Integrity for today’s man

Recently, Catholics celebrated the feast of Saint Alberto Hurtado, a modern saint born in Chile.

A man ahead of his time in his approach to social issues, Fr. Alberto insisted “injustice cause[d] far more evil than [could] be repaired by charity.”

Today, how do you advocate for integrity and justice?

Do you take upon yourself the hard tasks of reading, analyzing, planning and acting on your choices and plans?

How do you deepen that contemplative look, taking in the whole world and seeing how things truly are?

Remember, as Ellie Wiesel once wrote, “one person of integrity can make a difference.”

Today, make a difference in your life or someone’s life.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Mendez.

Passion back in fashion

What is your passion?

Start defining your passions in life by thinking about other things first! Ask yourself these questions. It’s a good practice to take stock from year to year as there are likely changes of which you must become aware.

What’s my mission?

Have you defined your mission to help you choose a course of action?

What are my strengths, values and skills?

How can I bring my purpose to life?

How do I define the contribution I want to make?

How can I bring that contribution I want to make to life?

How will my purpose be meaningful to others?

What is the solution specific to your skill set that will bring the purpose that is meaningful enough to generate the passion I will need to sustain it?

How will I amplify it?

What will I share and how much?

What do I listen for to be truly engaged, genuine and meaningful?

Notes on abjection and horror

Julia Kristeva writes,

It is thus not lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules.

The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite. The traitor, the liar, the criminal with a good conscience, the shameless rapist, the killer who claims he is a savior. . . .

Any crime, because it draws attention to the fragility of the law, is abject, but premeditated crime, cunning murder, hypocritical revenge are even more so because they heighten the display of such fragility.

He who denies morality is not abject; there can be grandeur in amorality and even in crime that flaunts its disrespect for the law—rebellious, liberating, and suicidal crime.

Abjection, on the other hand, is immoral, sinister, scheming, and shady: a terror that dissembles, a hatred that smiles, a passion that uses the body for barter instead of inflaming it, a debtor who sells you up, a friend who stabs you.

Power shift: spirituality

Spirituality beyond established religions is giving men new views of themselves.

Men live in the universe and the universe lives in men.

Service and prayer strengthen our bonds and spirits.

We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
Carl Sagan

Are you a piece of work?

Remember Shakespeare,

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an Angel, in apprehension how like a God! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2

Have you had a moment of purpose?

Richard Leider calls a “courageous act to go into the ‘storm,’ to save another person’s life” a purpose moment.

And everyday, you face many purpose moments — opportunities to give your gifts, your caring, your compassion and your wisdom.

Who have you graced through an act of service beyond yourself?

Do you have HEART?

Do you have the heart to be a man?

+ Humble. Are you modest despite knowing you’re awesome? Are you self-aware and respectful?

+ Effective. Do you get “stuff” done, completing tasks and reaching goals? Do you measurably move the needle on the register and immeasurably add value?

+ Adaptable. Are you constantly changing? Are you a life-long learner?

+ Remarkable. Are you remarkably smart, remarkably creative, remarkably resourceful?

+ Transparent. Are you open and honest with others – and with yourself?

Forgiveness for the modern man

Recognize your shortcomings and humbly ask forgiveness for them.