Hajja Salesjana - May June 2016

33 8) Be mindful of your behavior online. Is that post designed to improve your image … and leave others feeling bad? Are you hammering people in order to serve your anger and humiliate others? 9) Have masses said for the living: friends and family members, even strangers you read/hear about, who are having a hard time. 10) Be generous enough to allow someone to help you; people need to feel needed. 11) If you didn’t mean to be a pain in the neck to someone, admit you were and ask the person to forgive you. 12) Take time in prayer to contemplate the good qualities of someone who is difficult for you. Do the same for each member of your family. 13) Send a card, flowers, gift or note to someone on the six-month anniversary of his or her loved one’s death. By then, most people have stopped recognizing their grief. 14) Offer to babysit for a busy mom to go out and have a couple of hours to herself. 15) Make a meal (or buy a gift certificate)for a mom who’s just given birth or adopted a child, or for someone who’s just gone through a loss. 16) Hold your tongue! Do not gossip! 17) Offer to run an errand (groceries, dry cleaning pick-up, dog-walking) for a busy parent or homebound person. 18) If you can’t sit down beside a homeless person to talk for a while today, at least send a donation to a ministry that does this. 19) If you’re sharing a treat, take the smaller portion. 20) Memorize the 14 corporal and spiritual works of mercy and show your children what they mean by doing them yourself. 21) Instead of losing patience with someone online (or in person), try to hear that person’s fear. Ask God for what Solomon asked for: “an understanding heart.” 22) Offer to drive or accompany an elderly person to Mass. 23) Recall a time you were not given the benefit of the doubt, and extend one to someone else. 24) Put down the phone and really listen to someone else. With eye contact. 25) Have alternative drinks, other than water, for times when those who have been struggling with alcohol come to visit. 26) Take advantage of sales to buy small toothpastes, soaps, shampoos, socks and feminine products/toiletries; donate them to parish outreaches or make gift bags and have them ready to hand out where needed. 27) Create a short end-of-day ritual to ask for (and extend) forgiveness with those you live with. “Do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph. 4:26). 28) Make a list of your “enemies.” Then, every day, say a prayer for them. 29) Make a point to smile, greet or make conversation with someone who is not in your everyday circle of friends. 30) Give away something of yours (that you really like) to someone you know would enjoy it.