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My Little Black Book

Written by frmike on February 24, 2011 - 7 Comments

In my life, when it’s comes to journaling, I’ve been inconsistent at best. Over the years I’ve filled a few journals, but if you were to look at the entry dates you’d see my inconsistency. For example, you’ll see a March 3, 2005 entry and then the next entry is June 5, 2005. You get the point. Don’t get me wrong, I think journaling is a wonderful tool for our personal and spiritual lives, but I’ve just never been very good at keeping a daily journal.

But I think I’ve found a way to keep a daily record of my life without feeling that I need to write paragraph after paragraph for twenty minutes. For the last three weeks I’ve been keeping what I call a Presence and Gratitude Journal. It’s not a journal in the traditional sense of the word; it’s more like several bullet points that I write each day. At the end of the day, I settle into my living room and sit in the chair that I use exclusively for prayer. There, I recollect myself in God’s presence, I review the day, and in my little moleskine notebook I write bullet points under two headings: 1) God’s presence, love, and action, 2) Grateful for.

My purpose in writing these brief bullet points is simple: to recount where I experienced the Lord’s presence, love, and action and to give thanks to God for the blessings He’s given to me. I wouldn’t call it journaling in the traditional sense, but it works for me.

Here are some examples from my own journal:
God’s Presence, Love, and Action:
– In being patient with someone with whom I could have gotten aggravated
– In trying to be more focused and prayerful during Mass
– In making good connections with La Salle students at tonight’s wrestling match

Grateful for:
– The person who told me after Mass that he prays for me every day by name
– The joy I brought to my nieces when they received the teddy bears and flowers I sent them after their tonsillectomy
– An enjoyable dinner with friends

What I like about this method is that it doesn’t take long. I can take three minutes or ten minutes; it’s up to me. The important thing is that I do it. In three weeks, here are the benefits that I’ve experienced from doing this:

1) The very fact that I know I’m going to write in my little black book at the end of the day focuses me more on God’s presence and helps me to be more grateful. Just today as I was walking back into my office after a meeting I thought about my little black book. That very thought prompted me to recollect myself for a moment to remember God’s presence.

2) It’s a good way to quickly review what God has been doing and to look at the blessings He’s given me. I can look back over the previous day or the last few days and review where God acted and where I experienced His love and blessings.

3) It helps me to focus on making tomorrow better than today. When I’m done writing my bullet points, sometimes I’ll jot a word or a phrase at the bottom of the page: “be more attentive to people”; “selfless”; “foster deeper peace and patience.” These words or phrases are reminders to me of what I believe the Holy Spirit is asking me to focus on.

It’s not a perfect method. Some days I feel that I don’t have much to write at all; but this feeling is good, because it helps me to realize that I need to be more mindful of God’s presence. Some days I feel that I can fill a couple of little pages, but I try to keep it to one small page.

So I share this with you as one tool that you might be able to use to help you to grow in your relationship with the Lord.

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What tools besides prayer help you in your relationship with God? Do you journal? If so, how does it help you?

I’d like to do some vlogs (video blogs) based on questions you have about the spiritual life. Email, facebook, or tweet me a question you have about the spiritual life and I may use your question as the basis for a vlog.

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Your Greatest Weakness or Greatest Blessing?

Written by frmike on February 21, 2011 - 11 Comments

We all have weaknesses that we wish we just didn’t have. But what if your greatest weakness is actually your greatest blessing? I invite you watch this vlog and be open to a transformation in your thinking.

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Golf and the Spiritual Life

Written by frmike on May 5, 2010 - 10 Comments

Now that the warm weather has arrived, my golf clubs are back in the trunk of my car. In this video blog (or “vlog” as they say), I share with you the spiritual lessons learned from my first round of golf of this new season. Forgive some of the camera motion; I didn’t use a tripod. Enjoy, and please feel free to comment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spChwSmens8]

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Praise Him in the Storm

Written by frmike on April 5, 2010 - 6 Comments

It’s not very often that little ol’ Rhode Island makes the national spotlight, but if you followed last week’s news you learned about the devastating floods throughout our state. It’s ironic: in the past, when I’ve heard about floods occurring in different parts of the country, I’ve always thought, “Thank God nothing like that could ever happen around here.” A lot of Rhode Islanders probably thought that way until last week, for we’d not experienced anything like this in our collective lifetime.

Major roads are still closed, bridges are compromised, even one of the malls will take weeks, if not months, to reopen. Many people lost just about everything in their homes. My hometown of Westerly was particularly hard hit. Parts of town which had been accessible by main roads are now only accessible by boat.

I was home for Easter weekend and the flood was the topic of conversation everywhere I went. It dominated table conversations at the Cooked Goose, my favorite breakfast place in beautiful Watch Hill. Many people were talking about it after Mass on Easter morning. The Najim home, always filled with animated conversation on Sunday afternoons, was filled with refrains of disbelief and chatter about who we know that had been affected. My father, who is generally quiet after grace before meals, added his own petition: pray for all those affected by this flood. My sister had to leave Easter dinner for about half an hour to lend a family friend a dehumidifier, one of six that was running in their waterlogged basement.

Yet as much as the flood dominated conversations, there was a constant refrain that I heard in all these discussions: Gratitude.
• “Thank God no one died.”
• “Thank God we still have our family.”
• “Thank God. It could have been much worse.”
• “Thank God for good friends and family and church communities who are helping.”
• “We lost a lot, but thankfully we still have one another.”

I’ve written about gratitude before, but it’s a topic that’s always worth revisiting. When we’re going through difficulties it’s important to remember that there are always blessings for which we can be grateful. Even on our worst day, we can find something or someone to thank the Lord for. True, sometimes we feel we need to look really hard to find that blessing, but THERE ARE DAILY BLESSINGS!

St. Ignatius of Loyola suggested that we begin our daily examen prayer by noting the gifts that God has given us and thanking Him for those gifts. The reason is that gratitude has a way of lifting our spirits, of taking the focus off of ourselves and putting it on all the ways that God is revealing His love to us right now. Even recent psychological studies have shown that people who regularly practice gratitude are happier and more optimistic. Case in point is the recent popularity of keeping a Gratitude Journal

I love the song “Praise You in the Storm” by the group Casting Crowns. Although many people are hurting from the floods, there are many who are “praising Him in the storm.” We can do the same. If you have a tendency to focus on what’s going wrong, if you are going through a difficult time right now, praise Him in the storm.

I want to challenge you to consciously set time aside to focus on gratitude and NOTHING ELSE. You can focus on your problem later if you’d like, but set ten to fifteen minutes aside and literally write down everything that you want to thank God for–and then let that list soak in. You will be amazed as you catalogue all the ways God has blessed you.

After you do this exercise, make it a habit to practice gratitude daily. If you do, you will literally see your life change.

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