"Little children live intensely in the present moment, neither in the
past nor in the future. As the French writer La Bruyre once put it,
‘Children have neither past nor future, but they have something we
seldom have—they rejoice in the present.’
This is the child-like
trait which the New Testament would have us imitate. Age quod
agis—literally, ‘do what you are doing’…The future does not yet exist
and the past is gone forever. What we have is the present moment. By it
we are fashioning our eternity."
Fr. Thomas Dubay, SM, LIVING FAITH, Sept. 30, 2002
"Part of temperance is taking care of ourselves. Obsessive-compulsive
workaholism is obviously not a sign of temperance. Even if we enjoy our
work, we need to practice temperance and get adequate rest. Careful,
Benedict!
Enjoy what's going on while it's going on. If you go to
the supermarket, enjoy it. Don't make it drudgery. Talk to the cashier.
Speak to the people at the fruit counter. Chat with a neighbor. Try to
get to know people, get them to talk to you, and make your passage
through life pleasurable. If you are a private person and find it a
chore or somewhat difficult to speak to strangers, at least smile. As an
old extrovert, I deeply appreciate a quiet person with a genuine smile;
in addition, such a person listens to us, which practically no one else
does.
Slow down. Smell the flowers as you go by, and then you
won't need too much of this world's goods. Enjoy your work and you won't
need too much time off. Enjoy being at home and you won't have to go
away so much.
Many people are intemperate because they are
miserable and suffering. Their life is a big long misery, so they decide
to brighten it up with mountains of potato chips. They're addicted to
potato chips or sweets or even beer. Look at your own intemperateness
and see if unhappiness is causing it."
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, The Virtue-Driven Life
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