Courage

The moment we live is of great challenges. Do we have courage to bear all the challenges we face? 

Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash

The moment we now live on Earth is of great challenges, requiring a lot of courage, to behave according to the Divine Laws.

Courage to maintain honesty when almost everything around us conspires against the right attitudes.

Courage not to strike back at the blows of insanity, maintaining understanding and praying the blessings of heaven for your unbalanced brother.

Courage not to deviate from humility and integrity when, with power in our hands, we do not allow pride and selfishness to take over.

Courage to cultivate moderation and patience when we realize that the difficulties are getting worse.

Courage to maintain patience, even if your heart is beaten by the onslaught of cruel feelings that reach us.

Courage to preserve in serenity when the storms of discord and disagreements roar, threatening to bring us down.

Moral Courage

When we carry the Gospel of Jesus in our hearts, we know that it is not by running away from obstacles that we overcome them, but by facing them with calm, serenity and confidence. We understand that the first virtue of those who trust God is moral courage.

Courage that is necessary to achieve self-discipline to remain in balance in the face of attacks of less noble feelings and attitudes.

Courage that helps bearing difficulties with serenity, making the necessary efforts to overcome them.

Courage to persevere in the face of difficulties, without allowing ourselves to give up.

Our journey, in this life, reserves us many paths to travel, but the peace and happiness that we long for, will only be built with inner courage. And it is this courage that will determine when and how we will achieve our inner improvement, which will be reflected in our individual fulfillment.

The greater the achievement, the calmer our attitudes will be, helping us continue our personal journey.

Final Thoughts

Faced with the most embarrassing situations of his material life, Jesus endured all the injuries, all the humiliations that were inflicted on him, maintaining the purity of the high ideal for which he endeavored to the extreme sacrifice.

Let us have the courage to act like Him, maintaining serenity and moving on.

Let us have compassion of those who have lost their faith and stumbled upon violence.

Let us look at those who despaired and were lost in the revolt.

Let us keep in mind that true courage arises from resilience and calm in times of challenge, suffering and imbalance.

Let us protect ourselves in good. When we are about to utter any thoughtless phrase or take the least action against others, let us pray and be silent because heaven hears us. God will always sustain us in our good efforts.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on April 07, 2018.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

Vibrating Bridge

How do you deal with the challenges and stresses of the modern life?

Photo by Andre Xavier on Unsplash

She returned from school, where she worked for many years. She was discouraged by the routine situation. The violence in the children's actions and words left her actionless, after so many attempts to resolve them.

Every day she worked hard doing her best. She guided and corrected their attitudes so that the children would become kinder to each other, so that they felt like family.  However, she saw that none of her efforts was effective.

Discouraged, she sat on the bench in the garden and cried. Her father, seeing her there, came over and stroked her hair in silence. With her beloved presence, she allowed herself to give more freedom to emotions. She hugged him and let the tears flow.

When she calmed down a little, he spoke calmly: "I don't know what your problem is, but we can establish a vibrating bridge to the sky, from where you will come calm and tranquility to solve what ails you." Remember what we have been taught: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will get it and what you will grant will be what you ask for."

She smiled slightly and, because she still felt a little tormented, she asked him to formulate the prayer for her, for her work and for the children at school. Right there, among the flowers, he prayed. She, following her words mentally, felt her heart calm and hope to be reborn.

Later, they went into the house, had tea and continued to talk. She found that she was now calmer and more confident, envisioning other possible solutions.

The mechanism of prayer

It is important to know the mechanism of prayer. Jesus, the sweet Rabbi of Galilee, used to walk away from the crowd in order to pray to the Father in silence.

An enlightened creature wrote: prayer is the emanation of well-directed thinking and rich in vibratory content, establishing the creature's exchange with the Creator. Therefore, thoughts driven by love and charged with positive energies can perform real miracles.

Prayer not only dilutes negative energies, it renews the moral forces of being, saturating it with higher vibrations that alter mental, emotional and organic landscapes.

The act of praying is an expression of humility towards life and an awakening of the conscience to understand the goals to which one must give oneself.

Jesus sought prayer as an effective resource to be linked to the Father, maintaining the exchange for the inspiration and courage that he was always clothed with. Through the constant practice of prayer, He left us an example that we must not abandon.

Final Thoughts

Through sincere prayer, we are in tune with the spheres of light, from which we draw the energies that provide emotional balance and inner peace, which allows us to better reason and act.

A sincere prayer opens the windows of the soul and expands our possibilities of inspiration.

Allow ourselves the exercise of prayer, in all situations of our life. Pray and let yourself be guided by the Celeste Pastor who will send you superior support in any circumstance through this vibrating bridge, called prayer.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on May 06, 2016.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

Planting in the Desert

Is it possible to transform an arid, desertic hearts in oasis of virtues?

Photo by Giorgio Parravicini on Unsplash

Is it possible to transform arid lands into productive regions?

Yacouba Sawadogo, living in the African country of Burkina Faso, was tired of seeing his plantations run out because of bad land. Even ridiculed by his neighbors in the 1980s, he decided to put into practice an old teaching, known as Zai.

Performing the opposite of the common sense, he began to prepare the ground during the drought period.

The technique consisted of opening small holes in the ground, next to each other, filling them with fertilizers and animal feces. These openings have the ability to retain rainwater and maintain a kind of reserve so that seeds of trees planted there, grow normally.

The fact is that, twenty years later, Sawadogo's land was productive and he had a thirty-hectare forest with more than sixty species of trees.

In solidarity, when realizing that his strategy was working, the African farmer started to organize lectures on his lands, in order to teach the technique to anyone interested. After the practice was disseminated, Sawadogo started receiving donations from all over the world to invest in his research and to foster the use of his techniques.

Sawadogo's quest was so impressed that inspired filmmaker Mark Dodd to create a documentary called The man who stopped the desert.

Our hears are like deserts

Like the desert lands, many hearts are dry in feelings. Emotions there do not flourish.

But still, they respond quite well to the African soil therapy. They just need to be made some holes and introduced the fertilizer of mercy and some seeds of love. And, without having to wait for decades, they could transform into a welcoming forest, with different species of trees:

• the tree of compassion: to look at those around us as brothers and sisters, reaching out to lift them from material and moral misery;
• the tree of sincerity: to stop creating intrigues and spreading slanders, denigrating people and institutions that do good;
• the tree of humility: to realize that they do not know (or can know) everything. That they are simply human beings and, like every human being, they have limitations and need help from others;
• the tree of generosity: as opposed to its greed, starting to sharing what they know, what we have with those who have less;
• the tree of patience: to walk less quickly and allow those around us to walk beside us, following our steps.
• And who knows, also help growing bushes of good will, gratitude, kindness, compassion, etc.

Final Thoughts

With time and patience, it's possible to transform a desertic heart into an oasis of blessings, full of virtues such as love, compassion, humility, patience and many other for the greater good.

Think about it.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on October 13, 2014.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

Divine Poem

All that surrounds us is Divine poetry. Including ourselves.

Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash

Our Father, who is in heaven, on earth, in fire, in water and in the air. Our Father, who is in the flowers, in the song of the birds, in the beating heart. Who is in compassion, in charity, in patience and in the gesture of forgiveness.

Our Father, who is in me, who is in the one I love, in the one who hurts me, in the one who seeks the truth. Our Father, who is in the one who walks with me and in the one who has already left, leaving my soul wounded by longing.

Hallowed be Your name for all that is beautiful, good, just and graceful, for all the harmony of Creation. Be sanctified for my life, for so many opportunities, for what I am, have and feel and for leading me to perfection.

Thy kingdom of peace and justice, faith and charity, light and love, come to us. Kingdom that I am called upon to build through meekness of spirit, a reflection of inner greatness.

Thy will be done, even though my pleas cherish more my pride than my real needs.

Although I only hear silence as answer to my prayers, I do feel You say: son, wait, the eternity is all yours.

Give me our daily bread today so I can share it with my brother. The material comfort I now have are of no use if I do not remember those who live in distress.

Bread of the body, bread of the soul, bread that is life, truth and light. Bread that brings breath and joy, the Gospel of Jesus.

Forgive my offenses, my mistakes, my faults. Forgive when my heart becomes cold, when I allow evil to manifest itself in the form of aggression.

May I listen more than speak. May I seek to welcome others instead of judging them. May I sow peace instead of cultivating violence. May I be able to thank more than ask.

Forgive me, just as I forgive those who offend me, even when my heart is hurt by the bitterness and discomfort of ingratitude of others.

May I, Lord of Life, remember that no pain is eternal and that the only way to sublimity is the humble road of reconciliation.

Do not let me fall into the temptations of errors, addictions and selfishness, which make me a slave to my malevolence. Rather, may Your light be on me, illuminating me, so that I can find you within my soul, as part of my essence.

And deliver me from all evil, from all violence, from all misfortune, from all illness. Deliver me from all pain, all hurt and disappointment.

But still, when such difficulties are necessary, may I have the strength and courage to say: Thank you, Father, for one more lesson!

Final Thoughts

All that surrounds us is Divine poetry. There is a trait of God in every being. Let us seek Him in the blossoming of flowers, in the flow of waters, in the song of the wind, in the twinkling of the stars.

But above all, let us search for Him within us. We just need to close our eyes and feel Him giving rhyme to the verses of our lives.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on May 06, 2017.

See Also

• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem
• Poverty and Wealth