One disadvantage of passion is that it takes a lot out of a person. Passion will make it necessary to cry, lose sleep, engage in conversations you’d rather avoid, and take risks that might keep life in an uproar.
Passion does not allow a person to sit like a lump and watch events work themselves out. A passionate person cares too much to stay silent when harm is being done or to stand still when help is needed.
In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the exercise of the Two Standards helps the person at prayer determine whether she is going to follow the standard (in military terms, the flag) of Christ or the standard of Lucifer, enemy of our souls. This can seem like an intellectual exercise, as we weigh the options and decide, with our minds, which life would be the better one.
But this decision involves far more than a mental choice. When we follow Christ, we are giving God permission to move us, to build that fire of passion in our souls, thus making it impossible for us ever again to be nonchalant, uncaring, or apathetic. In choosing Christ’s standard, we opt to be fully human, which means that every aspect of our personality will be engaged in forward movement, in healing work—in God’s kingdom.
So, what has passion looked like in your life? I’d love to hear some stories.
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My passion is the Safety,protection,prevention and awareness of children and all their needs. Adults need to be vigilant of our children well being in order to grow a healthy humanity. God has given and keeps on giving this new life’s and our duty is to take care of them.
My passion is to share my faith with children in our religion program year after year and especially to work with special needs children who always seem to have a very strong love for God.
What it looks like? Passion in my life turns me into a dervish in my drive to do what I have to do. My most fervent efforts usually include a lot of noise and people shaking their heads and telling me I can’t change the world. Do I care? My latest passion involved taking cell phone pictures of licence plates of errant drivers, usually too old to see over the steering wheel. Or beyond it. Other passions include getting our streets safe in other ways besides drivers.
This post, Vinita, helped me to see that my passion for all things spiritual permeates everything I do. And I am so grateful that I have this grace in my life. My passion is gathering people together for spiritual sharing, for meals shared together, for prayer and for building of solid spiritual relationships. And this includes my family and friends. This universal spirit of love is out there for us and sometimes it takes a lifetime to see it and grasp it. I’m grateful for the ongoing development of the spiritual that keeps me building relationships. What a blessing!
My passion looks like a husband, 6 kids, 10 grandkids, 2 “other daughters” (niece & grandniece). My passion is listening to music. My passion is classice rock music; playing air guitar with my boys. My passion is singing, in church, around the house, with any group that is singing old songs, in the car, at the beach. My passion looks like my CCD kids when they understand what I am saying to them; those lovely smiling faces when we play What will you bring to the Kingdom, or Mass/Church bingo, Advent bingo, Lent bingo, etc. My passion is teaching them to sing the Our Father. My passion is pulling weeds, recycling household trash, writing books for my kids and grandkids (i.e., How to wash your clothes). My passion is Vincent D’Onofrio, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, and more than one of the stars in PBS Mysteries. My greatest passion is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In whom I place my greatest trust. I’m a very passionate person.
My passion is and has always been children. As a pediatric nurse practitioner I was a provider in a clinic that served 1800 children in an impoverished immigrant community. I strove to bring these beautiful eager children the health they needed in order to learn all that they could. My secondary passion was child abuse prevention both as a clinician and as an adjunct college instructor teaching professionals how to prevent the same and protect God’s most vulnerable little ones, who couldn’t protect themselves. My rewards are to see these children overcome obstacles and succeed even when circumstances are prohibitive
My passion is discovering my true self, the person whom God created me to be. It seems the more I come to know my true self(and false self), the more I want to create that awareness among the people in my life. To let them know that there is great joy and freedom in living the life God meant for us to live… about letting go(especially in the second half of life) and just letting God be God in our life. Ignatian Spirituality has played a very key role in letting me find and experience God in all things. I am passionate about people finding God in all things, and being healed of their wounds and masks and becoming whole and integrated. I am passionate about the freedom God wants to give me, wants to give all of us.
My passion is helping people to get in touch with their own interior resources to cope with life !
My passion is to give my children a vision for life with Christ as the nucleus (the powerhouse) with considerably more effort during early formidable years of childhood (see website). Therefore, my older children continue to choose virtuous pursuits with Christ at the center while showing extremely well developed independence. At the same time, they cherish family time and activities that continue to unite us in faith.
I have a passion to help the sick, poor, and young in the community too. I teach religious education at a local parish and a journal writing homeschoool class. I used to bring communion to the elderly as a pastoral visitor.
I also have a passion to keep my house clean, organized, and sanitary but am having difficulty doing this from, what might be, arthritis pain. My interior resources are lacking and I don’t have many exterior resources for this.
There is also a passion for our leaders to follow and adhere to America’s founding documents – especially religious freedom. If all these years some leaders leaned on the wall between Church and state, why are some suddenly trying to levy mandates on our beautiful Church? I have a passion to prevent this atrocity and believe it should be a requirement for leaders to honor Constitutional principles.
Much of my passion is involved with teaching to bring awareness and true wisdom (which is knowledge in relation to God) to others.
My passion is to be of service to men and women who are in prison and exiting prison. However, I work full time in a career I love. I am paid well and I strive to be the best I possibly can. My passion in being of service to incarcerated populations is grounded in my own experience of exiting prison over 14 years ago, going back to school, and finally beginning my professional career as a result of my personal passion to become a better person. It is through this experience, I believe passion requires discipline and adherence to an unknowing conviction, trust in God, that the professional work I am currently doing must be in balance with passion to be of service to men and women I have shared a similar experience