BE HUNGRY TO HELP THE HUNGRY

“Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy”. - Mother Theresa of Calcutta 

Where is the world headed to? There are too many answers to this question, because human beings, in general, tend to look at this issue from its own perspective which is highly influenced (or controlled) by the egocentric views of each human being, or group of. Unfortunately, most of us are all raised to believe that the world is divided into winners and losers, and to realize our “American Dream” (or something equivalent to), and that normally implies in our minds being better of, or beat, our neighbors in the material world. Immediacies are generally taken as priority over longer term goals, because we can’t lose any battles as we move on as that could be perceived as a sign of weakness. We all have, though, one thing in common: we all search for happiness. Happiness is the ultimate aspiration of humanity. The level of pride and selfishness, though, make us understand happiness in many different ways. Most people still believe that joy can bring happiness, and that most joy can be “purchased”. Actually, for these people, this is “true”. They can find happiness in a new car, dining out, titles, power, and other innumerable ways in their earthly lives. On the other hand, not enough people can see that happiness, to be stable and long lasting, must be something that needs to satisfy our spiritual aspirations, therefore it must be acquired in a way that add value to our souls.

Why did I start this article with that question on where the world is headed to? Well, this question seems to be very relevant at this particular moment, where the media is so filled with bad news that makes us wonder if we are at the verge of an inconceivable situation.  At the heels of such bad news come statistics showing a consistent and persistent growth in poverty. The census of the United States, just published, revealed that, in 2010, we had around 46 million people in this country that live before poverty line. That means an increase of about 6% versus the year before. This includes an increase of 11.5% in the number of suburban residents that lived below the poverty line. As an expected domino effect of this, the hunger issue gets magnified. Reports tell us about a substantial increase in the number of people knocking the doors of the many food pantries around the country.

Let’s now read once again the introductory quote to this article, from Mother Theresa. Based not only on the above quote, but on so many other quotes she left for us as profound messages, we can say that Mother Theresa was “hungry” to help the hungry. She was asking God’s mercy to all poor and hungry people by making us conscious that, to be “worthy” of God and true happiness, we need to have compassion and do charity with love.  The world would be much better if instead of being seen as divided between winners and losers, it would be seen as divided into those that need help and those that help the needy. And that would get us closer to God, as we would be complying with His first commandment: “To love God above all, and our neighbor as we love ourselves”.     

St. Francis made it clear to us: “It is in giving, that we receive”. If it was the other way around, meaning that selfishness could bring happiness, than the Divine Laws would be at jeopardy. So, let’s hungry to help the hungry! The Bezerra de Menezes’s food pantry is one of the many ways we could help so many desperate people looking for so little.

Gilberto

Oct 3rd, 2011

  

   

        

ADD A LITTLE VALUE TO YOUR SOUL... EVERY DAY.

Add a little value to your soul... every day.

As we all have heard, "without charity, there is no salvation".

Therefore, adding value to our soul means: do charity.

No wonder why, since the first Divine Law tells us to

"love our brothers like we love ourselves".

 

The question  886 of the Book of the Spirits, clarify what charity means:

-- it means "BIP", that is, benevolence, indulgence, and ("Perdon") forgiveness.

These are also big virtues, though, that need to be worked on constantly.

We all have those virtues already developed to a certain extent,

meaning that we all can practice charity, even at the risk of failing sometimes.

 

Moving from theory to practice, now. My ideas are derived

from my interpretation of the Question 919 of the Book of the Spirits.

First, how do we better our BIP virtues? Better yet, have we been

working on a regular basis to improve our BIP virtues? 

So, paraphrasing St. Augustine, let's ask this question to ourselves:

 

- What have I read today (books, magazines, Internet, etc) that

made me reflect on my values, my routine, my actions, 

and my moral improvement opportunities?

 

- Have I spent my day wisely, as far as how I allocated my time to

actions and things that brought me joy while improving my BIP virtues?

 

- Have we thought of those we know are in need of help?

 

Needless to say that when we decide to ask the above type of questions

to ourselves, it indicates that we have already positively answered one basic

question:  - Do I want to progress morally and spiritually? or, borrowing the

line of Leon Denis, do I want to improve the value of my soul?

 

Now that we have gone through this exercise, we should be ready

to wake-up tomorrow morning with one thing in mind: do a little thing for

someone, our families, or our community that will add value to my soul.

Then, let's make this a mindset, so everyday we wake up with such

an objective ingrained in our thoughts and actions, I mean, fully

internalized, so that we just naturally pursue this objective in everything we do.

It is in giving that we receive, and that's how we will increase the value

of our souls.

 

Gilberto

16 Sept 2011

ONCE-IN-A-LIFE TIME EXPERIENCE

The other day I woke up with something completely different in my little mind, maybe as a result of the adventures of my soul while I was sleeping. That something was the realization that we all will experience death. Hold on, it is not that. I am talking about the process of death, i.e. a transition from a state to another that only occurs once each incarnation, but that feels like a true once-in-a-lifetime experience since we would not remember (I think) our last transitional experience. Wow... how would that look like? How would that feel like? I mean... that transition that might be either short or long to different people. Have you ever experienced one of those nights when you wake up in the middle of it and can't remember where you are for a few moments? Now imagine yourself waking up and that feeling of not knowing where you are is no longer just a brief one. How will you react to that? Very calmly, or with desperation? What would you first notice when you look around? Humm... now this thing starts to get complicated, because you may wake up in a place that does not look as warm and good as your today's room. But let's say you look around and find yourself in a pleasant place, except that your mind goes crazy trying to remember how you got there. The door opens, and somebody welcomes you. You then start to ask questions like... where am I? Where is my family? Who brought me here? No answers that will satisfy you as they don't want you to have a heart attack, I mean, a breakdown followed by unnecessary reactions that won't help you. 

Ok, you got the picture. Now let's look at this from a different perspective. Let's say we know enough, thank to the Spirits Doctrine, and you quickly realize that such a major "relocation" must have to do with your return to the Spiritual World. And you know that such a transition can feel like the successful ending of your long search for happiness. Magically, your body is not a big weight anymore, and that pressure in your chest (anxiety, fear, depression, and other type of feelings that made you so frustrated) is gone. You feel so light! You look through the window, and everything seems to have reached such a harmonized state that it immediately invades your body in the form of a blessing energy that makes you even lighter. Ok, you are now living those transition moments that I called a one-in-a-life-time experience, and you don't want it to be just a dream. You feel realized. 

Let's now call it a different name: a Divine Moment that, in fact, may last longer that you would expect. The question then becomes "how can I ensure I will actually have that kind of Divine experience", since such a Devine Moment is not for everyone, but only for those that have earned it. All the rest will go through experiences that will range from Less-than-Devine Moments to moments of unbelievable darkness and suffering. Worse yet, the latter type may last very long. 

I'll let you think about how best to answer the question from the previous paragraph. Needless to say it is a matter of preparation while still living. And the preparation should be made from the time one first decides it makes sense to do them.

I would love if you could share your thoughts with me and everyone. 

Gilberto

Aug 18, 2011

     

A GRANDE TRANSIÇÃO E O GRANDE DESAFIO

Nos foi dito sobre os espíritos presentemente encarnados na Terra,
Que estão tendo a sua última oportunidade neste planeta ainda de provas e expiações.
Nem todos esses espíritos conseguirão o progresso moral necessário para encarnar
num mundo novo, para eles, o mundo de regeneração.
Será que este conceito se aplica à maioria dos espiritos encarnados no momento?
Os espíritos mais atrasados estão se enfrentando com o desafio de vencer maus institintos talvez
ainda muito arraigados, e num ambiente (mundo) capaz de submeter as suas determinações a testes
bastante fortes (como que o se avanço requerido desses espíritos fossem muito grandes para
poder merecer reencarnar no novo mundo).
Similarmente, os espíritos já mais evoluidos mas ainda em provas finais por aqui, também enfrentam
a grande dureza dos testes de determinação de um mundo conturbado pelos desatinos dos espiritos menos evoluidos.
O orador espírita Marcel Mariano nos fez uma colocação que não sei se reflete suas conclusões pessoais
ou se tal informação foi trazida a nós pelo mundo espiritual. Disse ele que os espiritos que já perceberam que vão daqui para um mundo pior, já que não lograrão seu lugar no novo mundo (que vai ser aqui mesmo), estão fazendo como aqueles cujas casas foram ou estão sendo retomadas pelos financiadores ("foreclosure"). Ou seja, já que vão ser despejados, tentam destruir a casa que lhes abrigam como num
ato de rebeldia que afeta aqueles que ficarão com a casa deles (exemplo meu). É o "leva, mais voce vai ter sofrer também".

Uma amiga escreveu ontem no seu mural do Facebook algo assim: "Estou tão cansada de viver no meio de gente negativa. Por que as pessoas são tão grosseiras e reclamam de tudo? Por que atualmente elas não apreciam nada na vida? Triste...".   Bem, este comentário, no meu ver, tem muito a ver com o que eu estava escrevendo acima. Pense na forma como somos tratados em quase todos os lugares que passamos no nosso dia a dia. Como somos tratados pelas atendentes em consultórios médicos? E, depois, pelos médicos? Como somos tratados pelos vendedores de seguros, carros, lojas departamentais? Não é mais fácil perguntar onde que somos tratados com respeito, ou seja, as exceções?

Bem, mas não vamos nos perder na análise. Não é uma questão de pais que não souberam criar seus filhos. Tudo tem a ver com o nível espiritual da maioria. Voce já se perguntou "como ele teve coragem de fazer tal coisa?". Pois é. O caso é mais profundo. A incapacidade moral ofusca a intelectual de tal forma, que o nível educacional não se traduz nas virtudes que denotam amadurecimento espiritual.

Pelo menos, vamos ficar preparados: para os "melhorados", o esforço do exercicio da paciência, tolerância, solidariedade, empatia, caridade, e outras tantas virtudes tem que ser redobrado.

Gilberto
Ago 5, 2011 

A Psicologia e o Espiritismo/Psychology and Spiritism

(See English Version below)

Joanna de Angelis já escreveu, através de Divaldo P. Franco, 14 livros em sua "Serie Psicológica". Não conheço nenhum outro autor espiritual de grande penetração entre os estudantes espíritas que tenha dedicado tanto tempo e trabalho para unir essas duas "pontas" tão importantes -- a psicologia e o espiritismo --.  Obviamente, no mundo dos encarnados, são raros os casos de estudos sobre a psicologia humana que faz alguma menção ao lado do ser espiritual.  Em um de seus livros, Joanna de Angelis exclarece o seguinte:

“O Ser real é constituído de corpo, mente e espírito. Dessa forma, uma abordagem psicológica para ser verdadeiramente eficaz deve ter uma visão holística do ser, tratando de seu corpo (físico e periespirítico), de sua mente (consciente, inconsciente e subconsciente) e de seu espírito imortal que traz consigo uma bagagem de experiências anteriores à presente existência e está caminhando para a perfeição Divina.”
----------------------------------------

Joanna de Angelis has already written, through Divaldo P. Franco, 14 books of her "Psychological Series". I am not aware of any other spiritual author with high acceptance among spiritism students that has devoted so much time and effort to close the gap between these two points: psychology and spiritism. Obviously, in the incarnate world, there are only rare cases of studies that mention the spiritual side of human beings. Joanna de Angelis offered the following clarification in one of her books: 
.

"The [human] "being" is actually constituted of body, mind, and spirit. Therefore, a psychological approach to be truly efficient must take a holistic view of this "Being", considering its body (physical and perispiritual), its mind (consciousness, unconsciousness, and subconsciousness), and its eternal spirit which brings the baggage of all previous experiences to the present experience, and which is in its journey to Divine perfection".    

Gilberto

Aug 4, 2011

O ARREPENDIMENTO E O REMORSO

Arrependimento e remorso, duas palavras que se confundem, mas que expressam sentimentos opostos. Enquanto o arrependimento leva a atitudes positivas de renovação interior, o remorso gera atitudes negativas de condenação a si próprio. Se o arrependimento ...induz à busca de mudança de atitudes e correção do próprio erro, o remorso cria na alma sentimentos de revolta, de culpa, de amargura, de anular-se interiormente. Se o arrependimento leva a um crescimento interior pela fé que o inspira, o remorso leva à negação de si próprio pela falta de fé que lhe traria força e coragem para uma busca de renovação. Pelo arrependimento,​ o homem aprende a não mais cometer o mesmo erro. Pelo remorso, ele se entrega a situações de desespero, que podem levá-lo à depressão, à loucura ou até mesmo a atentar contra a própria vida. O arrependimento gera satisfação na alma ao reconhecer em si mesmo as imperfeições de que todos os seres humanos são suscetíveis, mas com a certeza de que poderá melhorar. Pelo remorso, porém, o homem nada percebe além da sua própria dor.

 

(Autor desconhecido).

 

THE THREE OF YOURSELF

When we say things like  "I want to be happy", "I am not happy", "I am sad today", or "I am suffering from such pain...", who are we referring to? I know this question seems funny, but I invite you to think about it for a minute. 

Does the spirit suffer from physical pain? If not, then, when we are "suffering from pain", it is our body that does, not our spirit. So, there is difference between "suffering" and "unhappiness". Similarly, when we feel sad we implicitly mean that that are moments when we are not sad. Could our million-year eternal self be so vulnerable to daily disappointments? Or be so enthused about eventual and short-lived moments of joy? To make things even more complicated, when we say "I want to be happy", are we thinking about our day-to-day terrestrial life, or do we want our spirit to be happy and keep this happiness throughout our lives? 

Maybe, by now, you agree that the question posed at the beginning "who are we referring to?" is not exactly funny. But the solution for this little puzzle is actually very simple. I will, however, comeback with the final part of the story a little later. First, I would like to hear your thoughts about the above. Feel free to send them in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. 

Talk to you soon. 
Gilberto
July 15, 2011