Becoming Yourself
  1. God loves and likes you.
  2. God loves you as an individual, not simply in the abstract.
  3. Accept your desires, skills, and talents as things given to you by God for your happiness and for others. 
  4. Avoid the temptation to compare yourself to others and dinigrate or undervalue yourself. 
  5. Move away from actions that are sinful or that keep you from being compassionate, loving, and free. And move toward actions that make you more compassionate, loving, and free.
  6. Trust that God will help you because God desires for you to become who you are meant to be. And pray for God's help.
  7. Recognize that the process of becoming the person you are meant to be is a long process and can take time. 
Source: The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. A Spirituality for Real Life (2010) by James Martin, SJ.


25 books every Christian should read
  1. On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius
  2. Confessions by St. Augustine
  3. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers by various authors
  4. The Rule of St. Benedict by St. Benedict
  5. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
  6. The Cloud of Unknowing by an anonymous author
  7. Revelations of Divine Love (showings) by Julian of Norwich
  8. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a` Kempis
  9. The Philokalia by various authors
  10. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
  11. The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
  12. Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
  13. Pense´es by Blaise Pascal
  14. The Pilgrim's Progress (epub) by John Bunyan
  15. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
  16. A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law
  17. The Way of a Pilgrim by an anonymous author
  18. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  19. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
  20. The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
  21. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  22. A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly
  23. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
  24. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
  25. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Source: 25 Books Every Christian Should Read (2011) by Renovare' [editors]


Four Ways God Shows His Appreciation for Our Generosity in Giving Back to Him
  1. A "Soft Spot" in God's heart. God is looking for a lifestyle of what Paul literally calls "hilarious" giving.
  2. God will provide abundantly for all our needs. 
  3. God will be glorified through us.
  4. God will answer prayers offered on our behalf. 
Source: 15 Secrets to a Wonderful Life. Mastering the Art of Positive Living (2008) by Michael Youssef, Ph.D.


The Four Ways of Reality
  1. Atziluth- the world of emanations.
  2. Brich- the world of creation.
  3. Yetzirah- the world of formation.
  4. Assiah- the world of matter and action.

Three Kinds of Ghosts
  1. The sad kind, the wispy kind. They seem to be working out some unfinished earthly business.
  2. The malicious and deceptive spirits--and since they are deceptive, they hardly ever appear malicious. They are the ones that are conjured up.
  3. The bright, happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God's will, not ours, with messages of hope and love.

The Seven Principles of Man
  1. Physical or Soma body.
  2. Astral body.
  3. Prana or vita force.
  4. Three minds:
    1. Instinctive.
    2. Intellect.
    3. Spiritual.
  5. Spirit.

Saint Peter's Questions
  1. How did you expand your ability to love while you were alive?
  2. What wisdom did you learn from life's experience?

Components of Mystical Experience
  1. Unity with God.
  2. Self-transcendence.
  3. Timelessness.
  4. Ecstasy.
  5. Conversion.

Four Aspects of a Body
  1. Apparent body - the one we can see, touch, and weigh. Accidental and perishable.
  2. Spiritual flesh - essential and imperishable.
  3. Astral body - accidental, not everlasting. It's absorbed by Divinity in the resurrection.
  4. Angelic body- guarantees of individuality.

The Three Hells of the Bible
  1. Hades - a grave or pit where the dead lie.
  2. Tartaroo- a place where evil, rebellious angels or demons go for restraint.
  3. Gehenna- translation "valley of Hinnom." Hinnom is a place where pagan rites happened all sort of evil doing. But it is a real place, nonetheless. Later, it became a garbage dump for Jerusalem. Fires burn continuously feeding on a constant supply of garbage and refuse.

Six Special Powers of Prayer
  1. The prayer of gratitude, joy and adoration.
  2. The prayer of confession and penitence.
  3. The prayer for others.
  4. The prayer of discovery and contemplation.
  5. The prayer for grace.
  6. The prayer in action.

 The Six Basic Types of Value Systems
  1. Authority- having faith in a higher authority.
  2. Deductive logic- subjecting moral beliefs to logical tests.
  3. Sense experience- gaining moral knowledge by the senses.
  4. Emotion- "I feel that these values are right."
  5. Intuition- drawing moral knowledge from the inner wellsprings of intuition.
  6. "Science"- values based on careful, emprical observation and are internally consistent.
Source: A Question of Values : Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives (2005) by Hunter Lewis.


The Stages of Spiritual Growth
  1. Lawlessness. People may appear religious or secular but, either way, their "belief system" is profoundly superficial. Chaotic, antisocial.
  2. Letter of the law. Religious "fundamentalists" are to be found. Formal, institutional.
  3. People in this state are usually scientific-minded, rational, moral, and humane. Skeptic, individual.
  4. Spirit of the law. Women and men are rational but do not make a fetish of rationalism. They have began to doubt their own doubts. Mystical, communal.
Source: The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (1997) by M. Scott Peck, M. D.


Challenges of the 6th Commandment
  1. Find a way to resolve and heal the painful hurts you might be carrying inside from your past that can have lingering side effects.
  2. Look carefully to see if there is someone in your personal life now whose spirits sometimes gets crushed inadvertently by something you do or say.
  3. Think of small and large things you can do in your own way to protect others.

Conversation Etiquette
  1. Be a good listener.
  2. Get the other's viewpoint.
  3. Learn the other person's interests.
  4. Respect the opinion of others.
  5. Never argue.
  6. Make no reference to the other person's weakness.
  7. Acknowledge excellence in others.
  8. Stimulate the other's feelings of importance.
  9. Say the other person's name
  10. Do not be a know-it-all.
  11. Do not be gloomy.
  12. Do not be cynical.
  13. Never be catty.
  14. Do not overcorrect.
  15. Be genuinely courteous.
  16. Be able to make correct introductions.