Jose Ramirez's List: Vocation

• What matters to me — what is real to me — is inspiring and helping people. Directly or indirectly, whenever I’m able to help someone solve a really tough problem or to motivate someone to finally push past a big obstacle, that is something I find tremendously fulfilling. And the fulfillment I get from doing this is so great that it trumps all the external stuff. It doesn’t matter how much money I make. It doesn’t matter if people reject my ideas or poke fun at what I enjoy doing. This blog entry may be read by over 1000 people, but it may be such that the ideas within are only able to help one person in a very small way. The other 999 may conclude I’m nuts and unsubscribe. And that’s fine. It’s that one person I’m writing for.

  But at the same time, starting from the point of spending each day doing something that fulfills me, I’m building this work into a business that can support and sustain me and my family. This will ultimately include paid speaking engagements, and information products like books and audio programs. So I’m starting with doing what I love and building it into a source of income. The more money the business generates, the more people I’m ultimately able to reach. So making money is aligned with my own personal fulfillment — they aren’t at odds with each other. If you do what you love, then you can surely find a way to turn it into an income stream — then the more money you make, the more you expand your capacity to continue doing what you love in bigger and bigger ways.
• So I’m starting with doing what I love and building it into a source of income.
• Taking what you love to do and turning it into a source of income,
• What kind of to do list would be real to you?

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• EVERY skill you have. It could be programming, making web pages, talking, listening, persuading people, typing, flirting, analyzing, giving speeches, making things easy to understand, whistling, blowing bubbles with your spit, it could be anything. Don’t be bashful. List everything you perceive your skills to be.
• List EVERY interest you could possibly think of. Spiders, shoes, hair, makeup, basketball, tennis, thinking of ideas, babysitting, walking, hiking, fireworks, helping people, making fun of people, fishing, tai chi, karate, seashells, seaweed, can openers, anything goes. Yes, I did say can openers. Your interests can also include subjects you are knowledgeable about as well. Computers, economics, biology, baskebtall plays, football plays, magic tricks, etc.
• hink of what you were interested in at your previous jobs and write them down. Also, think of what you were NOT interested in your previous jobs and write the exact opposite.
• If you went in a bookstore, which section do you naturally gravitate toward?  

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   Ask friends for any skills and interests they see in you.
• What do you spend most of your time doing? What do you look forward to doing?   Go back and think of your accomplishments as a child. What kind of skills and interests revolved around your accomplishments?
• What did people praise you on doing? 

   What did your teachers or parents say you had a skill or knack of doing? 

   Why am I emphasizing skills and interests here?
• You may find that your skills are gravitating toward one or two particular skills. The same may hold true for interests. Keep that in mind for step 3.
• ask yourself an extremely clear question. Clarity is key here. The clearer the question, the easier the answer will be
• Clear questions lead to clear answers
• “What do I love to do?”
• What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?

  • Que puedo hacer con mis destrezas que sea de valor a otros?
• money is just a byproduct of adding value in the form of a product or service to people.
• When you know how you can add value to people, you’ll know how to get money.
• What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?
• start writing down a list of answers.
• sooner or later, you will connect the dots.
• Even if an answer seems ludicrous, write it down. Write down all your answers. Do it until you have 20 answers and look them over. You will find that as you write down answers and look at them, it will in turn propel you to think of new creative answers that you would not have come up with before. 

   You will be amazed at all the things you wrote and the different solid creative ideas that come about.
• choose one idea that seems the most appealing to you. You may find you can combine a few ideas into one idea. Nevertheless, choose one idea that you will garner the greatest satisfaction not just for yourself, but to other people.

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• Success is usually the result of concentrated focus in an area where you have a natural advantage.
• The use of concentrated focus in an area where you are talented, will in time, grant you the opportunity to succeed.
• When we talk about concentrated effort, we’re talking about using our energy and drive in one area.
• Another word for “energy and drive” is passion.
• If you’re going to succeed, you’re going to have to have an unprecedented passion to see your goal realized.
• Success is scientific, and it’s predictable. Its cause and effect; you do this, and you get this result. Don’t try to mystify success; this will only keep it out of your reach.
• You see, “true success” is finding exactly what you seek, in every area of your life. True success, is balanced success.
• When it’s all said and done, the person who succeeds is usually the person who has put in the most effort in a particular field.

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•  Today’s Gospel puts it succinctly: “when fully trained, every disciple will be like the teacher . .”
• being disciplined to a relationship with God that marks us as a disciple, then we must act like Jesus –
• This is possible, of course, only because we have received the Spirit of the Son
• we are compelled by the relationship to share the goodness of it with others.
• to preach the good news (gospel) of God’s love and its implications for a life of loving kindness.
• he is obliged to preach to others. So it is with every ecclesial minister, whether ordained or lay.  Anyone with leadership responsibility in the Church has two “response – abilities”: the first is the same as all other Christians – to BE in Christ – that is to BE holy; the second is to preach to the world, through word and deed, the good news of God’s saving love.
•   In a world which despises hypocrisy (or at least despises it in everyone else) it is difficult to preach that which you only imperfectly model.

  • Obligacion de predicar aquello de lo que yo soy un mal modelo.
• No Christian is exempt from the first task and no leader is exempted from that second task, however morally imperfect he or she is. 
• The Spirit of God is given to us by Christ to bring us to a relationship with him so intimate that we are identified with Him in all things.  That same Spirit will teach us to SEE what we need to know about ourselves and others, to SPEAK what we need to say, and above all to ACT in a way that demonstrates that we belong to Christ.

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• mission statement
• main aim of their business
• A sentence or two about why you’re doing what you’re doing, and what you hope to achieve.
• This isn’t an elevator pitch you need to tell anyone, or a mission statement you need to share. Instead, the aim of these sentences is to help you stay on track.
• Decide what you want your core focus to be, and write it down somewhere. Internalise it. Anytime a situation arises where you’re not sure what to do, look to your statement to help you with the answer.
• Instead of just looking to your mistakes and hoping to learn from them or tackling a huge project you want to overcome. Why not look at what is working for you in other areas of life or on other projects, and see how you can apply those factors to other endeavours?
• You’re far more likely to have great results.
• When you have all day to work on whatever you want, it’s very easy to get caught up in things which a) aren’t helping you grow and b) not as effective as other tasks. As early in your own business life as possible, define the most important things you can accomplish each day and give them utmost priority.

• For me, my most important tasks vary, but generally include things like:

   
   
  • Writing a blog post
   
  • Researching niches
   
  • Building out current websites
   
  • Marketing current websites
• If I spend most of my day doing something other than these things, then I’m not being as effective as I could be with my time. It will be hard to stick to this rigid schedule at first, but the more you put yourself back on track, the more natural it will become to work on the things which help your business the most.
• Whenever you have a big task ahead, just tell yourself that you’ll do a little bit and stop. There’s a good chance that the little bit of effort you exerted to get started, will turn into a strong push of energy which helps you get things done. Even if it doesn’t, at least you did something.
• give yourself office working hours
• when you work from home, there is nothing harder than shutting off.
• If your aim is to just work for a few hours per day, whenever you want, then you can ignore this. If you find yourself working more than a few hours, or even a lot more than a few hours, then restrict the times you allow yourself to work. The time you allocate to a task is usually how long it takes, so working all day won’t necessarily help you get more done.
• For all of the people who have no problems making money, many of them have problems keeping it. When you start working for yourself, it’s very easy to start thinking you need this and that, in order to really get going. The reality is that you rarely need as much money or material items as you think you do.
• Before you go buying every item, eBook or software package you think you need, ask yourself whether you can work without them. The money you save early on helps you to grow bigger, and enables you to adopt an ideal mindset which will be invaluable later on in your business life.

• Something your friends and family might quickly forget though is that you actually have work to do. Just because you work for yourself (or from home), it doesn’t mean that you can neglect the things you’re working on to spend time with people. Sometimes your business must be your priority.

   

  I found it hard to get this point across to people but it’s important that you do. I quickly had to put an end to people arriving at my house just to chill out or expecting me to be able to make any event just because I set my own hours. Be social, but be serious about your aims as well.
• You don’t have to put up a front. You don’t have to pretend you’re behind a huge company. People do business with people. The sooner you realise that, and put yourself into both your work and engagement with customers or clients, the better.
• you need to see that everything you do, in one way or another, is marketing.
• When I leave comments on other blogs, that’s marketing. When I write a blog post, I’m marketing. How I respond to emails, is marketing. When I buy ads on other websites and pay for product reviews, that’s also marketing, of course.
• Problems aren’t just a great area to find a market, but they also help you create one.
• While you’re on your focused path, don’t forget to see if there are hurdles you faced where there wasn’t an ideal way to get over them. You may have just stumbled upon your next big project.
• The best way to learn what people want is to become a member of the market that is likely to want whatever you have to offer.

• Through your involvement in the market where you want to launch something, you’ll learn a lot from your audience. Things like:

   
   
  • What things they would like in a product
   
  • What they don’t like about other systems / solutions
   
  • How they expect to be treated as a customer
   
  • What makes them buy something
• Cloud Living was actually created in response to the hundreds of questions I had received after releasing a 30-page eBook on the same topic,
• Making sure you ship your projects (just get them out there!) is not about putting in half the effort and releasing something you’re not happy with. It’s getting something to a stage where it’s great, and letting questions and feedback shape the product so it’s both perfect in your eyes, and in those of the end user. Getting a product that is 90% finished out there is better than never producing something with no flaws.
• nstead of taking this post as rules you must follow, view them as steps you can choose to follow or choose to ignore.

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• We live in a society where quitting or “giving up” is highly frowned upon. If you walk away from something you no longer have an interest in, you’re deemed a quitter. If you discover a new direction that requires a different use of your time you’re said to be lost.
• Yet despite what many say, quitting isn’t always a bad choice and in fact can be one of the best decisions you make.
• There’s no point sticking around just for the sake of it.
• Now to be clear, quitting simply because times get rough is not what I’m talking about.
• Anything worth having is going to take strength, determination, and a ton of effort. But there are times when calling it quits is the most intelligent choice. Here’s 5 Reasons why.
• You’re Doing It Purely For Pride:
• Don’t let the label of “quitter” keep you on a path that you know has a dead end.
• You’re Comfortable:
• If you’re current situation leaves you bored to tears and wanting more, maybe it’s time you reevaluate.
• If you’re just going though the motions so you don’t get hurt you’re missing out on a thing called life.
• Interests change. Passions fluctuate. Don’t become attached to any one piece of your life.
• Your Heart’s Not In It:
• Find a place where your heart excels.
• You’re In It Just For Others:
• there comes a point when you have to live your life for you. That doesn’t mean to be selfish in your endeavors but it also means you shouldn’t be a doormat for people to walk on.
• Be honest with those around you. Tell them of your ambitions and goals. Being true to yourself is far better than putting on a fake just to please your loved ones.
• You’re Scared:
• Quitting is scary. So is uncertainty. But don’t let that stop you from switching paths. You’d be surprised at how quickly it is we adapt.
• Being scared means you care. But it also shouldn’t keep you from moving forward.

• The truth of the matter is many people fill their lives with commitments and jobs they can’t stand. While some obligations are necessary to function in our society, you have plenty more control of your life work and daily routine then you often give yourself credit for.

   

  Taking time to determine if your current path is the one right for you will save you weeks perhaps years of misery, but it does take courage. Realize the longer you sit and settle the harder it will become to finally step up to the plate and acknowledge the complex human being you are.

   

  If you’re currently unsatisfied with the life you’re living realize you have the ability to change it to fit your needs. Stop wasting your valuable time living a life that doesn’t fulfill you.

   

  Is it time you quit? Is your heart nudging you in a entirely new direction? Perhaps it’s time you walk away with your head held high. You’ll thank yourself later.

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• This is spectator mode; this is living the life of a watcher, rather than a doer.

• How can we read stories of people going from rags to riches and then doubt in ourselves that we could ever do the same? How can we dream of a certain career and simply never take any steps towards actually having it when instead we simply see others perform the role?

   

  I’m not saying checking up on world news (newspapers) is a bad thing, but if you notice yourself in any of these then it’s likely you’re living in spectator mode, rather than a mode of plan and action.
• in terms of one of my main passions I just watched others being successful. And yes…every day I would talk about these amazing possibilities to others and I still wouldn’t be taking any personal action.
• How to Get Out of Spectator Mode
• sometimes we can get so immersed in spectator mode that it takes over our lifes. We never progress in our careers, our diet consists of junk-food and random meals, we’ve never written down a goal sheet and certainly don’t have an action plan.
• 1) Realise you are in it
• If you have been living the same lifestyle for a long time but you are constantly dreaming of other things, then you are probably living in spectator mode. Watching other people follow their dreams while yours are just that…dreams.
• 2) Decide what you want from life
• if you don’t know what you want from life you’re never going to progress and prove to yourself that you can be who you want to be and live the life you want to live.
• 3) Take action
• What are you waiting for? What is so detrimental to your success that it is holding you back? Every Sunday I write down a goal plan of what I want to achieve for the week along with a daily task list. If I miss a task or I’m not in the mood to do it then I just ask myself “Do I really want the end result?” That is usually enough to keep me on track.

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• Have a definition of what success means to you
• Don’t expect things to come to you, you have to work for them
• Instead of thinking what you can achieve for yourself, focus on how you can help others
• Keep an abundance mentality in that there are enough ideas, opportunities and profits to go around
• Have something to drive you to keep going, whether it be supporting your family or improving your current lifestyle
• Assign goals, they have been proven to help people succeed over those who do not assign them
• Removing Self-Limiting Beliefs
• 1. Don’t settle for second best
• Whatever you are aiming for, don’t think that it is too far out of your reach and most certainly don’t take the easy route because that is exactly what it is, the easy route. Go at your obstacles full-throttle and don’t stop till you’ve achieved what you set out to do. Only then can you be truly happy with the results.
• 2. Set out goals and how you will achieve them
• For each goal you have defined, whether it be an income level, a website traffic level or an exam mark; define the steps you are going to take to achieve it and follow them as closely as possible. Don’t be afraid to change your goals or steps as you progress, you may even find that with your new positive outlook your overall goals begin to differ.
• 3. Find ways to motivate yourself

• There will always be times in a project where you have doubts so setting motivations can be a great solution, some motivation ideas include:

   
   
  • Having a defined reason you are doing what you are doing, that you can look back on for reference if you lose track i.e. this blog is to help more people find their identity
   
  • Consider what else you would be doing; if you gave up you would be back to square one and make all the hard work worthless
   
  • Realise that nothing in this world that is worth anything ever came to anyone easily or without any effort
• 4. Realise that you own your self-limiting belief

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• If I’m sitting in an office late at night for no reason, I know that is not me and I know I should be doing something about it. Knowing you are not being congruent with your true-self can be a tough feeling but it is a motivating one.

• So instead of feeling lonely or empty, I looked at all the positives:

   
   
  • I’m in a country where barely anyone knows me and can do anything I want
   
  • I have a nice apartment, and transport that can get me around
   
  • I’m ALIVE and shouldn’t waste any time being down or depressed
   
  • I’m young and have nothing holding me back (kids, finances etc) from changing my situation
   
   

  When there is so much of the world to see, so many things to experience and enjoy, it’s a waste of time if we are going to spend it in a negative slump.
• Steps to Taking Control
• 1. Appreciate everything, including yourself
• Instead of looking at all the negatives of your situation, start to appreciate everything you do have
• The same goes for appreciating yourself, don’t look at all the things you might not like, focus on the things you do like about yourself such as your talents or characteristics. When you are truly grateful for the opportunities and chances you have, you don’t sit around in a slump, you start to make life happen because this is the only life we have.
• 2. Map out what it is that you want

• If you want to make a change in your life, you have to know what it is you want to change, or achieve. When I realised I wanted to see more of the world, I looked into ways I could create a passive income. Since then, I’ve been building websites that make me money with little to no work. If you want to write a book, start working on the finer details such as:

   
   
  • Planning your storyline
   
  • Learning how to get published
   
  • Looking into self publishing and marketing services online
   
  • Defining and deciding the characters of the book and so on…
• If you don’t take control of your own life, then you are simply living to die.
• 3. Take some time out
• Even if you don’t feel like you are down or need major changes in your life, you may still be living in reaction to your situation and not creating your own reality.

• Take the time to ZOOM-out of your current life situation, see the things you are doing and where you are headed. If you don’t like it, then make a change and take control. Because ultimately, nobody else is going to do it for you.

   

  Flip the script on your current life and be the person you want to be, the person you’re meant to be. Mould your own reality by taking control of your life. Even if it’s the most difficult thing you ever do, what could be more true to yourself?

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• The secret to success in life is simple. It goes like this:

   
   
  1. Decide what the One Thing you really want to do is.
   
  2. Work relentlessly at being great at doing it.
   
  3. After you’ve been working at it for a while honestly appraise whether you are talented enough in this area to succeed (believe me, I have seen enough live music to know that sometimes hard work just ain’t enough to cover for complete lack of talent).
   
  4. Keep working at it.
   
  5. Get it out there (don’t hide under a bushel).
   
  6. Don’t get distracted.
   
  7. Keep working at it until you succeed.
• If you do things, things get done.
• Put down the self-help book, unsubscribe from the How-to blogs and to quote one of the world’s more successful individuals, Jerry Seinfeld: “Just work.”

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• His / my plan goes a little like this:

   
   
  • Every Sunday you write down all the tasks you would like to complete for the week ahead. They can be as specific or as broad as you like, as long as they are going to help keep you productive and on the right path
   
  • Everyday you try to complete all tasks, if you can’t do them for whatever reason i.e. family crisis, going out with friends or something important comes up then you still try and complete it some time in the week
   
  • If you skip a task for whatever reason or you don’t want to do it then you ask yourself “Do I really want this?” All goals you write down you should at least know why you want to do them. I want to wake up early because I want more time in each day to give myself a chance of success making money online. If you are skipping your tasks then don’t expect to meet your end goals
   
  • Every Sunday morning, before writing down next weeks plan, you look over your week to see how it went. You should be looking for areas you can tweak or improve and also looking at things that have worked well for you that you should keep doing. There may be a lot of things in common for each weeks plan but there should be some variation in there to keep things creative and interesting

• Your Life Purpose should be about finding, then doing, whatever makes you happy and whatever you want to become successful at.
• • Doing things you want to become successful at
   
  • Doing things that also make you happy
   
  • Doing things that just feel ‘right‘ when you do them
• Step 1: Write Down all Interests / Career Options

• My list goes a little something like this:

   
   
  • Starting my own internet marketing company
   
  • Blogging for and building up PluginID full-time
   
  • Working on myself and becoming a life coach
   
  • Becoming a public speaker in the Personal Development niche
   
  • Doing affiliate marketing full-time for other sites
   
  • Running multiple successful blogs
• Step 2: Would You Do any Forever, Can You Be the Best, Would You Like to Be the Best?

• One more thing you need to think about is whether you can become the best at something, and whether you would even want to be the best.

                                      

  Interest	Do It Forever?	Can Be the Best?	Want to Be the Best?
  Starting my own IM Company	No, I prefer promoting my own content	Yes	Not Really
  Full-time on PluginID	Yes, I could do it forever	Yes	I can be seen as an authority, that is enough for me
  Becoming a Life Coach	Yes, I love helping people	Yes, with a lot of work	Not really
  Being a Public Speaker in the PD Niche	Yes, if there was enough audience potential	Yes, with a LOT of work	It wouldn’t make a difference to me
  Do Affiliate Marketing Full-Time	Possibly, it’s ever changing and there’s lots of money to be made	Yes, in time	Only for egoic reasons, it really doesn’t matter
  Run Multiple Successful Blogs	Yes, I love blogging and the community	Yes, although it would take more staff and a few years	No, I just want to provide value

  • Excelente tabla
• Step 3: Choose One

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• The 3 Secrets to Massive
  Online Marketing Success
• there are three secrets that work together
• secret #1: Take action
• It’s not actually all that easy to go from advice to action.
• your to-do list for your project
• content marketer
• creating content, creating products, or delivering services. Be sure and maintain a long list of content ideas, so you’re never at a loss when it’s time to knock out a post
• Write down all the actions you must take to get you to the next step. Add more actions as you think of them. Cross them off when you’re done. When the list is a mess, rewrite it.
• Your system only needs to help you know what to do next.
• Work every day
• Working every day will increase your productivity
• an hour of work on your dream goal every morning, as a way to start your day with a terrific rush of productivity.
• Success is built on lots of small steps
• Have a plan
• If you want credibility and trust from your customers, make it more of a Copyblogger kind of plan.
• put together plans for relatively simple, manageable projects. A dumb, simple little project that gets done is infinitely more valuable than an impressive one that gets 99% done.
• Keep your project plan in your little notebook.
• Your secret sauce is you
• As a content marketer, you’re going to need to create interesting, useful and compelling content pretty much every day you’re in this business. Your blog posts, free reports and email newsletters all contribute to one goal: to establish you as a trusted authority on your topic.
• You have a unique view of your market’s problems. You have a unique set of techniques and approaches to solve those problems. You have a unique set of experiences to put the problems in a fresh light. Share those unique perspectives in your content.
• Be a reporter. Look for case studies. Look for real-life examples, even if they’re tiny. Look for lessons in your own life. Make connections no one’s made yet. Bring someone else’s expertise to light in a new way.

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• 1. Forgive yourself
• yoursel
• 2. Forgive others
• 3. Stop thinking and talking about your problems
• 4. Focus on being a blessing to others
• 5. Be busy
• 6. Recount the things you have achieved

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• The only solution for the problems that we face as a Church in America is to get back to basics and rediscover the same Jesus that Peter encountered.  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16: 17).    We must begin again by truly living as disciples of the Lord and living the gospels with renewed authenticity.   Many of our problems are rooted in a spirit that is not Christian.  A faith lived like the early Church will enliven our parishes and simplify the way we do things as a Church.  In this way, we can become more efficacious in our service to our brothers and sisters, especially to those most in need.   True Christianity will liberate us from ambition, divisions, worldliness and continual scandals.

• Estudios Hispánicos
   Filosofía
   Historia
   Inglés
   Lingüística
   Literatura Comparada
   Traducción

• despite the bad reputation, the Borgia family did produce one of the greatest of the Jesuits saints: Francis de Borgia, the third general of the Society of Jesus
• witness to holiness and humility,
• a man who abandoned his noble rank to enter the new spiritual enterprise founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions.
• Duchy of Gandia on October 28, 1510
• his mother, Juana of Aragon
• Saragossa and Tordesillas
• personal witness of his grandmother and aunt, both of whom had embraced religious life as Poor Clares.
• painting of Moreno Carbonero, “The Conversion of the Duke of Gandia”
• the death of Isabella and the funeral sermon given by Blessed John of Avilla led Francis to a profound conversion
• he now returned to his duties with the fervent desire to live “as a perfect Christian”
• embracing his Christian vocation as a man seeking sanctity in the world
• Francis had been greatly impressed by the works of the nascent Society of Jesus and the stories of its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.
• lower himself
• in 1548 he would make his religious profession in the Society, renouncing his worldly goods and authority in favor of a life fully given to Christ.
• he did not publicly declare his membership to the Society until 1551, when he abdicated in favor of his son and was ordained a priest on May 25th.

• My Lord and my refuge!
  

   

  What did you find in me so that you took me into account?
  

   

  What did you see in me so that you wanted me in your company?
  

   

  
  

   

  I feel myself to be a coward, dependent upon the world that surrounds me, full of self-love.
  

   

  Lord, what did you find in me?
  

   

  
  

   

  With good reason the angels praise you with awe.
  

   

  And I, too, praise you after being disconcerted, discovering how, from such weak foundations, you wish to raise up your works.
  

   

  
  

   

  How to respond, O Lord, to your tenderness?
  

   

  How to respond to your love?
  

   

  
  

   

  I do not possess the capacity to understand nor the words to express  --  indeed, I hear and I see that not only do you pardon my faults, but you also invite me and call me to your Company.
  

   

  
  

   

  O Lord, what did you find in me?
  

   

  What did you find?
  

   

  May you be blessed forever!
  

   

  
  

   

  Have pity on me! You alone are my hope.
  

   

  Enlighten my blindness, that by knowing myself I might know you; that by confusing myself I might acclaim you; that by humbling myself I might praise you; and that by dying fully to myself I might live fully for you.
  

   
• That by knowing myself I might know you
• This “self-knowledge” hardly reflects the tendencies of contemporary popular spirituality that encourage solipsistic indulgences.
• Rather, it reflects a sobering confrontation with the absolute gift of one’s creation and one’s total dependence upon God.
• consider well what you were before you were created, and you will discover that you were nothing (nihil); thus you were less than dung, pure privation, nothing, without body, without soul, without feelings . . . At the same time consider that God made you out of his eternity, when you were nothing; He sealed you and predestined you that you might be of his house. At his appointed time and when it was right to create you, he gave a soul and a body, and he created things that would serve you ...
• Self-knowledge before God should indeed produce a sense of awe and gratitude before the outpouring of divine love in creation.
• knowing oneself in God does not nourish individualism or pride; rather it inspires a sense of humility and opens one to the action of grace. In the words of Juan Garcia-Lomas, S.J.: “The knowledge [of self] is both a receptacle of high graces and the manner of preserving them and maintaining their fecundity.”
• the gratuity of one’s creation and the absolute dependence on God,
• every hour of existence becomes not a “self-actualization”, but a “divine-actualization”,
• the dangers of a wandering mind that could distract him from his true goal and desired to “renew his unity with God through a rhythm which that unity introduces into the passing hours of the day
• That by confusing myself I might acclaim you
• prayer for “confusion”
• the confusion sought in this prayer expresses a state of humility and awe. Francis is “disconcerted” and “confused” by possessing a clear sense of his weakness before God and the extent of God’s love.
• shame and confusion about myself
• The realization that Jesus, the innocent Son of God, took on the Cross, while we guilty human beings did not receive the punishment we deserve, confounds the logic of the world and disturbs the tranquility of even the most lukewarm soul!
• That by humbling myself I might praise you
• allowing him to see that all material things were but a means to a greater end.
• I ask for the abhorrence of what the world loves, and to love that which the world abhors ut dicam mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo. I ask for the grace to separate myself always from that which impedes spiritual good . . . I ask for the grace to guard the doors of the senses because mors intravit per fenestras. I ask that the Lord keep me in true peace and humility of soul ... I ask for the humility to give an advantage to others, holding them as superiors, etc. ... that in this way we may all grow in devotion and praise of the Lord
• self-love and dependence upon the world were impediments to his spiritual progress and to his availability for mission. This of course did not mean a hatred of self or depreciation of God’s creation. Rather, as stated clearly in the Principle and Foundation, all things had to be ordered to Christ and for Christ. One must “see creatures in the Lord and, for Him, to forget them all” (Spiritual Diary).
• by dying fully to myself I might live fully for you
• How to respond to your love? With the gift of his entire self by embracing a religious vocation.
• labor in the Church for the Glory of God in the salvation of souls
• evangelization of peoples
• apostolic zeal
• to bring the joy of the Gospel message to all the corners of the earth and to bring those who had wandered back to the fold of the Church.

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