Big Things Come in Small Packages (Pt. 2)

A mobile phone can easily fit in a man's pants pocket or a woman's small purse. Almost everyone has a cellphone and they can be seen using it everywhere: in shopping malls, in offices, at the dinner table, restaurant, in airports, and everywhere you see many people. They are glued to their cellphones.

You can even see priests holding a cellphone in church or places of worship (like in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican) although most probably they are praying the Liturgy of the Hours on their gadgets, instead of using the Breviary which priests held in their hands, and identified them as priests before Vatican II and the advent of cellphones.

Mobile phones are a handy means of communication, of social media, of searching for information, of entertainment. Overused or misused, it can contribute to a lessening of family interaction at the dinner table, or sending of messages not well thought of with breakneck speed that cannot be recalled once sent, unlike when one has to write letters and revise it as necessary before it is put in the mailbox. It can also be an entry to sites that lead one to sin.

The mobile phone is an indifferent thing, neither good nor bad, depending on how one uses it.

There are things as small or smaller than a cellphone that can fit in a man's pants pocket or a woman's small purse. Examples are small books, that are so small and handy that you can pull out of your pocket or purse, and so good and valuable that you can find truth, goodness and beauty in the words they contain.

I discovered one such small book "The Way" by Saint Jose Maria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. Open it at any page and you will see pearls of wisdom and spirituality that can start you reflecting on your yourself and your relationship with God and others. An example:

"#8 - Serenity. Why lose your temper if by losing it you offend God, you trouble your neighbor, you give yourself a bad time ... and in the end you have to set things aright anyway?"

The saint has two other similar books that come in small size: "The Forge" and "The Furrow."

These three books come in small packaging, but they are really big. And of course, Holy Scriptures. The New Testament also comes in the size of a cellphone. These small books in your pocket or purse can help you become saints.

We all are called to holiness, that is, to become saints. After all, if we do not become saints, what would have been the meaning of our earthly life?

Nothing!!#

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Prayer: Lord, help us to become holy. Help us to become saints.

"He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Mt 13:31-32