Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Pope Francis Reveals Top 10 Secrets to Happiness...
Christian Post ^ | Jul 30, 2014‎ | Stoyan Zaimov

Posted on 08/01/2014 7:01:41 AM PDT by Gamecock

Full Title: Pope Francis Reveals Top 10 Secrets to Happiness; Advises Taking Care of Nature, Honoring Sundays, Respecting Others' Beliefs

Pope Francis has shared his top 10 secrets to a happy life in an interview with an Argentinean newspaper, and advised people to slow down and enjoy a "healthy sense of leisure," to take care of nature, and to respect other people's beliefs, among others.

Catholic News Service posted Pope Francis' list on Tuesday, published in part in the Argentine weekly "Viva."

The list goes as follows:

1. "Live and let live." Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, "Move forward and let others do the same." ADVERTISEMENT

2. "Be giving of yourself to others." People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because "if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid."

3. "Proceed calmly" in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist – gaucho Don Segundo Sombra – looks back on how he lived his life.

"He says that in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool" of water, the pope said. He said he likes this latter image of a pool of water – to have "the ability to move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life."

4. "A healthy sense of leisure." The pleasures of art, literature and playing together with children have been lost, he said.

"Consumerism has brought us anxiety" and stress, causing people to lose a "healthy culture of leisure." Their time is "swallowed up" so people can't share it with anyone.

Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children; work schedules make it "complicated, but you must do it," he said.

Families must also turn off the TV when they sit down to eat because, even though television is useful for keeping up with the news, having it on during mealtime "doesn't let you communicate" with each other, the pope said.

5. Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because "Sunday is for family," he said.

6. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people. "We need to be creative with young people. If they have no opportunities they will get into drugs" and be more vulnerable to suicide, he said.

"It's not enough to give them food," he said. "Dignity is given to you when you can bring food home" from one's own labor.

7. Respect and take care of nature. Environmental degradation "is one of the biggest challenges we have," he said. "I think a question that we're not asking ourselves is: 'Isn't humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?'"

8. Stop being negative. "Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem. That means, 'I feel so low that instead of picking myself up I have to cut others down,'" the pope said. "Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy."

9. Don't proselytize; respect others' beliefs. "We can inspire others through witness so that one grows together in communicating. But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: 'I am talking with you in order to persuade you,' No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing," the pope said.

10. Work for peace. "We are living in a time of many wars," he said, and "the call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive" and dynamic.

The Roman Catholic Church leader has often preached about finding joy away from material possessions, and on the importance of protecting the environment.

Earlier this week, Francis became the first pope to make an official visit to a Pentecostal church. On Monday he spoke at the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in the southern city of Caserta, Italy, and apologized for the persecution of Pentecostals that the Catholic Church was involved with in the past.

He added that people should not be surprised to see him visit evangelicals, and called them "his brothers."


TOPICS: General Discusssion
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-114 next last
To: Gamecock

Yep, easily the worst pope in my lifetime. The Joel Osteen jab is particularly on the mark. This list is the same pabulum.


21 posted on 08/01/2014 7:24:57 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: johniegrad
The worst. Search Keyword YBPDLN

Tons of his antics there.

22 posted on 08/01/2014 7:26:26 AM PDT by Gamecock (There is room for all of God's animals. Right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen

Real.


23 posted on 08/01/2014 7:31:12 AM PDT by Gamecock (There is room for all of God's animals. Right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Mercat

We can’t teach without opening our mouths.


24 posted on 08/01/2014 7:32:03 AM PDT by Gamecock (There is room for all of God's animals. Right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Big difference between teaching and baptizing

and proselytism.


25 posted on 08/01/2014 7:33:55 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock
5. Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because "Sunday is for family," he said.

Pope Francis endorses Chick Fil A


26 posted on 08/01/2014 7:33:57 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

What about vanity and the destructive evil of envy it leads to? That’s the biggest source of sorrow in modern life. Constantly comparing oneself to others never leads to happiness. Leftists can never admit their primary motivator in life is a cardinal sin.


27 posted on 08/01/2014 7:36:46 AM PDT by Reeses
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reeses

Envy is the whole basis of Communism. That’s why it resulted in the deaths of millions.


28 posted on 08/01/2014 7:38:18 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Oh Goody. Another day, another load of BS from Frank. Still waiting to hear him begin speaking out about the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East and Africa, or does that come under his live and let live philosophy?


29 posted on 08/01/2014 7:43:07 AM PDT by CdMGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

1. “Live and let live.”
2. “Be giving of yourself to others.”
3. “Proceed calmly” in life.
4. “A healthy sense of leisure.”
5. Sundays should be holidays.
6. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people.
7. Respect and take care of nature.
8. Stop being negative.
9. Don’t proselytize; respect others’ beliefs.
10. Work for peace.

Words for our Iraqi Christians friends. /sacr

The Pope needs to get out of the Vatican more often.


30 posted on 08/01/2014 7:43:26 AM PDT by HarleyD ("... letters are weighty, but his .. presence is weak, and his speech of no account.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Well, there you have it.

All the items on that list are directly from the “teachings” of the secular humanism of our illustrious globalists.

Every single item on the list is designed to be fine with globalists, the IRS, NSA, etc.

As long as a Church is corrupted and serving a corrupt government, the corrupt government will be fine with that Church.

Once a Church makes that its bed, it then has to lie in it.

When a Church effectively tosses the Bible aside and tells its congregants to obey to the Church leadership’s teachings over and above obeying Scripture, it gets taken over from within by the darkness of corrupt souls of fallen man. It then becomes a cult like all false religions.

Religious cults always tell their members to obey the cult leaders over and above anything or anyone else.

True Churches tell their members to obey the Word of God, the Bible, over and above anything or anyone else.


31 posted on 08/01/2014 7:47:32 AM PDT by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Beer not mentioned once.


32 posted on 08/01/2014 7:55:12 AM PDT by o-n-money
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
And envy is an unfortunate side effect of vanity. All evil, including communism, ultimately springs from vanity. Narcissism, an extreme form of vanity, is a defensive response to some other mental pain, such as being abandoned by a father, then later a mother. It's literally true that leftism is a mental disorder. There is no cure.


33 posted on 08/01/2014 7:57:54 AM PDT by Reeses
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Thanks for the link.


34 posted on 08/01/2014 7:58:43 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Conservatism is the political disposition of grown-ups.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

11.) Let no thought go unspoken.


35 posted on 08/01/2014 8:02:28 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Conservatism is the political disposition of grown-ups.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: albie

Every day should be for family, not just Sunday. Just like every day should be Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

Live and let live - Not when obama and his terrorist buddies are out to destroy my life.


36 posted on 08/01/2014 8:24:22 AM PDT by bgill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock
Eleanor Roosevelt made the comment that "Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product".
An old Reader's Digest statement is even more apropos, "Happiness is the direct result of trying to make someone else happy".
37 posted on 08/01/2014 8:44:27 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: o-n-money

You’re right, I missed that, thanks.


38 posted on 08/01/2014 9:16:00 AM PDT by xone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

“We can’t teach without opening our mouths.”

True. We believers have been blanded to death! “Don’t put out the Spirit’s fire...” If the stones would cry out, why can’t we? We have The Truth, living in our very hearts, by the Holy Spirit.

Father, empower us to be very bold in proclaiming your Gospel. In the name of Jesus! Amen.


39 posted on 08/01/2014 10:00:49 AM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

Nothing about God?

Really?

What a joke.


40 posted on 08/01/2014 10:30:43 AM PDT by what's up
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-114 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson