When you walk in darkness, it is sometimes difficult to believe that the light shining in the distance is real, and that it might turn out to be a bonfire. Yet this is the very essence of faith: to trust despite apparent uncertainty — in other words, to keep a burning flame even when everything around us seems dull and lifeless.
The path of goodness is arduous and generally long, but its fruits are sweet and tender. The path that ignores the divine may seem easier and more direct, yet its fruits are inevitably bitter.
How Can You Know If You’re on the Right Path?
How can you tell whether you are not walking in the opposite direction from the one God had intended for you?
At all times, there is an inner voice speaking to you. Depending on your habits — positive or negative (alcohol, smoking, etc.) — you may not be fully receptive to it.
Yet, if you take the time and listen carefully, you will hear it.
If you cannot, then perhaps it is time for a more radical measure: spending time alone, for a prolonged period, to reactivate that connection with your inner voice.
Needless to say, during that time you must stop everything that distracts you (social media, films, addictions, etc.).
The idea is to place yourself voluntarily in an uncomfortable situation.
If you haven’t spent time alone for years, you will inevitably find this exercise unsettling. That’s normal.
When one is invaded by demons (metaphorically or not), it is always painful to open oneself to the light.
That, symbolically, is why bats avoid daylight — and why so many misdeeds occur at night rather than in broad daylight.
How Do God’s Rewards Manifest Themselves?
To know how to wait is to know how to win.
What youth often lacks is patience — which pushes it to commit the irreparable, or at least to do things it will later regret.
Although too much patience can sometimes be seen as a lack of courage, patience is generally an asset, especially in spiritual growth.
God does not give us everything on a silver platter. He wants us to nurture our virtues so that we may later appreciate the gifts we receive.
This explains why, with greater wisdom and clarity, we are better able to appreciate life’s small blessings, and why, in the end, little is enough to make us content.
Material Happiness Is Expensive
The happiness that consumer society sells us is material and transactional — and that’s to be expected, for it feeds on that illusion.
Believing that happiness lies in something you can buy with the sweat of your brow may seem appealing because it looks simple, yet it distracts us from inner effort.
Material happiness makes us believe that joy can be found in the outer world, when in truth it resides within.
Belief in external happiness enslaves us, while belief in inner happiness is the true key to freedom.
Spiritual Happiness Demands Effort
One of the main distinctions between material and spiritual happiness is that the former is accessible to all, while the latter is within reach of only a few.
Where material happiness tends to divide people, spiritual happiness — the true kind, not that of hypocrites or fanatics who are merely religious but have forgotten their spiritual essence — tends instead to unite them.
Draw Strength from Your Weaknesses
You may not realize that what you perceive as calamities often turns out to be a blessing.
When you feel sensitive and withdrawn, you are, in truth, in a posture that allows you to improve your inner life.
Fragility Helps Humans Develop Compassion
While women experience monthly cycles of heightened sensitivity, men, in reality, lack this opportunity to explore their inner world regularly.
Life for men is outwardly focused — by necessity and by social norms — making them generally less educated in the subtleties of the human psyche.
The ability to deepen one’s inner life is born out of crises that arise before us.
By force of circumstance, we are regularly compelled to face problems because they manifest themselves and cannot be avoided.
Your Moments of Fragility Connect You to Those You Once Misunderstood
Remember those times you were frustrated at not understanding someone dear to you.
Often, such conflicts were caused by suffering in the other person — suffering you ignored or misunderstood.
What if your moments of vulnerability allowed you to see more clearly — to understand what you previously could not?
The people who have crossed your path have not all benefited from your full understanding.
It is sometimes only retrospectively that we truly understand others.
So rejoice in those painful moments: they allow you to connect with a greater part of the cosmos.
Pain Is a Great Teacher
Living without hurt or vexation may be possible in the short term, but it is an illusion in the long run.
To deepen who we are — morally and spiritually — we must be able to feel the emotions of others.
To understand others, one needs a palette of emotions in one’s psychic studio, like a painter who keeps rare colors to portray the world in all its detail.
Though constant pain is destructive, tasting life’s bitterness helps us connect to the world and prevents us from living in an ivory tower.
To Deny Others’ Emotions Is to Sink Deeper into Barbarism
When you deny what others feel, you not only alienate them — you become an agent of chaos.
Each missed opportunity for compassion adds a dose of violence to the world.
To avoid falling into barbarism, we must use our hearts — always able to feel and recognize others’ pain — and bring comfort where we can.
The Heart: The Key to Human Peace
Wars and calamities spread mainly because humans fail to use their hearts.
It is no coincidence that leaders are often men — whose lesser ability to listen to their hearts may explain why so many peoples are at odds.
To resist barbarism is to know how to love.
But to love, one must lower the barriers built between oneself and others.
If you believe there is a fundamental difference between you and the world, cruelty becomes inevitable.
Therefore, from now on, decide that nothing separates you from the world around you — that you are also the person you see in another’s eyes.
By living this way, you will become an agent of peace.
