Other Experiences of an English Language Teacher

  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...

  Contemporary man has a great thirst for God. Well, man at any age has had.  We have been designed to love him, and we cannot stand without him. Every person seeks him, in an aware way or without knowing it.  And Jesus Christ is alive, a living person, true God and true man. Actually the second Person of the most holy Trinity.  And the best thing we can do is letting him steer our boat, our rowboat. In life’s seas and oceans and rough seas.  We can talk to him, and with him, to have a tremendous conversation with him, all made up of everyday things, the ones we try to carry out. He is interested in all our things, family, profession, worries, joys, pains …  Where can we find him? The first important thing is for us to try to find him – he does not hide from us. And he is everywhere. And he lives in our souls in grace. And in churches Tabernacles. And in the four gospels of the Bible.  He does not conceal his face. Probably we will not see him physical...

  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...

  With these posts I try to shed some light on everyday issues (if possible). Because this our dear world needs some optimistic view, this afflicted world of ours. Let’s see, with my reads help.  To be optimistic we need a firm base to build that optimism upon. And – good news – we can count on God. On him and on man – I believe we can count on man too, for this latter one can give very good solutions to our afflicted world. It’s what you get when reading Jutta Burggraf (1952-2010). She is so great a writer – well, she was, I mean.  And God has a plan or project for every one of us, indeed he has. And now we’ve got to discover it.  Each person has a vocation, now to be discovered. Do you know yours? God calls and summons each one of us. That can also give a message of hope for people, for our world.  Each human person is free, as you know, and thus he or she has to write their own biography: we have the mission of fulfilling our personal project or vocation. Don...

  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...