The Recipe of Life
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One
The Goal of Life is Holiness, transforming union with God
God wants to give himself to us so that we can participate in his being and activity. God comes to us primarily through the Liturgy and the Sacraments. God also comes to us through the good things of this world.
Everyone wants to be happy. “This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it.” CCC 1718
Happiness is to possess the good things that fulfill our nature. In general, God designed the human person to need specific things to be happy, fulfilled, fully alive.
What do you want to be happy? Union with God in Jesus Christ, to receive the life of Jesus by the frequent reception of the Sacraments, daily mental prayer. Physical and emotional health that comes from sleep, nutrition and hydration, exercise, hygiene, shelter, clothing, stability and variety, order and surprise. Relationships with family and friends. Meaningful work in which we do some good for others and for the world. Knowledge, our intellect needs to be fed by reality in the form of truth. Beauty, our emotions/passions need to be nourished by reality in the form of beauty.
These are the ingredients for happiness.
So, this is the recipe for happiness.
Money, time and power are not goods in themselves, just means to goods. Their only point is that they have the potential to get something else. In fact, if we had all the good things, we need we would not need money time or power.
Two
We need a way to organize our lives to reach happiness and holiness.
St. Pachomius (+348); Basil (+379) and Benedict (+547) suggest a Rule of life. We call it a recipe of life.
We need the right ingredients in our life, in the right order, and in the right proportion to receive God.
A recipe of life means friendship with Christ, 30 min/day in Mental Prayer through the Rosary and Lectio Divina. Frequent reception of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. Taking care of physical and emotional needs, sleep, personal hygiene, nourishment and hydration - meals, exercise, time for relationship with your family and friends. Meaningful work in the home or outside of it. Knowledge about God and the good world he created. And it means experiencing beauty in its many forms.
Three
Structure and Flexibility
These six ingredients are the essential components to a recipe for happiness because they fulfill the way God designed the human person. But there also needs to be an order and flexibility to the way we pursue them.
For example: we are not much good at anything without sleep or at least rest, so we go to bed on time and get up on time. The most important ingredient is God. Time in prayer is the priority so it should come first.
As C.S. Lewis writes, “put first things first and we get the second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”
But we must also be flexible in our pursuit of these as the order and proportion may change day to day. Some days more work is required than others, other days we have more opportunities for relationships and friendships. Some days the pursuit of knowledge and beauty only gets a little bit.
And we should 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.
We need the goods, but we must keep them in order. Love the lesser things less. Love the greater things more, for virtue is rightly ordered love.
Four
Prepare Yourself
We want the good things of this world: physical, emotional, relationships, achievement, knowledge, and beauty.
But by themselves these good things will never satisfy, only God can ultimately fulfill our desire for happiness. These good things can even become disordered attachments and obstacles to receiving God.
So, we don’t just want the good things. We want to prepare ourselves, develop ourselves, our life, who we are, so that we can receive God at every moment through every good thing.
Then who you are and every good thing of this world becomes an avenue to receive God. We develop ourselves so God can enter, elevate, and perfect us.
If we develop our intellect, then there is more of our intellect that God can sanctify and use as He did with St. Paul. If we develop ourselves morally then there is less that He has to purify and more for him to build upon. We can prepare or make ourselves more fit to receive God and be transformed by him.
But we’ve got to get our lives in order to be an avenue to receive God rather than an obstacle to him
Five
Cut out the wrong Ingredients and you’ll have time for the right ones.
People object, “There is no way I can get all those ingredients in every day – that’s impossible.”
Track where your time is going. For seven days keep track of where you spend your time every 30 minutes. Then cut all of the bad ingredients out of your life, especially all the distraction that comes from news, entertainment, and your phone…
And you will have time for the right ingredients.