Hajja Salesjana January-March 2020

32 In an interview published in part in the Argentine weekly “Viva”, the Pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one’s life: 1 “Live and let live.” Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, “Move forward and let others do the same.” 2 “Be giving of yourself to others.” People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because “if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid.” 3 “Proceed calmly” in life. The Pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist — gaucho Don Segundo Sombra — looks back on how he lived his life. “He says that in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool of water,” the Pope said. He said he likes this latter image of a pool of water — to have “the ability to move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life.” 4 “A healthy sense of leisure.” The pleasures of art, literature and playing together with children have been lost, he said. Consumerism has brought us anxiety and stress, causing people to lose a healthy culture of leisure. Their time is swallowed up and so people can’t share it with anyone. Pope Francis' Top 10 Secrets For Happiness By Thomas Merton Photo: Janko Ferlic from www.unsplash.com