Want to be Happy?

Lesson #2

WANT TO BE HAPPY? Have you ever wanted something so

badly that you cannot think about anything else?

◦ Have you ever look forward to your birthday or Christmas, so much that you cannot sleep at night?

We all know what is like to be burst with exited about something good we want to happen.

◦ You maybe looking for saying your friends about your new game

◦ And maybe others are just waiting for their next change to play basketball

Each and everyone of us, even though we want different things, we want the same thing

You, I, others, and all of us want to be happy!

Happiness

One of the greatest thinkers of all time said:

That Happiness is that, everyone desires.

In this lesson we are talking about HAPPINESS.

1. We are going to find, what happiness is?

2. How to find good happiness that last forever?

Happiness Jesus actually thought us all about this ◦ by his example,

◦ and also by his teachings

We going to learn what he thought about happiness

But before let me introduce you a good hunter,◦ He was not in a hunt for animals,

◦ he was a hunt for happiness.

It took him a long time to finding it◦ He make many mistakes along the way

◦ But once he found it,

◦ he told everyone who will listen about true happiness.

Saint Augustine

Many year ago was a man, named Augustine; he was from North Africa

◦ For long time his mother Monica pray and pray for him

◦ She wanted him to be a Catholic as she was, and to become a good man.

God was listening to her prayers even though ◦ Saint Augustine did not seem changing his

ways.

Augustine used his smart mind and kept thinking

and try to find what was TRUE and GOOD

Saint Augustine and the Truth

For a while he will put all his energy in thinking about and doing about,

◦ what one group of people thought it was Truth.

◦ Then he will change and began following another group

Nothing seems to make him fully happy

And then one day it happened.

◦ He walk into a church and

◦ he hear someone preaching about the WORD of God: The Bible

The preacher’s name was AMBRONSE; He was a brilliant man who spoke so well of God

That Augustine was convinced, and at last he had found the Truth.

GOD WAS THE TRUTH God was the TRUTH

◦ Later Augustine will write his life story in a book called: THE CONFESSIONS

◦ In it he called God by beautiful names he wrote:

◦ Oh! Eternal Truth, the True Love and Beloved Eternity!

He came to see that God is Truth, and He had away with words write this:

◦ Our hearts are restless,

◦ until they rest in you O Lord my God”

That means that we are not happy until we are living with God.

This was a very Great discovering for saint Augustine.

GOD WAS THE TRUTH

God works in Augustine life in a very powerful way.◦ Augustine gave up a life a terrible sin,

even though this was hard to do.

He was baptized and later he became a priest and a Bishop.◦ And he is one of the greatest

thinkers that had ever lived.

◦ Even people who are not Christian know about him

Today he is not only a Saint, but also a Doctor of the Church.

This means that he thought and wrote very well about God.

Only God Can Satisfy our Longing

Eternal Happiness

Saint Augustine discovered that we are made for God

Therefore only God can satisfy our longing for Eternal Happiness

He has helped many people on their way to Holiness.

His mother is also a saint: Saint Monica,

and the Preacher he heard that day: St. Ambronse.

Only God Can Satisfy our Longing

Eternal Happiness

St. Monica & St. Ambronse lived their life for love —For love God— in such a way,

that someone else (St. Augustine) was able to find out about Jesus, and it come to love Him.

The Holiness of these 2 people helped Saint Augustine to become holy, too.

We can do the same for others by the way we live our lives.

Our Heart and Souls Want God

Our heart and souls want God, even though, we may not realized it

St. Augustine tells us this too, and he wrote:

◦Our hearts are restless until we rest in You O Lord my God.

God Made us to be Happy in Him In the last episode we learned that God created us

◦ We learned he gave us the power to think and to choose

◦ So that we could choose God, who fulfills us with True Happiness.

God made us to live with Him forever

◦ Although God created the trees, rocks, animals (dogs & cats)

◦ The only creatures on earth that it is made to live with God for all eternity is Man, (that is Human Beings: you & me)

St. Augustine wrote a prayer to God:

That ,True Happiness… is to be joyful in you,

and for you, and because of you.

That’s it!

God made us to be happy in Him. For him and because of Him.

The absolutely only way, we will be truly happy is by living with God.

Jesus Tells us

How Can we Find this Happiness

When God became man, into earth in the person of Jesus

He told us, just how we can find this happiness.

To find out what Jesus said, we going to use

one of the Gospels:

◦ There are 4 writers of the Gospels of the

Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

◦ Matthew was one of the 12 men, chosen by

Jesus to follow him.

◦ Matthew was is one of the 12 apostles, who

follow Jesus

The Evangelist Matthew and Jesus

He met Jesus when he walked on earth; Matthew had been a tax collector,◦ But when Jesus called him and says follow

me,

◦ Matthew rose and followed him, right away.

◦ He was one of Jesus closer friends; and he wrote about

◦ what he saw, and heard about Jesus.

In the Gospel according to Matthew we read that Jesus said:◦ “Come to me, take my yoke upon you, and

learn from me”

◦ For I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28-29)

Jesus Teaches

How to Be Like Him

Jesus is a greater teacher, he teaches us how to be like him.a) So, Do you want to know

how to be like Jesus?

b) How can we learn from Him?

c) How can we be meek and humble of heart?

In the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus is very clear about: 1) how we can be like him

2) And about how you and I can be happy?

The Sermon of the Mount

Almost everyone had heard of the Sermon of the Mount◦ Up there, Jesus was speaking to

a huge crowd people

◦ And it was then, that He gave them the Keys to happiness

We called them: THE BEATITUDES

BEATITUDE means “Happiness”

In the Gospel of Matthew we find 8 Beatitudes: 8 Keys To Happiness

You will be Blessed

Jesus used the word BLESSED to describe his followers

You will be Blessed or Happy, if you live like I do.

THE BEATITUDES1) Blessed are the poor in

Spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven

2) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

3) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

4) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfy.

5) Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

6) Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

7) Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called sons of God.

8) Blessed are those who are persecuted, for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

The Beatitudes And Jesus continues:◦ “Blessed are you, when they revile and

persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven,

for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Wow! Jesus tells us that this is the way to Happiness

This is his way! This is His Mystery to Happiness.

The Beatitudes

Pope Benedict wrote a book called “Jesus of Nazareth”

◦ In it, he tell us that the beatitudes are kind of a portrait or pictures of Jesus.

The Beatitudes tells us

1) what Jesus is like,

2) and how we can be like Him.

John Paul II called Saint Pier Giorgio Frassaty, the man of the Beatitutes

a) He was a young Italian who lived in the 1900’s

b) Like Jesus, he was poor in spirit, and he had a heart full of Love, for those who were poor.

c) Some times he gave money to buy medicine, to those who were sick, and could not afford to buy it.

d) He was always thinking about others

e) He was pure and always found time to look upon God in the Holy Eucharist, and to receive Him in Holy Communion.

Even if he going to a hiking trip with his friends on the weekends, he make sure to go to Sunday Mass

He loved God and he also loved his friends loving him too.◦ He wanted his friends to become Holy

◦ Always bear with a smile or act of kindness

He show them the True Happiness of the follower of Jesus.

Pier Giorgio Frassatti

Man of the Beatitudes

He also had great reasons to mourn, or be sad

◦ He had a very difficult family life, and was hard to get along with his parents

◦ He learned to take his sorrow to Jesus and be happy in the joy of God.

When he died at the young ageof 24, thousands of people,

◦ specially the very poor, filled the streets to honor the boy,

◦ who have loved them, with the heart of Jesus.

When we follow the way of Jesus,

◦ we too, can become boy and girls,

◦ Or man and woman of the Beatitudes.

THE BEATITUDES

The Beatitudes tell us, what Jesus is like

They also tells us how we can be like Christ

The way of Christ, the way of us is the way of happiness

In fact, it is the True Way To Happiness after all, the word:

BLESSED means “Happy!”

Jesus tells us that we are blessed, or Happy when we do certain difficult things

THE BEATITUDES

His Way to Happiness

Although Jesus promise happiness…

He doesn’t promise that we always feel happiness, right here and Now..

We know that Jesus always tells the True, because He Is The Truth.

And if he tells us that we will be happy, when we suffer things,

…Well, then that’s True!

It makes sense too. If we think about God’s life,

◦ He suffered and died a horrible death,

◦ And then he rose again

He Triumph over death, and Now he lives victoriously forever… but first he suffered.

Becoming more & more like Jesus

Followers of Christ can expect suffering, too.

◦ Jesus tell us that the disciple is not above his teacher.

Our life as Catholics, is a life in which we should becoming more and more like Jesus.

◦ If we want to follow Jesus, and share his joy forever, we too may suffered.

He told us that if any man come after me

◦ If any man come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24)

Taking our cross means that we all will have

our own kind of suffering in our lives, here on

earth.

Everyone Suffer

We suffer little things, like

a) having to do our homework we when we don’t feel like

b) Or maybe in getting in trouble when it was not our fault.

We suffer big things, too

a) Like fights in our families,

b) Or the dying of someone we love

If we want to follow Jesus, we will suffer; actually everyone suffer

But we Christians, we know that we can united our

suffering to Jesus suffering on the cross

Then if we are united to Jesus, what he has, becomes ours.

a) He suffers, so we do

b) If He rise, so do we

c) If He is joyful forever in Heaven, so shall we be.

United to Jesus

In our daily life, we can always be united ourselves to Jesus.

Not only in suffering, but in joy, too.

We can enjoy things for love of Jesus

And think what a nice gifts give youa) When you play with friends

b) when you see the sun set

c) When you enjoy the waves in the ocean

d) When you eat ice-cream

e) When you love your pets,

f) When you talk with your family etc.

You can say Thank You Lord for Everything in our lives

Offer It Up To Jesus

There are things that we don’t like though

Maybe somebody is doing something that really annoys us

a) We suppose to say the person: your bugging me, when you do that; could you please stop.

b) It may be right if we say nicely

But it might also be a good idea, once in a while, offer it up to Jesus.

Some personal example:

Maybe I have a head ache,

◦ I can go around complaining about how badly I feel

◦ Or even better I can try to live with it,

◦ and still be nice to the people I see, even though I don’t feel well.

I can offer it up to Jesus.

Offering our Suffering to God

By offering our suffering to God,

◦ we are taking all the unpleasant things, we experience everyday,

◦ and bring them to Jesus on the Cross

We united our suffering to Jesus’ suffering,

◦ which is, or it is so much worst, that anything we are experience.

If we form a habit of offering things up to Jesus,we are taking a important step:

to become more and more like Jesus, and to stay close to him on the cross.

Although our life here on earth is wonderful in many ways,

and the more we live for God, more wonderful it is,

even thought, it also means, that we have a lots of suffering alone the way.

Suffering has Meaning united to Jesus

Saint Catherine of Sienna once said that

all the way to Heaven is heaven.

◦ That means that whole life can be a life of

Joy, even if we also suffering

◦ Although we have many deep joy, down

here on earth, there will still be trouble and

suffering.

Suffering comes, but the beautiful thing of being a Christian is that ◦ we know that suffering has meaning if we are

united to Jesus.

◦ And we may become more like him, through our suffering.

The Beatitudes So, when we hear the Beatitudes that said:

Blessed are those who mourned

That means blessed are those who are sad because they should be comforted.

We are remained that our suffering is for a little while

Saint Peter and Saint Paul, both tells us that we can rejoice and be glad, when we suffer.

Saint Peter tells us no to be surprise when

suffering comes in his 1st letter, Peter said:◦ Rejoice as so far as you share Christ’s

sufferings

◦ That you may also rejoice and be glad, when his glory is revealed: (1Peter 4:13)

Suffering is Not Worth Comparing With

the Glory to Be Reveal

St. Paul also remains us and said that even the hard things we suffer, do not measure up all the joy that wait for us in heaven

When he wrote to the Romans, he said:

I can certain, that the sufferings of this present time, are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be reveal to us. Just you wait

You can even imagine how wonderful life, with God in heaven would be.

Finally St. Peter remains us that we are not alone,

◦ all Christians all over the world who live in the past, who live

now, and who live in the future, suffered

◦ We all are united to Jesus and to each other.

We can pray for each other and help each other

through our prayers and sufferings.

Keep your Eyes in Heaven

St. Peter on his letter said that◦ we shall stand firm, knowing that the

same experience of suffering, is require of your brotherhood throughout the world.

Members of the body of Christ, we all have part to play by suffering like Jesus

But let keep our eyes in heaven

Our reward will be greater, and we will in heaven with God himself and enjoy the never end.

The Beatitudes

His Way to Happiness

I hope you learn that the Christian way of life is one of happiness

Even though it also includes suffering,

The way of Jesus; ◦ It is the way of Beatitudes

◦ It is a way of joy.

We can live the Beatitudes, so we can be happy forever.