Novie Grace A. Aguinaldo
N10
What is living? Is it waking up in the morning doing what I have to do for the day then go
back to sleep then repeat it every day? Or is it finding myself every day and knowing my purpose
in this world, to others, to myself and to God? What does it really mean to live? What do I have
to say at the end of the journey If have lived life to the fullest and in a right way? And as I
listened to Fr. Michael Himes’ Last lecture I was moved to the things that I do not really think
about much.
Before I make a decision I think about myself first and I believe its human instinct to think of its
survival first however I noticed that I’m thinking of myself first way too much making me a
person who lives for herself only. Fr. Himes emphasized that if we are going to exist we have to
give ourselves away and hearing those words made me question my existence. Giving means
losing then if I give myself then who am I? Who will I be if I already gave up myself? These are
the things that I thought before I heard Fr. Himes’ lecture but he proved me wrong.
“You hold on to your life, you lose it. You give up your life, it becomes
everlasting”
For me the most striking part of Fr. Himes lecture is the gift of self to another. When I
usually hear these what I can think of is romantic love which is giving yourself to another person
or marriage but what I learned is that merely meeting people and giving them my time, energy,
knowledge, to focus myself on it and understanding the person is a way of giving. The
importance of friendship was brought up by Fr. Himes and I know that I am capable of having
friends and I agree with him that with friendship I get to learn about what my friend needs to