It is said that which is holy is filled with light; and that which is not holy is cast in darkness.  The charge of living is to fill life with holiness and light.

Admittedly, it is sometimes difficult to find light in this world.  We open the newspaper in the morning, listen to the radio during the day, turn on the television at night, and surf the net morning, noon and night; and we are witness to a world that seems to be plunging more deeply into darkness.  News reports are filled with stories of murder and kidnapping, graft and political maneuvering, people who second-guess others and ascribe motives so that the good work of society cannot be done.

We come into the world as infants who must go through various stages of growth before we become adults.

At birth, we are candidates for maturity; and our growth into maturity is not merely a physical process. It is NOT automatic. It involves every aspect of our mind, spirit and personality. We must want to grow, and this takes great personal effort.

Greatness may not be within the reach of every one of us, but growth is. We are each capable of being a more mature person today than we were yesterday . . . and tomorrow can find us further along than we are today. And when we forget this vital truth, we lose sight of the essential meaning of life and the source of its deepest fulfillment.

I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved.

I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life, but who you have that counts.

I’ve learned that you can get by on charm for about 15 minutes, after that you’d better know something.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself to the best others can do, but to the best you can do.

I’ve learned that no matter how you slice it, there are always two sides.

I’ve learned that you can keep going, long after you think you can’t.

1. Spirituality is this kind of seeking nature. It is the part of us that says: Who am I? Where do I go when I die? How do I live? That’s spirituality! Religion is our attempts to answer the questions. Some of those answers are great and beautiful. Some of them are just dogma and rules that get us into trouble.

“My rules are better than your rules.” And then we fight about them. So spirituality is the questioning; and religions are our attempts at answers.

2.Religion is the rules, regulations, ceremonies and rituals developed by men to create conformity in the approach to God. Spirituality is God’s call in your soul.

3.Religion is something we are taught; and spirituality is something we teach ourselves.

You can’t live without forgiveness. It’s like the two prisoners of war that meet several years later; and one said to the other: “Have you for-given your captors yet?” “No, I never will.” “Well then, they still have you in prison don’t they?”

We all know how our body feels when we get angry. The reason is because we keep rethinking the same thought, and that re-stimulates that emotional circle; and we rerun the angry thought over and over, and thus we hook right back into that hostility.

People can stay angry for days, weeks and years just because they are choosing to rerun the angry thoughts over and over again.

Joy is a complex emotion. Do you really feel joy?

Joy is to rejoice, to be glad. It is a state of happiness. Joy is bliss, delight, pleasure. It is gaiety, merriment, cheerfulness. Do we really feel joy?

I always wondered whatever happens to a child? It is born with joy. It expresses delight. It giggles with pleasure. It shivers with gladness.

What, then, brings the sadness to the eyes, the emptiness to the heart, the unhappiness to the mind? Why does the candle of joy burn dimmer as the child grows older?

In Judaism the word sin means missing the mark. The great theologian, Augustine, had a beautiful formula. He said: “We sin when we have our loves out of order”.

What he meant by that is that we all love a lot of things. We love family. We love money. We love a little affection, status, truth, etc. And we all know that some loves are higher than others or should be.

We know that our love of family is higher than our love of money. If we spend all our time to get money, we are putting our loves out of order.

So, for example, if a friend tells you a secret and you blab it at a dinner party, you are putting your love of popularity above your love of friendship. And we all know that is the wrong order!

My suggestion: Sit down and say: “What do I love? What are the things I really love; and in what order do I love them? Am I spending time on my highest love? Or am I spending time on a lower love?

Religion and spirituality are two different things. Spirituality is the poetry of the soul. Religion is the prose.

You can be spiritual without being religious; and you can be religious without being spiritual. It is almost like the difference between love and marriage. Love is an emotion. Marriage is an institution. They are linked, but they are NOT the same.

Religion has its shared routine – the daily prayers and the regular rituals. Spirituality is the emotional poetry of life.