Recipe of life
one
Jesus makes all things
Revelation 21:5
“Behold, I am making the whole of creation new.”
Only Jesus
· can make you new;
· only Jesus can make your loved ones new;
· and only Jesus can make the world new!”
Holiness is
· To become one with Jesus
o To become an entirely new creation,
§ an adopted son or daughter of God the Father,
· by sharing in the divine life of the Son
· To be entirely conformed to Jesus Christ
o Loving God
o Loving Neighbor
o Loving yourself
two
A Recipe of Life
A Rule of Life is a schedule, a strategy, a recipe – whatever you want to call it to live a well ordered and balanced life and be at peace.
To be happy we need a hierarchy of good things – 3 levels of good.
1. Divine Good – Union with God, being conformed to Christ
2. Internal/Intrinsic goods – Perfections/Excellence of the body and soul
a. Physically healthy and safe
b. Psychologically well balanced
c. A good husband/wife, father/mother, son/daughter, friend
d. Knowledgeable and wise
e. Creative, Accomplished and Responsible
f. Beauty
3. External goods – things outside of us that are means to higher goods and not ends in themselves
a. Food and drink – especially coffee
b. Houses and cars
c. Books
Money, time and power are not goods, just means to goods
We need all the goods, but we must keep them in order –
· Love the lesser things less;
· Love the greater things more
· Virtue is rightly ordered love
C.S. Lewis: “put first things first and we get the second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”
three
A Recipe of Life
A Rule of Life is a schedule, a strategy, a recipe – whatever you want to call it to live a well ordered and balanced life and be at peace.
1. Physical Needs
a. Sleep 6-8 hrs/day
b. Personal hygiene 30 min to an hour each day
c. Eat 2 hrs/day
d. Exercise 30 min 3-5 days/week plus the commute to gym if necessary = 1hr
2. Friendship with Christ
a. 30 min/day in Meditation/Rosary
b. Frequent the Eucharist and Reconciliation
3. Time for Friendship with your spouse, kids, friends
a. 1-2 hours each day
4. Meaningful Work 8 hrs/day
a. In the home or out
b. 1 hour for your commute
5. Knowledge - Learn about what interests you
6. Experience beauty in its many forms
That’s about 23 hours – you can have all that each day with an hour to spare.
Be creative in combining two or more of these at one time
· walking and talking with a spouse or friend at sunset
· gets your friendship, exercise and beauty
four
Our problem is that we have
· Too much of some ingredients
· Too little of others
· Wrong ingredients – harmful – rat poison
We must examine our life honestly:
· Do I have the right ingredients in my life?
· Do I have the right priorities? Do I put first things first; and second things second? God is first and everything else is second.
· Do I make enough time for a deep friendship with God through daily meditation, frequent reception of the Eucharist and Reconciliation?
· Am I going to bed on time or wasting the last hour of my night?
· Do I exercise regularly?
· Do I have meaningful work? Am I working too much or too little?
· Am I giving enough time to the essential relationships in my life?
· Am I pursuing truth, knowledge, a better understanding of God, my faith, the world…?
· Am I delighting in beauty through nature, people, books, music… or do I waste time in entertainment? Beauty leads us to a greater contact with reality and hence with God. Entertainment on the other hand offers an escape from reality because it is a distortion of reality – an alternative to reality.
· Do I have wrong ingredients in my life - those that will spoil the recipe?
· Then there are things that should just never go in any recipe – like rat poison. What is the rat poison in your life - things like addictions, anger, gossip, lack of gratitude, lust…
five
Remove the Near Occasion of Sin
Temptation and sin are nearly always linked to particular situations.
Sinful behavior and addiction are largely environmental.
If you put folks in a certain environment,
· they’re almost certain to give in to their temptation.
But if you remove them from that environment,
· the intensity of their temptations –
· and their likelihood of giving into it –
· goes way down.
Identify your habits of sin,
· Then remove the things from your environment that trigger the sin.
· Or remove yourself from them.
Jesus said: If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.