Matthew Kelly
Blue Sparrow Publishing
Dynamic Catholic
ISBN 9781635825596
eISBN 9781635825602
ASIN B0DB8PFYPZ
This is a book all Catholics today need to read! I have read many volumes by Mathew Kelly over 36 times. I have also listened to a number of audio talks and attended 2 virtual conferences. I can state this is an excellent volume. The description of this volume states:
“GOD HASN'T STOPPED SPEAKING. WE'VE STOPPED LISTENING.
We yearn for God's direction. We want to hear his voice. We know his will is the path to the peace, joy, and happiness we hunger for. But how do we discover his will?
God has been speaking to humanity from the very beginning—and he has been speaking to you. . .
Learning to listen to the voice of God will change your life powerfully and wonderfully. The Three Ordinary Voices of God will help you discover how God is speaking to you today and how that will change all your tomorrows.
In this simple and powerful guide, Matthew Kelly demonstrates that God speaks to everyone—whether we are aware of it or not—through three ordinary voices: OUR NEEDS, OUR TALENTS, and OUR DESIRES.
"When I listen to the voice of God and strive to carry out his will, I become focused, energized, and invigorated. When I turn my back on God or run from his will, I become distracted, depleted, and lethargic. All the energy and enthusiasm drain from my life."
What's next for you?
Do you have a decision to make? Are you trying to decide what to do with your life? Or maybe you are discerning what God is calling you to for the next season of your life?
This may just be the right book at the right time for you.
God yearns to speak to you.”
The chapters Sections in this volume are:
Chapter One: Let Your Life Speak
It’s Possible to Mis-Live Your Life
Let Your Life Speak
God Speaks to Everyone
The Three Voices: A Simple Introduction
The Benefits of Listening to God’s Voice
Personal Clarity
Clarity Leads to Engagement
Will You Listen?
Chapter Two: The First Voice: Needs
Every Parent’s Dream
The First Voice: The Basics
The Four Aspects of the Human Person
The Happiness Paradox
Getting What You Want Doesn’t Make You Happy
God Loves Order
God Wants You to Serve Powerfully
Chapter Three: The Second Voice: Talent
The Two Paths
The Second Voice: The Basics
Everybody Is a Genius
Two Truths
Context Is a Beautiful Thing
Unique and Universal Talent
Chapter Four: The Third Voice: Desires
The Power of Desire
The Third Voice: The Basics
The Trivial Many vs. The Essential Few
From FOMO to JOMO
Desire and the Four Aspects
The Want Beyond the Want
Chapter Five: The Ultimate Desire
That Nagging Feeling
Your Heart’s Dominant Desire
Unanswered Questions
This Is How We Change Our Lives
The Cause of Our Pain
The Only Tragedy
The Unavoidable Appointment
Epilogue: Come To The Quiet
Fear the Right Things
All the Other Voices
Come to the Quiet
I highlighted numerous passages while reading this volume. Some of them are:
“I am petrified of mis-living my life. You can mis-live your life. Most people never consider it as a possibility, but it’s true. You can mis-live your life. Let it sink in. It is possible.”
“All it takes is the consistent application of mediocrity, laziness, procrastination, obsession with material possessions, and self-centeredness.”
“A well-lived life is built the same way a mis-lived life is built—one choice at a time. Every choice builds character or erodes character. Make your next choice one that belongs in a well-lived life. It’s amazing how one good choice can shift the momentum of your day. Do you need to make a shift?”
“Meet with the person you are capable of becoming for a few minutes each day. The more time you spend in these meetings the less you will fear death. Use your thoughts, words, choices, and actions to close the gap between who you are today and who you are capable of being. This is the path that leads to a deeply fulfilling life.”
“Let your life speak implies that your life might not speak. That isn’t the case. The truth is this: You don’t have a choice. Your life speaks whether you let it or not. Your actions speak and your inaction speaks. The only choice you have in this matter surrounds this question: What is your life saying to the world?”
“And that’s what we are going to learn to do: Listen to God speak to you each and every day of your life. And it will change everything. I know it may seem impossible, but I assure you, it isn’t. In fact, once you learn how to listen to God’s voice in the moments of your day, you will understand why you made the mistakes you made along the way, and you will wonder how you ever lived without his intimate guidance.”
“God speaks to every single person every single day using three ordinary voices: needs, talents, and desires. He speaks to us in the depths of our souls.”
“God is the ultimate Father who yearns to speak into the lives of his children. He will go to unfathomable lengths to communicate with us. Do you really think he’s not going to speak to you?”
“God the Father yearns deeply to communicate with you. He is the Father who wants good things for you more than you want them for yourself. Will you pause the insanity of your life for a few minutes each day and listen to him?”
“There is no such thing as an ordinary person and there is no such thing as an ordinary voice of God. When God speaks it is a gift of inestimable value.”
“This is where we find the three “ordinary” voices most active. These voices are: need, talent, and desire.”
“What is personal clarity? Personal clarity is a spiritual state of awareness that allows you to see clearly who you are, what you are here for, what matters most, and what doesn’t matter at all.”
“People with great personal clarity have taken time to answer five of life’s biggest questions. We all wrestle with these five questions throughout our lives. The great thinkers of every age have discussed and debated them, and now it is your turn. Who am I? What am I here for? Where am I going? What matters most? What matters least?”
“Who you become is infinitely more important than what you do, have, accomplish, or buy. What matters least? Anything that becomes an obstacle between you and God, you and loving others, or you and your God-given mission.”
“Making money to sustain ourselves and support our families is noble. It is one of the reasons we work. But it isn’t enough to make work fulfilling, not if you are making fourteen dollars an hour and not if you are making $400,000 a year. It may be hard to believe for the person making fourteen dollars an hour, but people who are lazy and have bad attitudes are still miserable when they are making $400,000 a year.”
“The primary purpose of work is that it helps you become a-better-version-of-yourself. Working hard, striving for excellence, paying attention to the details of your work, and serving other people joyfully transforms you into a better human being. The primary value of work is that it helps you develop character—and character is destiny.”
“Work is also a form of prayer. Each hour of work offered to God for a specific person or intention has infinite value and power.”
“The second practical benefit of listening to the voice of God is engagement.”
“But along the way, remember to watch out for these three things we discussed. When I am striving earnestly to listen to the voice of God, I get focused, energized, and invigorated. Focused. Energized. Invigorated.”
“It’s easy to question whether God speaks to us, but the preponderance of evidence suggests we should give our attention to another question. This more pertinent question, the question that confronts us daily is: Will you listen? And the question that follows next is: Will you carry out what God asks of you?”
“What should you be afraid of missing out on? The one path God imagined for you from the beginning of time. This is a righteous fear. It’s an enlightened fear that will keep you from wasting whatever is left of your one short life.”
“Relationships thrive under one condition: carefree timelessness. What is carefree timelessness? It is time together without an agenda.”
“Think of it in this way: We become the stories we listen to. It doesn’t matter if we get those stories from movies, music, television, newspapers, magazines, videogames, social media, politicians, friends, or books—the stories we listen to form our lives.”
“Our intellectual needs are never urgent, so it is easy to overlook them. When was the last time you said to yourself, “I urgently need to read a good book today”? It doesn’t happen. Why? For one, our intellectual needs are not primary needs. If we neglect them, we won’t die. But mental vitality leads to physical, emotional, and spiritual vitality. Everything in our lives begins as a thought.”
“To really stretch ourselves, we must delve into the wisdom writings. Selections could include a variety of philosophical texts, the writings of countless spiritual leaders past and present, and the Scriptures. It is in these writings that the intellect comes face-to-face with the most profound questions and truths about the world, creation, God, humanity, and our individual journeys.”
“Books change our lives. Begin your own collection of great books. Choose books that will help you to achieve your essential purpose and become the-best-version-of-yourself. Make daily reading one of the defining habits of your life.”
“Your spiritual needs are for stillness, silence, solitude, simplicity, Scriptures, and Sacraments.”
“It is also in silence and solitude that life’s preeminent challenge is proposed to us. Brother Silence and Sister Solitude unveil the person we are today with all our strengths and weaknesses, but they also remind us of the better person we know we can be.”
“We come now to the spiritual need of simplicity. Simplicity is one of the governing principles of the universe, yet with every passing century, humanity looks to greater complexity to solve its problems and improve its life.”
“The Sacraments are the center of the life of the Church. And while the Sacraments are surrounded by profound rituals, it’s important not to forget what they are at their core: an encounter with Jesus Christ.”
“The Sacraments are a profound source of unlimited grace, they pour incredible grace into our lives in a direct and powerful way. Embrace them with a new and radical urgency. Accept these divine gifts. Cherish them.”
“This is the great modern paradox: We know the things that make us happy; we just don’t do them.”
“We live in a culture that isn’t interested in needs. We live in a culture obsessed with wants. We neglect our needs because the culture boldly and confidently proclaims, “The meaning of life is to get what you want, and the more you get what you want the happier you’ll be.””
“God created you to be reasonably happy in this life and completely happy in the next life. But the culture tells you the path to happiness is getting what you want and that’s where most people’s lives depart from the path of reasonable happiness and contentment. When we prioritize our wants over what we need, we begin pursuing the wrong things.”
“Needs are primary, wants are secondary. Keep this essential truth in mind throughout your day as you make decisions, allow it to guide you, and usher the clarity and order God loves into every corner of your life.”
“The Catholic Church is the best in the world at putting things side by side, the best in the world at pointing out the true value of things, the best in the world at putting things in context. Who is the worst in the world at creating context? The media. To push their agendas and bolster their opinions, they willfully and negligently avoid putting things in context. You almost never see untampered with realities put side by side in the media. Why? Because the media doesn’t want to give you context. The more you understand the true value of things, the less likely you will be to waste your time consuming modern media. The media is not interested in the true value of things. They sold their souls for ratings, then advertising dollars, and now clicks.”
“Desire is powerful. It is one of the more powerful forces at work within the human person. It can be harnessed for good or left to run amok.”
“Our desires play a powerful part in shaping our lives. Desire the wrong things and that alone will ruin your life. The power of desire attached to the wrong thing is like a runaway train—and that runaway train can be your life.”
“God uses the three ordinary voices to speak to us every single day of our lives. There are no exceptions. There are no days when he doesn’t speak to you in these ways, and there is no one he doesn’t speak to.”
“The key to achieving this transition is letting go of FOMO and embracing JOMO. This is a topic I have written about before, but I feel compelled to revisit it here because it is critical to understanding the joy that comes from listening to God’s voice.”
“Our faith is simple and beautiful. And it is possible to live it out in new and exciting ways, here and now, in our times. Your personality and circumstances, your needs, talents, and desires, are all gifts to help you live the faith in a deeply personal way.”
“Holiness is simply the application of the values, principles, and spirit of the Gospel to the circumstances of our everyday lives, one moment at a time. It isn’t complicated. It is disarmingly simple.”
“A new kind of holiness is needed. One that confounds expectations. A new breed of saints. Brave men and women who wholeheartedly embrace the life and teachings of Jesus and live them out creatively.”
“Death comes to us all, sooner or later. We don’t know when, but we know for certain that it will come. And when it comes it will care nothing for your fame, wealth, education, achievements, possessions, connections, or power. When death approaches, the person you have become meets the person you could have been. This is a humbling encounter. Don’t wait for death to deliver this encounter. Go out to meet it each day. Spend time each day in the classroom of silence, in communion with God. Meet with the person you are capable of becoming for a few minutes each day in the depths of prayer.”
“Come to think of it, isn’t that a good litmus test for the people we should listen to? Who would you watch on television if you only tuned in to people who are striving to “live justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with God”? Which podcasts would you listen to? Which books would you read? And what movies and television shows would you watch?”
To be honest that is all the sections I highlighted my first time through this book. I tried cutting some out but felt they all should be in the review. I pray and hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. That you pick it up and give it a read. I guarantee it will be life changing.
This is one of those volumes that could be read over and over again and with each reading you will get something more out of it. It could easily become a Catholic Classic. The material is presented in clear, crisp language. It is easy to engage with. A high school student could read it and benefit from the reading and someone who is retired could read it and make improvements for the fourth quarter of their life.
This is an excellent read. Any Catholic would benefit from reading it. I challenge you to read it and see!
Books by Matthew Kelly:
I Know Jesus
The Long View
Decision Point: The Workbook
Decision Point: The Leader Guide
The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic
The One Thing
Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction
Why Am I Here?
Perfectly Yourself: 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness
Perfectly Yourself Discovering God's Dream For You
Building Better Families: A Practical Guide to Raising Amazing Children
The Dream Manager
The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved
The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose
Building Better Families - 5 Practical Ways to Build Family Spirituality
The Book of Courage
The Shepherd: A Modern Parable about Our Search for Happiness
Mustard Is Persecution, Matthew Kelly Foundation
A Call to Joy - Living in the Presence of God
The Rhythm of Life: An Antidote For Our Busy Age
Words from God
Resisting Happiness
The Narrow Path
Our Father
The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity
Why I Love Being Catholic
Good Night, Jesus
In a world where you can be anything ...
Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy
33 Days to Divine Mercy
...
Beautiful ... Series:
...
Rediscover Books by Matthew Kelly:
Rediscover Catholicism: A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion & Purpose
Rediscover Advent
Rediscover Lent
Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation
Rediscover the Rosary: The Modern Power of an Ancient Prayer
Rediscover the Saints
...
Becoming The Best Version Of Yourself
The Best Way To Live
Don't Just Try, Train
Faith At Work & The Holy Moment
The Four Signs Of A Dynamic Catholic - Excerpt
The Jesus Question
My Spiritual Journey
Our Lives Change When Our Habits Change
Raising Amazing Children
The Seven Levels Of Intimacy
The Seven Pillars Of Catholic Spirituality
...
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