Other Experiences of an English Language Teacher

  Perhaps you already knew that during the Third Reich, which finished in May 1945, some six million Jews were murdered. Why did Auschwitz concentration camp exist at all? And that was not all evil in the twentieth century, as you well know. Also in our century now some form of slavery exists.  Where was God during Auschwitz? Evil problem is not so simple to explain and convey the origin of, anyway. Our Mother the Church explains that it is not that simple to define why evil. We have to contemplate all the Christian faith to reach some explanation.  God is love and he has created us so as to have other people who could reach happiness too. Moreover we exist to get to know God and to love him and to give him glory. I mean he wished somebody else could enjoy existence happiness.  And he has made us free. Since we are free we can choose well: to love him, now in this life and then after for ever and ever. He wishes we be free. Thus also we can exert bad use of our freed...

  Life actually  may be hard and present dire-straits. But more often than not, what occurs to western man today usually is minor stuff.  Yep, life is hard, but that does not necessarily block out you may also be positive, and optimistic.  I do know that they Christians have God in their lives, and that accounts for a great deal. You may be optimistic if you have a firm base to stand on.  There was a general, one with French Louis XIV, and he was about to die, very old. The king wished to offer him the marshall’s mace as a tribute to his generous and brave life. The old man took hold of the mace, and it is said he said, “It’s bright and beautiful, and quite an honor to me, but what I need now is something else,” and he took hold of a crucifix and covered it with kisses.  One can try and see the better side of things in life. I knew one guy that way. He seemed he was not annoyed by nothing in life, not at all. He responded nice to life, and to other people. ...

  We can be happy. God has a wonderful plan or design for us his children, his sons and daughters.  First he has created us, say, perhaps through evolution, ok. He has called us to life. Even more, he has done so to be his children, as I said before. And he wishes we be happy, in this life, and then after that, in eternal life for ever and ever.  When you recognize and realize he loves you, this is, you are loved by him with tenderness, then you can behold life with confidence. When you also realize you are his son or his daughter, then life changes to better, and you can entertain yourself by talking to and with him.  Prayer is so important for us modern people. I have been to Gibraltar for a lot of times, a lot, and last time I was glad there was a chapel on Main Road with the Host, the Eucharist on the monstrance, for anyone who wants to stop and talk with him. Amazing.  In other words, God has wished we can participate in his supernatural life, beyond anythi...

  You want to be happy and make others be happy too, perhaps your family?  I’ve lately read and thought a bit more on happiness, and now I’m trying to give you some tips that might hopefully help you.  The first premise, and according to Spanish psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estapé, happiness doesn’t depend on what occurs to you, but the perception you have about what happens to you.  If you try and have a positive view of what occurs in your life, well then you may start to move on happiness road.  Happiness is not what happens to me, but how I interpret those things that happen to me. That’s on page 115 in her book Cómo hacer que te pasen cosas buenas (2018, and there’re quite many editions of that bestseller). It’s up to you. You decide between being happy or … not, and I presume you want to.  I know some people who are just positive about their lives. And those same people might have chosen to interpret life things in a negative and pessimistic way. You de...

  As you have already seen, in this blog I write also about our father God, who has dad and mom’s love to us. To each one of us.  And for me – and many people alike – his existence is almost evident, for we firmly believe in him and talk to him – and with him – at any moment.  It’s so also when you think that he exists, because somebody must have made all this, this wonderful world, and each person. And the universe, which is unfolding itself on NASA’s last discoveries.  Also because we may have seen John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) and there ensues the idea of one God, after each person’s thirst for plenitude and happiness, and family.  When you admit his existence, even more, when you treat him personally, well, then, everything makes sense, and you may feel satisfied. As well life’s pains and sorrows have sense.  Otherwise if we suppress God, as Paul Sartre did, then all ends up without meaning.  Well, faith is a gift. A gift by him, but one every...

  Today I wanted to write on some perspectives on happiness from what I’ve read and thought of lately, and pushed in some way by the pursuing of happiness everyone commits to.  Happiness is something one cannot try to accomplish on its own, but something you encounter when you live with plenitude and in accordance to your nature.  If someone seeks to be happy, that person may not reach it – it’s more something that ensues when you fulfill what you are for, when you live in accordance to what you are.  You know, great Aristotle used to say that you are happy when you acquire virtues, like hard-working, love to others, sincerity and honesty, fortitude, joy, solidarity, generosity, endurance capability, abnegation, professionalism, etcetera. Virtues let you carry out a life that is worth living it. They let you carry out what’s good and that with facility and liberty. You can choose what is upright just because you wish to do it.  Alejandro Llano was a Spanish phil...

  So we have said that God, our loving father, has a project or vocation for each one of us, and now we have to discover what that is, also with his help.  And we are beings who can love others, God and other people. And we need to be loved, by other people, but also we are loved by him, with tenderness.  We cannot live without loving others. Even ultimately only God can fill our heart – we have some infinite thirst that only God can quench and fill with plenitude. Saint Augustine said, and this sentence is famous, that Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee . And Saint Augustine did know much about love and about seeking love from others.  All that can lead us to ask ourselves, What am I on this earth for? Everyone wonders about that point, and the answer is ultimately, and primarily, on finding out what my vocation or project by God is.  As well we can say that all of us seek happiness, and if this life...

  What is a man, a woman? You are, I am what we do, what we think of, what we read, what we love. I am free so ultimately I am what I do.  And what I do in a repeated way constitutes a habit. And I can do good things, or otherwise evil things. I can build up virtues or otherwise vices. I can be an honest, hard-working, loving, attentive, generous, committed, friendly man, or otherwise all the contrary. Well, also I do good and bad things, as any person does.  You can find about this in old Aristotle, or in more modern Jutta Burggraf. A happy man or a happy woman are the ones that have virtues, that act in accordance with human dignity, and we are (let’s not forget it) sons and daughters of God.  And we can let God lead our boat, the one each person is. I can let God direct my life: I can count on him. Once someone told Saint John Paul II he was an atheist, and the Pope responded, You feel so bad when you don’t have God!  We can feel and be happy, that’s today’s ...

  Everybody knows that in modern urban life in our Western countries a lot of people go along life in a hectic and stressed out way – it seems we don’t have time for anything.  Where are we going to?  It also seems we don’t have time to muse, meditate, reflect, consider, contemplate life and beauty. To enroll in a spiritual retreat for a long weekend? No way, man, impossible. But, Are you sure you can’t attend one?  It seems we don’t have time to cultivate our interior, and how are we going along life? What are our life goals? We must break this up. No way, we can’t keep going like that.  Besides many people kind of they don’t like to face themselves. It’s like they don’t like their lives, the way they are living. Do you have a chance to stop to face yourself? Where are you going?  Also it looks like quite many people can’t stand silence. Music and music, and a crazy chattering. But let’s listen to silence. Let’s listen to ourselves. Let’s take off the head...

  So we have the premise that God exists. And that’s something rational, I mean, God is something you can reach through reason. At the same time it is not something evident – otherwise there would be no atheists nor agnostics. Thus God is not something evident, but nearly so for people who try to live with him by talking to and with him. God is not something, but someone.  Have you ever thought about what is there after this (short) life? I know you have, because everyone wonders about that.  Have you noticed human thirst for plenitude? For love? For unconditional love? Mountains of movies and novels tell about that love – who has not promised eternal love to the loved person? The world has plenty of Romeos and Juliets.  There must be something else after this life.  Man is free, we’ve stated. And responsible, at the same time and inseparably. And now think of all good that a person does in his or her lifetime. Or evil they may do. And when you are called to die...

https://www.delibris.org/es/news/la-lectura-como-conquista-de-la-libertad  

  Do you ever think of life sense or meaning? I mean, what are we here in this world for? I presume you do, you ask about that, for everyone does.  If you have a transcendent view of life, much better, and you’ll easily find that meaning, that Why are we here?  And we must consider God as our creator, and our father. And we have to behave well, for him and his glory, to please our father.  On every person you can think of finding a trace of God. Man and woman are a mystery ultimately. You cannot reach all they mean. Man and woman are unreachable ultimately. And furthermore if you consider their biographies. Man and woman are not just evolved animals. Something else. Much else.  To consider things that way may be helped by thinking. And reading good literature. Most classics are good literature. It’s what best writers have thought of. An example? The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. Also reading good essays. If you’re a teacher I recommend Carlos Cardona’s Ética...

  When we watch some movie, with its pathos and music and the actors’ performance, we likely realize that man tends to happiness, and love, but firstly to happiness. And we human people aim high: we do not want to be confined and cooped to small limits: I mean, man tends to the infinite, to God. I said before that we tend to happiness and love. And thus what is happiness, but loving another person, loving other people? You cannot be happy if you do not love another person – there is not Me without You . This latter idea was taken from Ricardo Yepes Stork and Javier Aranguren. I think I’m getting some ideas from José Ramón Ayllón, who is an expert at ethics and at a wonderful view of man. This latter person is a teacher, philosopher, and lecturer.