Guided Meditation for Being Kind
Being kind is being nice and it makes the person that you are being nice to feel good, and it makes you feel good, too!
Being kind is a passport to making friends, also. When we see someone that is having a problem and then step in to help, everyone benefits - both the one being helped and the one helping out.
Guided meditation about being kind
Start by sitting up straight in your meditation place, and begin doing even and natural breathing like this - breathe in 1 count and breathe out 1 count, and repeat this even pattern while sitting still and thinking. You don't need to say the numbers during the meditation. Just keep up the even rhythm of breathing.
If you are sitting on a cushion on the floor, fold in your legs and place your folded hands in your lap. If you are sitting in a chair, place the soles of your feet on the floor and place your hands in your lap. If you like, keep a journal and pen at your side to write about any thoughts that come to you about being kind.
Breathing evenly in and out calms the mind and body and is a good preparation for any meditation. And keeping up the even pattern during the meditation gives you a clearer mind and relaxed body so you can turn all your attention to the topic of the meditation.
Now, imagine that you are walking along the street on the sidewalk and you see a woman senior citizen who seems to have too many bags of groceries. She looks like they are too heavy for her.
You run up to her and politely volunteer to carry some of her bags home.
She is grateful and you spend a few minutes going out of your way walking home with her.
Now, notice that you feel like you have more energy than even before you saw the woman needing help. This is what being kind does - helps out another and gives you more energy, too!
To finish your meditation, take a deep breath in and let it out, then open your eyes and stretch out. Write down any new thoughts that have come to you from thinking about being kind.
Take this thought with you: If more people in our world would take the time to be kind to each other, we would realize we really do live in a big worldwide human family.
by
susan
edited by
robin
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
reflection on love
Reflection On love
Love.
The four letter word that everybody uses.
Tarnished by familiarity.
Sought by all.
Found by some.
Treasured by many.
Abused by others.
Love.
Too big to be described in just one word, according to the Greeks.
'The greatest commandment,' according to Jesus.
'Greater than faith or hope,' according to Paul.
'Changes everything', according to Lloyd Webber.
Love.
The paradox of life:
liberating and constraining;
Vulnerable and strong;
Sustaining and consuming;
Free and yet costly.
But more than a playground crush or the passions of puberty,
More than religious duty, respectability or impeccable manners,
Love is the power that heals and inspires…
That looks beyond itself and puts others first…
That sees the bigger picture and makes the humble gesture…
Love.
Sourced in God,
revealed in Jesus,
flowing through us,
and demanding a response.
by
Bro. Robin
Love.
The four letter word that everybody uses.
Tarnished by familiarity.
Sought by all.
Found by some.
Treasured by many.
Abused by others.
Love.
Too big to be described in just one word, according to the Greeks.
'The greatest commandment,' according to Jesus.
'Greater than faith or hope,' according to Paul.
'Changes everything', according to Lloyd Webber.
Love.
The paradox of life:
liberating and constraining;
Vulnerable and strong;
Sustaining and consuming;
Free and yet costly.
But more than a playground crush or the passions of puberty,
More than religious duty, respectability or impeccable manners,
Love is the power that heals and inspires…
That looks beyond itself and puts others first…
That sees the bigger picture and makes the humble gesture…
Love.
Sourced in God,
revealed in Jesus,
flowing through us,
and demanding a response.
by
Bro. Robin
why be a brother
Vocation
WHY BE A BROTHER?
by Sean Sammon, fms
Selfishness! That’s an odd reason to give for being a religious brother during the last decade of the twentieth century. However, it’s not the clawing greed many thought characteristic of the 1990s.
No, it’s another kind of “selfishness” - one born of this experience: looking around, asking more questions about life than I care to remember, examining a number of options, and finding myself saying, “I really haven’t found a more rewarding or satisfying way of spending my life than being a religious brother.”
Brothers are a fairly misunderstood lot. Although you hear it less frequently today, years ago many Catholics asked about brothers: “Why don’t they just go the whole way?” they wondered quietly if these men simply weren’t good enough or smart enough to be priests.
Concerns like these really miss the point of what brotherhood is all about. For those of us who are brothers, the title says a great deal more about who we are than about what we do.
About two-and-a-half years ago, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men produced a video entitled, Brother is a Verb! This thirty-minute production takes a look at five religious brothers: a physician at Johns Hopkins, the director of an education program in California serving Hispanic American adults, the pastoral administrator of South Dakota’s Our Lady of the Sioux parish, and an administrator and teacher working with young native Americans at the Kola alternative School on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Each of these men is involved in wonderful and needed ministries. Their works, however, are not what impress you. It’s who they are that lingers even when the video has ended. All five are brothers who brother.
Why Not a Priest?
I’ve had other experiences of the brother’s vocation being misunderstood. Several years ago, a participant in a workshop I was conducting came up after one of the presentations and said, “The church has a real shortage of priests these days. You’re well educated, a good teacher, and seem to be able to listen to people - don’t you think you owe it to the church to consider ordination?” this question misses the boat on the brother’s vocation: brothers are not priests because the Lord called them to be brothers. It’s that simple.
The brother’s vocation is important to the church today. Brother Brice Byzeynski, fms coined the title of the Brother is a Verb! video mentioned earlier. In doing so, he captured a central aspect of the religious brother’s identity. We are men who witness to Christ’s presence as our brother. We do this by living out the evangelical councils - poverty, chastity and obedience - in community and serving the church and world in our apostolates.
Once again, though, it’s who we are that counts most; it’s not what we do but how we approach what we do that makes a difference.
Our world today greatly needs the witness of brothers. Christ was clear in his message: he wanted us to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Brothers relate to others like real brothers in a family, not for their own gain but for the common good.
When Jesus walked among us, he was vulnerable, loving, challenging, inspiring, and, most of all, human. Religious brothers strive to do the same, not always successfully but at least sincerely.
What about myself? Why am I a brother; why do I remain one? I first met the Marist Brothers thirty years ago while a student at St. Agnes High School in New York City. I was immediately taken with these men. They appeared happy and seemed to love what they were doing.
It was several years later, while in the Marist novitiate in Tyngsboro, MA that I learned their history as a group and started to appreciate the profound spirituality that motivated them. I remember what first drew me to them as if it were yesterday: their love of life, their enthusiasm, their happiness as a group. Now, twenty-five years later, those qualities still keep me going.
An Inspiring Founder
Over the last twenty-five years, I’ve also come to appreciate and love the remarkable founder of my congregation, Marcellin Champagnat. His story is incredible. Marcellin acted on the inspiration to found the Marist Brothers in his late twenties. He worked hard to teach our early members what it meant to be a brother. He believed that the brothers, working with other branches of the Marist family, could again bring the Gospel to a church and world torn apart by the revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The young people of today’s world have needs as great as those Marcellin and our early brothers found in their day. Toda’s youth needed people who are willing to brother them. In my own twenty-five years of Marist life, I’ve worked as a high school teacher, guidance counselor and later as a clinical psychologist. Presently I’m serving as provincial of my order. However, whether working in schools, hospitals, treatment centers, or offices, I’ve been reminded time and again that it’s being a brother that counts.
I’ve also come to learn that the dream of Marcellin Champagnat has, over time, also become mine. The Lord’s call to me is to brother. I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit that there have been doubts and questions. Nevertheless, whenever they’ve occurred, I’ve discovered once again that being a brother is the best way for me to grow in my love of the Lord and in his plan for me. Sure, there are many other ways I could live out my life, and they too would allow me to serve the church and other people. None though would ever be quite as satisfying as being a brother.
WHY BE A BROTHER?
by Sean Sammon, fms
Selfishness! That’s an odd reason to give for being a religious brother during the last decade of the twentieth century. However, it’s not the clawing greed many thought characteristic of the 1990s.
No, it’s another kind of “selfishness” - one born of this experience: looking around, asking more questions about life than I care to remember, examining a number of options, and finding myself saying, “I really haven’t found a more rewarding or satisfying way of spending my life than being a religious brother.”
Brothers are a fairly misunderstood lot. Although you hear it less frequently today, years ago many Catholics asked about brothers: “Why don’t they just go the whole way?” they wondered quietly if these men simply weren’t good enough or smart enough to be priests.
Concerns like these really miss the point of what brotherhood is all about. For those of us who are brothers, the title says a great deal more about who we are than about what we do.
About two-and-a-half years ago, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men produced a video entitled, Brother is a Verb! This thirty-minute production takes a look at five religious brothers: a physician at Johns Hopkins, the director of an education program in California serving Hispanic American adults, the pastoral administrator of South Dakota’s Our Lady of the Sioux parish, and an administrator and teacher working with young native Americans at the Kola alternative School on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Each of these men is involved in wonderful and needed ministries. Their works, however, are not what impress you. It’s who they are that lingers even when the video has ended. All five are brothers who brother.
Why Not a Priest?
I’ve had other experiences of the brother’s vocation being misunderstood. Several years ago, a participant in a workshop I was conducting came up after one of the presentations and said, “The church has a real shortage of priests these days. You’re well educated, a good teacher, and seem to be able to listen to people - don’t you think you owe it to the church to consider ordination?” this question misses the boat on the brother’s vocation: brothers are not priests because the Lord called them to be brothers. It’s that simple.
The brother’s vocation is important to the church today. Brother Brice Byzeynski, fms coined the title of the Brother is a Verb! video mentioned earlier. In doing so, he captured a central aspect of the religious brother’s identity. We are men who witness to Christ’s presence as our brother. We do this by living out the evangelical councils - poverty, chastity and obedience - in community and serving the church and world in our apostolates.
Once again, though, it’s who we are that counts most; it’s not what we do but how we approach what we do that makes a difference.
Our world today greatly needs the witness of brothers. Christ was clear in his message: he wanted us to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Brothers relate to others like real brothers in a family, not for their own gain but for the common good.
When Jesus walked among us, he was vulnerable, loving, challenging, inspiring, and, most of all, human. Religious brothers strive to do the same, not always successfully but at least sincerely.
What about myself? Why am I a brother; why do I remain one? I first met the Marist Brothers thirty years ago while a student at St. Agnes High School in New York City. I was immediately taken with these men. They appeared happy and seemed to love what they were doing.
It was several years later, while in the Marist novitiate in Tyngsboro, MA that I learned their history as a group and started to appreciate the profound spirituality that motivated them. I remember what first drew me to them as if it were yesterday: their love of life, their enthusiasm, their happiness as a group. Now, twenty-five years later, those qualities still keep me going.
An Inspiring Founder
Over the last twenty-five years, I’ve also come to appreciate and love the remarkable founder of my congregation, Marcellin Champagnat. His story is incredible. Marcellin acted on the inspiration to found the Marist Brothers in his late twenties. He worked hard to teach our early members what it meant to be a brother. He believed that the brothers, working with other branches of the Marist family, could again bring the Gospel to a church and world torn apart by the revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The young people of today’s world have needs as great as those Marcellin and our early brothers found in their day. Toda’s youth needed people who are willing to brother them. In my own twenty-five years of Marist life, I’ve worked as a high school teacher, guidance counselor and later as a clinical psychologist. Presently I’m serving as provincial of my order. However, whether working in schools, hospitals, treatment centers, or offices, I’ve been reminded time and again that it’s being a brother that counts.
I’ve also come to learn that the dream of Marcellin Champagnat has, over time, also become mine. The Lord’s call to me is to brother. I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit that there have been doubts and questions. Nevertheless, whenever they’ve occurred, I’ve discovered once again that being a brother is the best way for me to grow in my love of the Lord and in his plan for me. Sure, there are many other ways I could live out my life, and they too would allow me to serve the church and other people. None though would ever be quite as satisfying as being a brother.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
auto biography of robin
hello my dear friends,
welcome to resource of robin
I am robinston from India. I am a religious belong to the congrecation little brothers of mary. I am from state of Tamilnadu and my district called thirunelveli. my little village is koottappanai. it is village close to uvari. you can visit the uvari in www.uvari.com. i am very happy to invite you to use this blog and. please send your comments to
thank you,
greetings from,
robinston.
welcome to resource of robin
I am robinston from India. I am a religious belong to the congrecation little brothers of mary. I am from state of Tamilnadu and my district called thirunelveli. my little village is koottappanai. it is village close to uvari. you can visit the uvari in www.uvari.com. i am very happy to invite you to use this blog and. please send your comments to
thank you,
greetings from,
robinston.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)