Courage

I bought a new book on Saturday called "The Courage to be" by Paul Tillich. So far it's pretty good. It's a bit intellectual for me, but I think its what I need to feed that part of me.

He talks about the dilemma and the struggle modern man has with anxiety (this is a much broader term to him than we think). He really breaks down the way he sees fear and the will to overcome. So right now I think that's what I'm trying to concentrate on and make my focus in my continued study.

In the fall I'm going to start leading a bible study. It's something that I've felt my heart being pulled towards for quite sometime now and I think now is the time to do it. I feel like I actually have the time to give in order to lead one. I feel like I'm losing a lot of the basics that I know about Christianity. Faith, prayer, Jesus, etc. And I have a lot of questions about all of those things, so I think I'll be probably focusing it towards those themes.

This prayer is next to my desk and I thought I would share:
Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.