Learning To Pray

4 TIPS TO BEFRIEND PEOPLE: SPEAK ALWAYS HIGHLY ABOUT PEOPLE / NEVER CRITICIZE IT'S BETTER TO CHANGE ONESELF THAN TO TRY TO CHANGE THE THE ONES WHO GAIN LOT OF POPULARITY ARE THOSE WHO LET PEOPLE TALK AND TAKE AN HONEST INTEREST IN THEIR THINGS AND PROBLEMS. YOU WILL MAKE MORE FRIENDS IN TWO MONTHS BY TAKING AN INTEREST IN OTHERS THAN IN TWO YEARS BY TRYING THAT PEOPLE TAKE AN INTEREST IN YOU.

"Yesterday I saw a picture which I liked immensely , a picture of Jesus lying dead. An angel was kissing his left hand with inexpressible devotion. Another, at the Saviour’s feet, was holding a nail torn out of the Cross. In the foreground with his back to us there was a tubby little angel weeping as he gazed at Christ. I prayed to God that they would let me have the picture. It is beautiful. It b...

"Seeing you, looking at you; talking to you; becoming friends with you; loving you, Lord!" (St Josemaria).

The real definition of ecstasy.

We are looking forward to a home yet to come.

Many people were awakened by failure and others were put to sleep by early success.

"If God is with us, who is against us?" (St Paul).

"Pride goes on horseback and comes back on foot." (Italian proverb).

"Happiness is not what happens to us, it is the way we interpret what happens to us." (Marian Rojas-Estapé).

If a young person has a problem (whatever it is, physical, sentimental or in his studies), that will influence everything else. We cannot pretend that a teenager, when he has just lost a soccer game in which he wanted to stand out, is willing to listen to us as if that loss did not make an impact in his life. You have to know how to position yourself and let them know and feel that you are really...

You suffer because taking care of them well is very tiring, and because you have to be honest with them and know how to demand... and demanding costs when the other person does not want to be demanded! You suffer when you see that the other does not respond, when it seems that he is indifferent to God's acting, when that young man, that young woman makes choices that are known to end badly and are...

It is convenient to train people, not the circumstances in which they live. A teenager goes through a thousand internal battles and four hundred thousand contradictory feelings. As formative agents we will never have an answer for everything or time for ev-erything. They have to learn to resolve their own conflicts to the best of their ability. Our role is to teach them to fish, not to give them t...

Here's the key: being oneself, just as I am, without artificial stuff that only generates overwhelm, bewilderment and rejection. Fight to be consistent, to live according to what you preach, even if you are far from achieving it. And transmit the joy of a life of struggle to be close to God, despite the fact that our failures are evident, we make mistakes, and sometimes we lack mer-cy. That is, wi...

When dealing with teens and young adults it is very important to show up before the party is over. Not being around when they really need us shows lack of interest and bureaucratic mentality. A teenager needs a lot of personal attention and we have to be ready to make a lot of sacrifices to be helpful when they need us, not when we want to be helpful.

What we have to bring out of our teenagers are simple, uncomplicated people, who feel very free and who do not measure their affection for God by the mere fulfillment of things, but by the love that they put into them.

Let them know —and prove it— that you play on their team, that their lives are especially important to you, that their problems are your problems, that, in a certain way, their mistakes in their improvement are your failures as a formative agent. Let them feel that you are deeply committed to their Christian struggle, to their spiritual growth, no matter what it takes, no matter what you sweat. In...

Helping young people to participate in the sacraments and in the traditional means of Christian formation is the way to go if we want to educate youth in faith. First and foremost we need to set an example: Holy formative agents, holy teenagers.

If you pray, you evangelize; and you evangelize if you pray.

The Lord always loves his people.

Exploring one of the difficulties we face when it's time to do our prayer.

At the foundation of our conversion is humility. Working on this virtue is about allowing love for God and others to take over our hearts, so that our self love fades gradually.

What the elder brother needs to enter the house of his father.

Learning how to cast out the devil from our hearts.

As one character more in the scenes of the gospel.

The our Father prayer is always a good go-to-resource to pray as the Lord wants us to do.