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Traditionally, love is divided into three levels or types. The highest form of love is agape love. Agape love makes no demands on another; it seeks only union with the spiritual realities resident in each partner. Agape love is essentially altruistic, seeking no ego gain whatsoever in the love interaction.
More InfoHealing means to successively close whatever gap exists between God and us; to become more adept at expressing the true uniqueness of what God has invested in us. One of our spiritual goals in later life is to gradually strip away all that is not our true self, not of God, and taking on all that is.
More InfoSome years ago when I worked in a large Catholic hospital, I learned something that fundamentally changed the way I looked at healing. I noticed that there were many patients who were very sick, but who seemed to defy our cultural expectation of how patients normally act.
More InfoEvery list of characteristics that make for strong mental health at every age, especially the maturing years, includes the ability to make and keep friends, and the ability to develop, nurture, and maintain relationships of deep sharing.
More InfoAs we mature, our interest in keeping our body running well escalates. Health has always been a concern, but now we find our body demanding more attention. Media bombard us with sometimes confusing health recommendations.
More InfoWhether the caregiver is caring for an aging parent, a spouse, or a child, my studies and investigations into the caregiving role have unearthed some gems of caregiving. One such gem is the sequence of nine steps that together can elevate caregiving tasks to a spiritual level.
More InfoSooner or later, most of us will enter the ranks of caregivers to older persons. Most probably, this care will be required in support of our own parents or family members. Yet, so many of us are unprepared for the role.
More InfoWellness and well-being can be defined as your continuing efforts over the entire lifespan to find vitalizing levels of fundamental physical health, mental wellness, and spiritual holiness.
More InfoEarl Nightingale reigned as the most sought-after motivational speaker in America for more than 25 years. He inspired audiences of all kinds to look within themselves and recognize the wonder of their potential.
More InfoThe Christian psychologist Karl Jung once said that "Attitude is the mind's paintbrush. It can color any situation." Certainly our attitude toward maturation (aging) colors our later lifespan.
More InfoI once interviewed an 83-year young woman who related an interaction she had with her son, Jim. "Jim," she said, "I went to First Friday Mass, and the church was packed with old people." "Mother," her son Jim responded, "but what are you?" "Old?" she asked surprised, "I didn't think I was old; I thought I was ... I thought I was ... "
More InfoHave you ever asked yourself why some people don't mature—they just seem to get "old?" Why is it that some older persons become "cranky" or irascible, angry or dependent, fretful or demanding, as they age?
More InfoWhy, you may ask, do some people age or mature with such patience and grace, with wholeness and peace, while others protest and resist, or simply resign?
More InfoDoes our personality change as we get older? What does it mean when someone says, "She has a wonderful personality" or, "His personality is 'the pits?'" Do we develop our personality, or has it been given to us?
More InfoResearch into the needs of maturing adults finds that they fall into two general categories: 1) physical needs, and 2) psychological needs.
More Info"Aging is the senseless slippage into nothingness." I was flabbergasted when I read this definition of aging in an old sociology textbook. What a stark view of aging, I thought; yet it gave me pause. When viewed through human eyes alone, aging does become little more than a succession of losses ending in nothingness.
More InfoIn his book, Coaching Change, Dr. Thomas G. Bandy, writes: "I like the third principle of the Benedictine Rule, 'a commitment to live faithfully in unsettled times and to keep one's life sufficiently unsettled to respond to the changing voice of God'" (page 177).
More InfoJoan took another sip of coffee, and asked herself how she should react to her surprise 45th birthday party tomorrow. Her husband Brian had planned it well, but one of her friends 'let it slip out.' "Forty-five seems so much older than 44 for some reason," she mused.
More InfoMaturing life brings us into the midst of change so profound that its been called a fundamental transformation. Change is no stranger to us, we've encountered change throughout our lives, but the change of mature living is change of another type entirely.
More InfoConversion is the sometimes sudden, but most times gradual, shift from how we define ourselves as part of the world, our "worldly self," to recognizing God's divinity within us. Our "Holy Self," becomes our primary identity. Conversion is our singular goal in life, across the entire lifespan.
More InfoWhile giving a retirement preparation seminar to a group of executives from a large international corporation, a man approached me with a chagrined look on his face as he said, "Retirement is going from Who's Who to who's that!
More InfoIt's in midlife when we, quite unintentionally and unwillingly, are drawn inward to our interior as never before. We can resist the process, we can try to push it away, postpone it, or even forestall it, but we can't deny it without dire consequences to our soul development.
More InfoFr. Benedict Groeschel reminds us in his book, Spiritual Passages, that there are four types of spiritual seekers, those who seek Unity, Truth, Goodness and Beauty.
More InfoTwo trends have swelled the ranks of retired folks in our parishes. 1) We're retiring earlier, the average first retirement age hovers around 57 years old, and 2) we're living longer, medical advances and education continue to push longevity.
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