I finally caved in recently and bought an iPad2 for I saw how a number of my fellow instructors were using it as a teaching aid and for workout programming and I thought that it was a great idea.
Needless to say I have been using it for all kinds of other stuff besides work and it is addictive. eBooks, games... I really get why gamblers cannot leave the table, looking for the next big win.
In order to curb my compulsive habit with regards to a particular game, I had to delete an app for I have the willpower of a starving person standing in front of a sumptuous buffet spread. Not good.
Just because we can do something does not mean we should do it. There is a huge difference between can and should. Technology is a big culprit when it comes to making wise choices about how we use it for we seem to apply an "anything goes" attitude and a hedonistic morality.
The virtual nature of the web has dehumanized our decisions. We reveal intimate details about our lives with no thought for the appropriateness of our actions and its possible repercussions.
Loneliness or restlessness nudges us to communicate with others in chat rooms, but in such a manner that is often not healthy for relationships are often one-dimensional and predicated on feeding selfish, personal needs only.
Then there is the addictive quality of gaming leading to bizarre but real life stories of parents who let an infant starve to death for they were busy looking after a virtual baby.
There is no more space for silence to live or for stillness to breathe and blossom into a full blown "conversation" with our Maker that enables us to consistently see truth and meaning in our lives.
Instead we pursue things that do not satisfy and convince ourselves that more of the same thing is the road to our personal happiness.
Thus, I read with interest Pope Benedict's recent birthday homily and found it personally enriching. He spoke of three things that have coloured his life.
The first is Bernadette Soubirous, a poor, uneducated French girl who because she was "pure and genuine in heart", was able see Mother Mary who led her to discover a source of "living water", "water that gives purity and health", that is now the site of many miraculous healings in Lourdes.
The Pope goes on to elaborate:
I think we can consider this water as an image of the truth that comes to us in faith: truth not simulated but uncontaminated. In fact, to be able to live, to be able to become pure, we are in need of having in us the nostalgia of the pure life, of the truth that is not distorted, of what is not contaminated by corruption, of being men without stain. See how this day, this little Saint has always been for me a sign that has indicated where the living water comes from of which we are in need – the water that purifies us and gives us life -- and a sign of how we should be: with all the knowledge and all the capacities, which also are necessary, we must not lose the simple heart, the simple look of the heart, capable of seeing the essential, and we must always pray to the Lord that we preserve in us the humility that enables the heart to be clear-sighted – to see what is simple and essential, the beauty and goodness of God – and thus find the source from which the water comes that gives life and purifies.
The second person who has inspired him is Benedict Joseph Labre, "the pious mendicant pilgrim of the 18th century" who traversed Europe in search of all its shrines in fulfilment of his personal calling.
Pope Ben had this to say of his namesake:
We can also say: a somewhat particular Saint who, begging, wandered from one shrine to another and wished to do nothing other than pray and with this give witness to what matters in this life: God. He certainly does not represent an example to emulate, but he is a, a finger pointing to the essential. He shows us that God alone suffices, that beyond all that in this world, beyond our needs and capacities, what counts, the essential is to know God. He alone suffices. And this “God alone” he indicates to us in a dramatic way.
...makes evident that he who opens himself to God is no stranger to the world or to men, rather he finds brothers, because on God’s side, borders fall, God alone can eliminate borders because thanks to Him we are all only brothers, we are part of one another; it renders present that the oneness of God means, at the same time, the brotherhood and reconciliation of men, the demolishing of borders that unites and heals us
The third thing is not a person but the "Paschal Mystery". For he was born to parents who lived in uncertain times yet were open to God's will in their lives and imparted their singular faith to their son since his baptism on Holy Saturday.
On the same day I was born, thanks to the care of my parents, I was also reborn by water and the Spirit, as we just heard in the Gospel. In the first place, there is the gift of life that my parents gave me in very difficult times, and for which I owe them my gratitude. However, it is not taken for granted that man’s life is in itself a gift. Can it really be a beautiful gift? Do we know what is incumbent on man in the dark times he is facing – also in those more luminous ones that might come? Can we foresee to what anxieties, to what terrible events he might be exposed? Is it right to give life thus, simply? Is it responsible or is it too uncertain? It is a problematic gift if it remains independent. Biological life of itself is a gift, and yet it is surrounded by a great question. It becomes a real gift only if, together with it, one can make a promise that is stronger than any misfortune that can threaten one, if it is immersed in a force that guarantees that it is good to be man, that for this person it is a good no matter what the future might bring. Thus, associated to birth is rebirth, the certainty that, in truth, it is good for us to be, because the promise is stronger than the threats.
This is the meaning of rebirth from water and the Spirit: to be immersed in the promise that God alone can make: it is good that you are, and it is true regardless of what happens. From this certainty, I have been able to live, reborn by water and the Spirit. Nicodemus asks the Lord: “Can an old man be born again?” Now, rebirth is given to us in Baptism, but we must grow continually in it, we must always let ourselves me immersed in God’s promise, to be truly reborn in the great, new family of God which is stronger than all the weaknesses and all the negative powers that threaten us. This is why this is a day of great thanksgiving.
In this homily are all the ingredients to the richness of contentment in life, through all the travails of life: a faith that seeks God only, one that is pure, humble and simple, and therefore life-giving, like water. For God alone suffices because He is the light that "is stronger than any darkness" whose "goodness is stronger than any evil of this world".
I give thanks for his wise words and am reminded that new toys can bring pleasure, but the essential things in life can be found only when one is stripped of all distraction, pretence and worldly adornment. I would do well to keep my focus on God alone.
To read the entire homily, go to: http://www.zenit.org/article-34615?l=english
Needless to say I have been using it for all kinds of other stuff besides work and it is addictive. eBooks, games... I really get why gamblers cannot leave the table, looking for the next big win.
In order to curb my compulsive habit with regards to a particular game, I had to delete an app for I have the willpower of a starving person standing in front of a sumptuous buffet spread. Not good.
Just because we can do something does not mean we should do it. There is a huge difference between can and should. Technology is a big culprit when it comes to making wise choices about how we use it for we seem to apply an "anything goes" attitude and a hedonistic morality.
The virtual nature of the web has dehumanized our decisions. We reveal intimate details about our lives with no thought for the appropriateness of our actions and its possible repercussions.
Loneliness or restlessness nudges us to communicate with others in chat rooms, but in such a manner that is often not healthy for relationships are often one-dimensional and predicated on feeding selfish, personal needs only.
Then there is the addictive quality of gaming leading to bizarre but real life stories of parents who let an infant starve to death for they were busy looking after a virtual baby.
There is no more space for silence to live or for stillness to breathe and blossom into a full blown "conversation" with our Maker that enables us to consistently see truth and meaning in our lives.
Instead we pursue things that do not satisfy and convince ourselves that more of the same thing is the road to our personal happiness.
Thus, I read with interest Pope Benedict's recent birthday homily and found it personally enriching. He spoke of three things that have coloured his life.
The first is Bernadette Soubirous, a poor, uneducated French girl who because she was "pure and genuine in heart", was able see Mother Mary who led her to discover a source of "living water", "water that gives purity and health", that is now the site of many miraculous healings in Lourdes.
The Pope goes on to elaborate:
I think we can consider this water as an image of the truth that comes to us in faith: truth not simulated but uncontaminated. In fact, to be able to live, to be able to become pure, we are in need of having in us the nostalgia of the pure life, of the truth that is not distorted, of what is not contaminated by corruption, of being men without stain. See how this day, this little Saint has always been for me a sign that has indicated where the living water comes from of which we are in need – the water that purifies us and gives us life -- and a sign of how we should be: with all the knowledge and all the capacities, which also are necessary, we must not lose the simple heart, the simple look of the heart, capable of seeing the essential, and we must always pray to the Lord that we preserve in us the humility that enables the heart to be clear-sighted – to see what is simple and essential, the beauty and goodness of God – and thus find the source from which the water comes that gives life and purifies.
The second person who has inspired him is Benedict Joseph Labre, "the pious mendicant pilgrim of the 18th century" who traversed Europe in search of all its shrines in fulfilment of his personal calling.
Pope Ben had this to say of his namesake:
We can also say: a somewhat particular Saint who, begging, wandered from one shrine to another and wished to do nothing other than pray and with this give witness to what matters in this life: God. He certainly does not represent an example to emulate, but he is a, a finger pointing to the essential. He shows us that God alone suffices, that beyond all that in this world, beyond our needs and capacities, what counts, the essential is to know God. He alone suffices. And this “God alone” he indicates to us in a dramatic way.
...makes evident that he who opens himself to God is no stranger to the world or to men, rather he finds brothers, because on God’s side, borders fall, God alone can eliminate borders because thanks to Him we are all only brothers, we are part of one another; it renders present that the oneness of God means, at the same time, the brotherhood and reconciliation of men, the demolishing of borders that unites and heals us
The third thing is not a person but the "Paschal Mystery". For he was born to parents who lived in uncertain times yet were open to God's will in their lives and imparted their singular faith to their son since his baptism on Holy Saturday.
On the same day I was born, thanks to the care of my parents, I was also reborn by water and the Spirit, as we just heard in the Gospel. In the first place, there is the gift of life that my parents gave me in very difficult times, and for which I owe them my gratitude. However, it is not taken for granted that man’s life is in itself a gift. Can it really be a beautiful gift? Do we know what is incumbent on man in the dark times he is facing – also in those more luminous ones that might come? Can we foresee to what anxieties, to what terrible events he might be exposed? Is it right to give life thus, simply? Is it responsible or is it too uncertain? It is a problematic gift if it remains independent. Biological life of itself is a gift, and yet it is surrounded by a great question. It becomes a real gift only if, together with it, one can make a promise that is stronger than any misfortune that can threaten one, if it is immersed in a force that guarantees that it is good to be man, that for this person it is a good no matter what the future might bring. Thus, associated to birth is rebirth, the certainty that, in truth, it is good for us to be, because the promise is stronger than the threats.
This is the meaning of rebirth from water and the Spirit: to be immersed in the promise that God alone can make: it is good that you are, and it is true regardless of what happens. From this certainty, I have been able to live, reborn by water and the Spirit. Nicodemus asks the Lord: “Can an old man be born again?” Now, rebirth is given to us in Baptism, but we must grow continually in it, we must always let ourselves me immersed in God’s promise, to be truly reborn in the great, new family of God which is stronger than all the weaknesses and all the negative powers that threaten us. This is why this is a day of great thanksgiving.
In this homily are all the ingredients to the richness of contentment in life, through all the travails of life: a faith that seeks God only, one that is pure, humble and simple, and therefore life-giving, like water. For God alone suffices because He is the light that "is stronger than any darkness" whose "goodness is stronger than any evil of this world".
I give thanks for his wise words and am reminded that new toys can bring pleasure, but the essential things in life can be found only when one is stripped of all distraction, pretence and worldly adornment. I would do well to keep my focus on God alone.
To read the entire homily, go to: http://www.zenit.org/article-34615?l=english
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