I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

It’s not enough to weave beautiful rugs. You have to think beautiful thoughts while weaving them. – Charles Loloma

Many times, the routine of working takes away what’s really valuable in one’s work. We work only to earn or because we have nothing better to do. We work with our hands, but we fail to use the heart and the soul.

Let us not waste the opportunity to gather blessings each day. When we work, we can be blessed if we offer our labors to God as we work with diligence, a spirit of self-sacrifice and joy.

In such a way, our work helps us discover what’s good and beautiful within us. We are no longer slaves but masters. We are no longer mere tools but artists creating a masterpiece worthy of eternal rewards.

And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men… – Colossians 3:23, WEBBE

You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. – Song of Solomon 4:7, NRSVCE

We do not live merely to survive. We live to seek that which is beautiful, and if possible, to remain in it for as long as we could. Because only in finding the beautiful do we also find our true selves. We find that which we have lost, what we have been made for from the very beginning of the world.

Along the way, we have filled our hearts with other things, things like wealth or fame or worldly power. We have filled our souls with things that could never satisfy the depths of its desires.

Somewhere along the way, we remember. When we see something so beautiful it captures our very soul, we are reminded of what we really are and what we really need – we are eternal souls longing for incomparable beauty, such beauty that we can find only in God!

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” – St. Augustine

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it… At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.” – C.S. Lewis

Just for today, try to create something just for the sake of making something beautiful, something that will reflect the beauty of your own soul. – Jocelyn Soriano

Evil can never truly create something good. All it can accomplish is to destroy what is valuable. It tends to corrupt what is pure. It goes forth to darkness and to its own destruction.

To be able to create something good and beautiful is always a power that comes from love. When we love, we overflow in joy and in every sort of goodness. This goodness overflows and extends beyond ourselves. It seeks to express itself, to communicate its affection, and to render all things capable of receiving the same light it has found.

For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. – Colossians 1:16, WEB

He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. – Luke 16, WEB

Many times, it is the little things in life that make a difference, it’s the little things that can make or break our lives.

In our day to day work, we often find that it’s the little things that can annoy us and make us lose our temper. It’s the little things that can slowly exhaust our strength and make us lose our hope.

On the other hand, it’s also the little things that can suddenly inspire us and give us strength. A little act of kindness, a little word of thoughtfulness, a little gesture of love.

It is up to us how to treat such little things. We can either fill our lives with the little things that drag us down. Or we can fill our days with the little things that can spur us on to reach our biggest dreams.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. – Khalil Gibran

To love a person for his crown isn’t rare, but to love a person for his wounds is to realize what true love is all about. – Jocelyn Soriano

It is not great matter when we love a person for his beauty and for all the wonderful things we can see in him. Such a love pleases us and makes us glad. And many times, what we feel for that person may seem so strong we think we have already learned the depths of a true and lasting love.

All such things enable us to care for another person other than ourselves. It is no longer our own beauty we see but that of another. It is no longer just our own good that matters, but that of our beloved one.

But all these are but the surface of the kind of love to which our souls are capable of. If we really desire to reach the depths of it, we must learn to love not only our beloved’s strengths but his weaknesses as well. We must cherish not only his crown, but his wounds.

It is only when we are able to love a person at his worse that we can draw upon the very greatness of the love we seek to have. For it is here that we care about not only our own happiness or pleasure, but the good and wholeness of the one we love. Herein only can we love without condition, without any trace of selfishness, without measure, without fear, and without end.

He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. – Isaiah 53, NABRE