Holy Moments, A Handbook for the Rest of Your Life, by Matthew Kelly.
It’s a little book with a big idea. And it looks like you can buy six copies for FREE.
The idea is to fill your life with Holy Moments, which Kelly defines as follows:
“A Holy Moment is a single moment in which you open yourself to God. You make yourself available to Him. You set aside personal preference and self-interest, and for one moment you do what you prayerfully believe God is calling you to do.”
A Holy Moment could be buying coffee for the car behind of you at Starbucks. It could be shoveling the driveway for your elderly neighbor, or volunteering to play piano for an hour at a nursing home.
Needless to say, Holy Moments make other people feel better. But Holy Moments also make you feel better — Kelly reviews some real science to back up this claim, although I imagine your own experience will confirm this is true.
Holy Moments are contagious. Doing good deeds inspires others to do good deeds. There’s a ripple effect to it that can turn into a tidal wave of goodness if enough people participate.
Kelly devotes a large chunk of the book to the mathematics behind the idea that planting a few seeds leads to millions of people living holier lives.
My math skills are not so hot, but I believe his theory, because I can easily see how true the opposite is. We all know that social media has created a tidal wave of negativity and hostility. Bad sentiments lead to bad outcomes that grow wider and deeper. Holy Moments are good sentiments and lead to good outcomes. If each of us does just a little, good outcomes will grow wider and deeper over time.
If you’re not familiar with Matthew Kelly, he’s been writing spiritually uplifting and insightful books for quite a long time. He’s very easy to read, extremely blunt, and never sounds preachy, probably because he has a bit of a checkered past, which he openly talks about in his books.
Here’s my favorite line from the book:
“You cannot improve your life in any meaningful way without improving as a human being. And what is true for one person is true for an entire society. Virtue is the only way for a society to make genuine progress.”
Genuine progress is in our hands.
Believe it or not, the only other book I’ve read from front to back was the Lord of the Flies. It was an assignment from one of the teachers @ Saint Stanislaus College in Bay St Louis, MS. We had to read a book of our choice and give a short version of what the book was all about and give our synopsis of the plot. I loved the book. Received an “A” on this. Do not know why I haven’t read another book from front and back until probably now.
Reason I am saying “probably” is because I’m on page 105. I’ve stopped before the next chapter: “Never Stay Discourage”. Ready to go to bed. I’m so looking forward to reading this. Since my wife filed for divorce, I’ve been in a “Discouraged” mood. But, since reading the first 104.75 pages, I’ve realized that I was thinking more about myself instead of others who I can bestow a “Holy Moment” to.
So, my main concern is to concentrate on bestowing a Holy Moment to each and every person who I’m in contact with. And, thus make me feel so good to have done each one of them. To the point where I don’t think about my problems, ‘cause when I give more and more Holy Moments, I feel like I’ll get what I am looking for, but in a more “Holy Moment” way.
I’m so happy that I picked up this book at my Divine Mercy Parish Church. No doubt I’ll read it to the end and will no doubt make me concentrate on bestowing “Holy Moments” to my fellow human beings.
Sincerely,
Terry Phillips