possible?”

Now, however, opinions would probably have already begun to be divided and man finds himself in a moral dilemma. Some would defend the legal aspect and be strictly against the violation of road traffic regulations (by violating them we endanger other road users), while others would defend the human ethos, which tends to save human life at the expense of violating legal regulations and the risks that such doing entails.

So, who is right? How to deal with similar situations? What should be the measure of our actions? The Gospel gives us a clear answer: The measure of our actions and life should always be love for God and neighbor. This means that the one who carries more (L)love in his heart is more right. If you do something in your life out of love for God or neighbor, you can’t go wrong there. Even if it is against all other regulations and laws. Even if it caused an accident in a given case – are you to blame? Before human judgment, probably yes, but not before God, because you acted out of love for your neighbor, whom you wanted to help.

Now, perhaps, the power of Jesus words in today’s gospel and the sublimity of the first and great commandment becomes somewhat more apparent. The one who is a servant of love is free, and the one who loves God is above this world. Or as Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote. “Love and do what you want!” With these words, of course, we sense that the true love will never glorify itself, will not seek its own, but itself remains humble and serving, even though it is above everything. Like Jesus – God, who humbled himself for the sake of men and became human, even though He is above everything.

This is also a great motivation for our lives: We love and sainthood and eternal happiness certainly do not escape us.

GOD BLESS YOU!

Encouraging thoughts, written by my gratitude to you and for you, dear brothers and sisters, who support me. If anyone else would like to give me a helping hand, click here:

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TO BE READY AND AWARE

We are begining the Advent, which is a preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ incarnation. With his first coming, he gave us a taste of the beauty we were created for, he gave us a taste of the goal we are destined for. Moreover, he revealed to us the truth of our dignity, which we are worthy, revealed us his love, and gave us the assurance of what is happening behind the veil of the bodily eyes. It is important to see this goal and illuminated from it looking at the path we are just walking. For through the light of this Homeland, this path is different.

We’re on our way. We walk the path of life towards the promised land of the kingdom of heaven. From our plans, to God’s plan. We leave reliance on our own strength, intelligence, and self-sufficiency, and move toward the wisdom of Heavenly Father who is preparing something that is unattainable for man himself. On this journey, it is so imperative to be awake, with your back girded and your lamp on. This means that we have an open heart and an open soul for the moments when the Lord touches us in life with his fatherly hand. When we experience moments of his immediate proximity. When the Holy Spirit wants to show us which direction to turn. The anticipation of God’s intervention and vigilance for His signs is the basic attitude of a biblical man, especially a disciple of Jesus. Without anticipation, a meeting does not happen.

On this path of faith, we often feel that God is “late,” that he is too slow in responding to our situation, that he has fallen asleep, traveled far away. And then all too often it happens that we begin as a mischievous servant to “beat up our servants and maidens, to eat, to drink, and to get drunk.” It happens that we fall asleep in our own comfort even if it does not bring joy.
But it is in moments like this that God wants us to mature in our faith, to grow up into a mature relationship in which someone is simply, alive and awake, able to stand on their own two feet, taking responsibility and trusting, working, and performing their duties, even if the goal is blurred for a moment and everything seems absurd. For the Lord will surely keep the promise. And it doesn’t take much time to fulfill it. But in the meantime, we, foreigners and travelers, need to mature. To grow up in people who testify that their home is not here, in people who no longer want to return to the state of their old slavery to sin, but remain those who walk, ready for a Voice that always points forward, into a new, into something that is not yet seen, in God’s.

Only those whom the Lord will find at any hour where they should be can taste the Promised Land, where milk is strained. Anyone who is where he needs to be at all times, even in the most hidden, quiet, and humble of duty, will surely sooner or later experience the good stewardship of God, overtaken by his grace.

May faith be for all of us today and every day the force that awakens us from our soporific comfort and calls us to the path, to readiness, to dynamism. From good to better. Let us go with the confidence that God himself serves those who are ready and gives them everything they need.

GOD BLESS YOU!

Encouraging thoughts, written by my gratitude to you and for you, dear brothers and sisters, who support me. If anyone else would like to give me a helping hand, click here:

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