Rosaries.com-Achieving Our Full Potential By Living Our Lives For God

Achieving Our Full Potential By Living Our Lives For God "Living your life for God isn't a sacrifice, it is a blessing. If you live your life for God you can accomplish and achieve things that you can't even imagine and didn't even know were possible." Sister Marciana, Catholic Summer Camp, 1971 The Catholic Church teaches that we can only achieve our full potential if we live our lives for God. But what does that really mean? Is the Church just talking about our spiritual potential here? Is it also talking about what I can accomplish in my personal life and my career?
	Michelangelo Buonarroti was a Master Sculptor. While still in his 20's he sculpted the Statue of David.
	Michelangelo Buonarroti was a Master Painter. While only in his 30's he painted the entire 10,000 square feet of the Sistine Chapel.
	Michelangelo Buonarroti was a Master Architect and Engineer. He was the primary Architect and Engineer when St. Peter's was rebuilt in the 1500's
	Michelangelo Buonarroti had an extensive knowledge of Human Anatomy that matched any doctor of his time. Take a close look of the background "shell" that surrounds God in his famous panel "The Creation of Adam" from the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted this background in the shape of a human brain to represent God's Perfect Knowledge. The image of this brain has been analyzed by a modern medical computer. So meticulous was Michelangelo that this image was found to have the "perfect" dimensions and proportions of an anatomically correct human brain.
	Michelangelo Buonarroti spent two hours in prayer and attended Mass every morning before he ever painted a stroke or sculpted one chip of marble.
Why isn't the world producing people like Michelangelo anymore? Imagine today if one person were contracted to be the architect and engineer on a Presidential Library, painted 10,000 square feet of that President's accomplishments on the walls and ceilings of the entry way of that Library, then sculpted a 15 foot tall marble statue of that President. In addition, that same person would have a doctor's knowledge of anatomy on the side. No person like this exists in the world today. Today we have more money and patrons for the arts. Today we have better art schools and universities than back then. We have more people that have genius level IQ's. So what was different back then? Here is something to think about. Maybe what was different back then was the way they practiced their Catholicism and believed in their Catholicism? First, during the Italian Renaissance, they were doing all of this for the Greater Glory of God, not for personal gain or glory. Living your life for God gives you a whole different priority system, a whole different incentive system, and a whole different value system. Second, and perhaps even more important, is that during the Renaissance, they didn't just believe in God, they believed in God's Perfection and they believed that God could work that Perfection through us. Think about how the current culture would ridicule someone who openly professed this today. Yet, belief in God's Perfection was a big part of what the Renaissance was about. Through painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, and spirituality they were trying to capture God's Perfection and the Perfection that God created. God's Perfect forms. God's Sacred Designs for the world and for our lives. The Catholic Church teaches that we can only achieve our full potential if we live our lives for the Greater Glory of God. That is because God made our hearts and our full potential is revealed to us only when we are in unity with Him. As Catholics we often forget that when we live our lives for the Greater Glory of God, it opens our hearts. We have access to all kinds of God's Gifts that we can't see otherwise. When we live our lives for God we have access to all kinds of skills, abilities, and potential within us that we don't otherwise know about. Michelangelo is a shining example of what can be accomplished and what can be achieved if you live your life for the Greater Glory of God. Imagine what you could accomplish if you didn't think you could fail. Back then, people weren't taking credit for creating anything, they believed God was creating it through them. Michelangelo became famous and became one of the greatest artists in human history. But those skills, that genius, and that fame were merely by-products of something much more important to him and that was living his life for God. Because he lived his life for God he was able to access "all" of his skills and abilities in a way that just can't be done without that kind of faith and belief. And that is really the key to what the Church teaches. The Catholic Church teaches that each and every one of us has a chance to live out our full potential. No matter where we are in life or no matter how old we are. We can start right now. It is never too late give your whole heart to God. If we do, God presents each of us with our own Sistine Chapels and Statues of David. We just have to live for Him in order to find out exactly how God is presenting them in our lives. We have to live for Him in order to access "all" of our skills and abilities and to see His Truth. Some might say, "I'm not a genius! I'll never be a Michelangelo!" To that I would remind you, "Living your life for God isn't a sacrifice, it is a blessing. If you live your life for God you can accomplish and achieve things that you can't even imagine and didn't even know were possible." Thank you Sister Marciana. I finally figured out what you were talking about.