Perspectives of a Wanderer

After one delay, I finally met with my Spiritual Director today.  Since we already knew each other (I have been on a couple of retreats with him), it was relatively straightforward.

I went over the main reason for getting Spiritual Direction, which was “where am I in my spiritual life/growth”.  Fortunately, where I got the idea and the stages were from a priest of his Order whose CD I happen to have.

After going though my prayer life (which has been in the dumps lately), spiritual readings, Mass attendance, and other things like my work schedule, he suggested the following:

• Prayers: Along with my current prayers, which, right now, are essentially the Morning and Evening Prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours, I am to pray the Rosary daily.  We will probably be adding more in the next couple of months.
• Spiritual Reading: This has been practically non-existent in the past couple of months.  This is to be divided into the following:
  • Lectio Divina: A couple of chapters daily from the Bible.
  • Spiritual classics like “The Imitation of Christ” and “Introduction to the Devout Life”.  Fortunately, I have both in print version and on my iPhone.
  • Lives of the saints.
• Attend Daily Mass more often.  Currently, I am doing that once a week on Mondays only because I am at my parish in the evenings.
• Eucharistic Adoration.  This will include making a Holy Hour at least one a month. My Spiritual Director suggested First Friday’s, which I will do, but I also commented that I would try to do this also for the Passio Domini on Thursdays.

We are to meet monthly for the next couple of months to discuss my progress.  Since I see him regularly on Sundays, I will be able to talk to him if I have any issues.  I also have his email address if I need it.

It should be an interesting year ahead for me.  Which reminds me, I still need to do Evening Prayers

In An Eureka Moment, I mentioned that I had finally figured out what would be my first area of direction with my Spiritual Director.  That area would be ““What stage in my Spiritual Development am I at?”  I also stated that “Now that I have the topic in hand, I can call my Spiritual Director, and set up an appointment with him.  That is of course, when I get up enough courage to call him.”

Well, I finally got up the courage and called him yesterday and left him a message. This afternoon, he called me back and we now have an appointment to meet this coming Thursday.

I have other areas to discuss with him, but I will stick with this for the moment.  Will report back after the meeting.

I will make no bones about it.  I am not in favor of nor am I watching the winter “games” (or any of the future “games” either summer or winter).  To me, it is a hypocritical farce steeped in the socio-economic plagues of Relativism and Materialism (not to mention probably Socialism and Global Capitalism).

The amount of money, time, and effort that goes into something that only lasts a couple of weeks is, in my opinion, obscene. Just thing of what could be done with that money, time, and effort (both public and private) that went into the “games”.

Yes, some infrastructure improvements are made, but they are geared, and many are temporary, to supporting the games.  And, when you add in the fact that most of the facilities built will be either underutilized or even abandoned/torn down after the games are over, it further exacerbates the waste of money that could go to better uses.

Add into the fact all the controversies and corruption (just search for them on-line) that not only goes into the bidding process, but also after the games are awarded, and it makes you wonder why criminal charges have not been filed against many of the organizers and the associated organizations. It has become one big bribery racket.

Finally, and this goes for society as a whole.  These “games” have become a forum for the “politically correct” agenda crowd.  The overt propaganda is sickening.

As I said, I am not watching any of this farce.  Instead, I am doing a lot of reading and other things (most important being the start of Lent).  Of course, I have gotten a lot of grief for the position I have taken.  In fact, I had to “adjust” Plurk because of it.

In this ever so increasingly dangerous world, I have been trying determine if there is even a safe place on earth in which to live.  Even though no place is completely safe, more and more, I am coming to the conclusion that South America may be the safest place to live.

The fist reason I am saying this is the conflict with Islamic terrorists with the West.  In my opinion, this makes North America, Europe, & the Middle East unsafe.  This is especially true now with Iran coming closer and closer to getting the capability, if they do not have it already, of producing a nuclear bomb and the capacity of delivering such a weapon to places like Israel and Europe.

The second reason is the growing tensions, both economically & militarily, between China and Russia with the West adds Asia into the Mix.  The prevailing Marxist ideology in both countries (yes, there is still a great Marxist influence in Russia) makes them want to not only control their populace, but that of the whole world.  Marxism is International Socialism.  While they do want to control the world, they see the US and Europe as their primary adversary to this control.

Add in the ever-increasing Demographic Winter in both countries and further complicates the tensions.  With the aging populace in both countries they are becoming more desperate to assert their control on the world before they are no longer able to.

No, I am not saying that South America is a utopia.  Far from it.  Yes, there are unsafe areas (Venezuela and parts of Columbia come to mind) but, in comparison to the rest of the world, South America, in my opinion is looking better and better.

The recent storm on the east coast as made me realize that we are an over-dependent society.  In fact, in my opinion, it as gotten to the point that it borders on or is, in many cases, codependency. We are, for the most case, incapable of living without the “conveniences” of modern society.

We saw this before the storm with the total panic where grocery stores, the primary source of food these days, were stripped bare of goods.  We saw it during the storm where people were panicking with fear of freezing due to the loss of power.  Yet, today, a little over 24 hours after the storm started not completed, much was getting back to “normal”.

We are so dependent on getting out food from stores and our heating (and cooling) from others that many would live only a very short time if they were suddenly gone.  This is a recent development.

Not more than a mere 100 years ago, a storm like this would have been a yawn.  People would have enough food to survive a period of time and heat would of come from wood or coal fired furnace that was stocked for just such an event.  Of course in those days, one would probably not be aware of the coming storm.

Our modern “progressive” society frowns on people who strive to be self-reliant.  It is all about control as if people are incapable of fending for themselves.  And guess what, THEY ARE WINNING.  Most of us are either “wage slaves” of the plague of Capitalism plague or “slaves”, either via welfare or working for, of the plague of Socialism.

We must get back to the point to where “events” like this storm is just a minor “inconvenience” for a day or so, not a matter of life and death.  I for one am looking into being able to live “off the grid” as much as possible.  In fact, I would love to build a community off the grid just to show it is possible.

It may be “politically incorrect” but, to be blunt, I could care less.  We must get back to a point were we can survive without depending on the plagues of Socialism & Capitalism.

For just over a month, I have been on a diet. This means I have been limiting the portions in my meals and gearing those portions to provide the most nutritional value as possible.

In that time, I may of eaten at a “fast food” restaurant just over a dozen times with most of them being at one well know franchise that has a selection of items that are conducive to those on a diet. Those other times, for the most part, I have limited myself to the limited selections with fewer calories.

One thing I have noticed is that the portions of those meals are way more than what I normally make when I prepare the meal. For instance, tonight I ate at my favorite Chinese “fast food” restaurant since it is one of the few places that has seafood (in this case shrimp) that is not fried and they will cook it to order (I like a Szechwan that is very spicy). Now the Shrimp with Mixed Vegetables portion of the meal was reasonable. However, the meal also came with rice and that portion was almost two cups. To me, I now see this as excessive (I only ate half of it).

This got me to thinking that we are a society of excesses. The socio-economic plague of Materialism has instilled a culture of greed that equates bigger or more as being better. Moderation is to be scorned today.

We see this in the “super” or “king” sizing of meals. Houses being built have to be bigger and have more amenities or they will not sell. We have seen the consequences of these excesses with the financial crisis and the economic repercussions that have occurred because of them.

Another consequence of this green and excess is that God has been, for the most part, removed from society. In my opinion, this is because Our Lord is seen an impediment to the greed and excess.  There is no place for God in a world of greed and excess. Man has replaced God as a “supreme being” in society.

We need to examine our lives and get rid of any excesses that have built up in it.  This means anything and everything.  We do not need that 5,000 square foot mansion and that giant SUV in the three-car garage.

We also need to move God back to his rightful place as the center of our lives.  God is the only exception to excesses. One cannot get too much of God (and I am not talking about gorging ourselves on the Eucharist).

Moving God to the center of my life has become my main goal in life.  This has changed my plans many things.  I still want to buy a nice plot of land, but now it is only a few acres (unless I decide to go into farming) where I can grow (and maybe raise) much of my own food.  I have also started to modify the plans for if I decide to build my own house.  I do not need to build myself a four-bedroom mansion.  I just need a dwelling that will meet my basic needs.

I also plan on replacing my current car.  However, I do not plan on buying a new car but am looking at used cars that will, again, meet my basic needs.  I have not decided on what type (although I am leaning towards maybe a Subaru Forrester or a small pickup) but I am not looking at any gaudy status vehicle.

Finally, getting rid of the excesses, mean simplifying my life.  If this means doing without some things, fine.  I probably did not need those things anyways.  God is my need now.

Recently, where I work, the company instituted a new on-line social networking policy. Essentially, it states, you keep your private/personal networks and blogs separate from your professional social network and blogs.  This policy I totally agree with.

For the most part, I have been doing it all along.  The only exceptions are/were:

1. A few current and former Co-workers were on my Facebook. That has been remedies.  In fact, my boss was thinking of doing the same thing.
2. All my social networks use my default personal email account. That sill has to be remedied for my profession social networks.

The only real profession social network I have is LinkedIn.  In fact that is why I joined it. My other social networks (Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk) and my blog are purely personal in nature.  In fact, I have tied the social network accounts down to the point where only people on my friends list can see what is there.

The reason I bring this up is that it seems more and more of one’s time is taken up by work and there is a growing conflict with one’s private life.

I will make no qualms about it; I am in a high stress career (information technology) and am currently in an even higher stress job.  Although the job pays well, I am wondering how long it will be before I completely burn out.

I am saying that, one must learn how to balance work and non-work in their life.  When a job takes up over well over half of the time you are awake it is time to take inventory of what is most important in your life.

Like I said, my job pays well and I do, for the most part, like it.  It is the best company, by far, that I have been with.  However, pay is not the first thing (it never has been) I look in a job.  What I look for is a challenge.  However, this is economy, it is not a challenge when more and more duties are piled on a person.  A balance is needed.

One thing that had been taking a beating, and to a point still is, in the past year or so was my spiritual and prayer life. Usually I have barely enough time in the to do my Morning Prayers before I head off to. The same can be said for Evening Prayers, I get home and usually I only have a couple of hours before I head off to bed. It seems I have little time for any more with other things I need to get done in the little time allotted.

With my commitment now to spiritual growth it is more important than ever to separate my work life from my private life.  I am finding ways to find time for spiritual reading and listening.  One thing I have been doing is to listen to CD’s that I have loaded on my iPod and iPhone during my lunch and breaks on various spiritual topics.  In addition, if I am driving and where I am going will take more than ten minutes, I will plug my iPhone or iPod (depends on where I am on a conference and what I was last listing to it on) into the car radio and listen to that instead of music, news, or talk radio. Even in the evenings and weekends, depending on what I am doing, I will listen to the CD’s instead of having the TV on.

One thing I need to do, however, is to take inventory of my work life and see what I can do there to reduce the stress and distractions. I have some ideas and will be looking to implement them in the next couple of months.

One good thing that will be occurring later this year is that the company I am with is moving to a new building.  With the new floor plan I will out of the major traffic flow.  The only drawback is that the cube walls will be lower.  I have already figured out how I am going to solve the privacy issue due to the lower walls and that will not be an issue.

The key is to balance my personal life that I am trying to dedicate to Our Lord with my work life.  If there is a conflict between the two, I know which one will lose and it will not be Our Lord.

Ever since the silent retreat I went on last month and being successful in getting a Spiritual Director, I have been racking my brain in trying to figure out how I want to proceed in my direction.  Well tonight, I had an “eureka moment” on the matter.

While driving up to the Somerset Collection (a mall in the area) to check on something, I was listening to a CD from my confraternity entitled “The Seven Stages of the Spiritual Life” and it hit me; this is the exact topic for my first session with my Spiritual Director.  And that is “What stage in my Spiritual Development am I at?”

I reasoned that this single topic could encompass all other areas that I was considering since those would aid me in my growth through the “Spiritual Stages” of growth.  These topics included, but not confined to confession, prayer, and which temperament I am.

One thing I did though was finally bought a book that want mentioned in the “Question and Answer” session where the participants wrote down question during the retreat (it was a silent retreat an we were still in the period of silence).  The question that was submitted by “someone” was on resources on the Four Temperaments (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy, and/or Phlegmatic) other than a CD by the Confraternity on the topic.

Even though I had a feeling that I knew which temperament I was, it was confirmed when I took the test in his book and two other tests I took on-line.  My temperament is definitely Melancholy.  One thing further I may do is to give the test to a select few and see what they perceive me as.

Now that I have the topic in hand, I can call my Spiritual Director, and set up an appointment with him.  That is of course, when I get up enough courage to call him.

One thing I have been trying to do is spiritual reading.  However, being a person who gravitates towards audio rather than visual, I have been going through the CD’s  (over 60 hours worth with more coming from the last retreat) associated with the confraternity I belong to.  At this point, I am about half way through the CD’s.

Why am I doing this? I have a couple of reasons.

First, other than the CD’s from the retreats and missions I have gone to and have heard what is on the CD’s, I have only listened to a few of them in full.  This has been something I have been meaning to do for a while, but have never have gotten to.

Second, many of these CD’s are on topics pertaining to various aspects of the spiritual life.  With my renewed resolve to grow spiritually in the coming year, I decided that this would be a good way to start on that growth.  Yes, they limited to what they can go over in respect to the various spiritual topics, but they may give me ideas to explore further.  Many of the CD’s also site resources on these topics.

Third, some of the CD’s speak directly to some of the deficiencies in both in my spiritual/prayer life and practicing my Catholic faith.  Again, as with reason two, it will give me ideas, in this case, on how to remedy these deficiencies.

Finally, although it touches on second and third reason, it will give me topics to discuss with my Spiritual Director.  I have areas that I do want to talk to him about, but these help in communicate these areas.

I plan on going through these CD’s a couple of times.  The first time to get a general idea what is on each set of CD’s.  I will then go through these CD’s in detail to get specifics for further study.

Now, this does not mean I am going to neglect the “reading” portion of my spiritual reading.  On the contrary.  As I states above, I am using these to get ideas and resources on areas of spirituality.  Many of these resources are books and will allow me to focus on these resources no matter form they come in.  In addition, I am listening to many of these CD’s, at least for the first time though, at times where it is impossible for me to read (like work and driving).  Furthermore, I have a book titled The Catholic lifetime reading plan by Fr. Hardon.  The book lists hundreds of additional works that I can explore in the future.  I plan on using this to supplement my reading list as I progress.