“A” = ‘ALONE’: (Single)
‘alone, all alone . . . & afraid’
Why do human beings find life so ‘un-certain’? One has to feel (fully) ‘accepted, acknowledged & appreciated’ before one can come to realize one’s own personal ‘Significance, Identity, Meaning’ (SIM). Surely, God has a ‘SIM’PLE answer for all who dare to ‘see’!
“in Him we live & move & have our being” (Acts 17:28)
St. Colmcille captured the essence of the human predicament :
“Alone, with none, but . . . Thee, My God . . . I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when Thou are near . . .
(St. Patrick, St. Brigid & St. Colmcille became SAINTS because they ‘lived-out’ of God’s providential care ‘in-all-things’ & ‘in-all-people’: ‘taste’ expressions of their wisdom, under the FORMATION button).
When we are born into the world, our ‘alone’ness & our ‘lone’liness (its emotional ‘side-kick’) quickly dawns on us. We face a daunting ‘start’ to the mystery of life on planet-earth. By all accounts, we are the most vulnerable of all God’s creatures: particularly, as we are encoded with extraordinary ‘potential-capacities’ & ‘possible-capabilities’, as human beings.
We are ‘thrust’ into this strange environment, where ‘trust’ or ‘doubt’ become significant factors in shaping our ensuing ‘mode-of-living’. At its most basic manifestation, the crucial criterion of all childhood experiences becomes: “Am I ACCEPTED?” or “Am I REJECTED?” The reality, here, makes all the difference to the future outcome of one’s ‘life-in-the-world’.
We are all too well aware, at present, of the widespread ‘dis-harmony-with-life’ manifest at all levels of society, but, particularly, among young people. Symptoms of personalized rage / nastiness are making headlines every day: assaults / bullying / suicides / drink & drug abuse / depression etc. These expressions of ‘un-ease’, ‘lack-of-peace’ are giving us a clear message in terms of social & spiritual DIS-CONNECT in life. What is ‘going-on’ on the surface (of peoples lives) represents anger / pain, at the inner core. Why is this happening?
As the Booklet has outlined, we start life as DEPENDENT / TRUSTING children. If we are ‘EMOTIONALLY-DEPRIVED’ we’re “driven-into” a ‘Big-Bad’ world; whereas, if we’re ‘EMOTIONALLY-AFFIRMED’ we’re “drawn-into” a ‘Lovey-Dovey’ world. Let’s PONDER the reality of these ‘circumstances & consequences’ & our most BASIC / FUNDAMENTAL personal need: to be given – over & above food & shelter – inner (psyche) nourishment / sustenance , too. This means: ‘AF-FIRM / BE-FIRM / CON-FIRM’ formation for life!