We need moderation. This is key. Great saints did all in moderation. What was said or done was always in relation to God and the Kingdom. What we have today is not an opiate of a substance, but one of a digital world that feeds us freely and has found a way to enslave us as drugs can and do.
Don't give up. Don't let the world fill that empty space. Let God do that. It is God who is the real answer, the healer, the "infiller".
Books, if we choose to read them, permit us to increase our vocabulary, gain better syntax in our language, open new places and people to us. Books use our own imaginative senses to “see” what the author has written. The scenes may be written in such a way we can see clearly as the author intended, or it could be seen in our own way.
There are times in our lives when there is a great deal of hurt. It is from others (friends and family) or illness, or loneliness. There are lots of reasons. And in it, right in the middle of the “eye of the storm” we wonder: Why?
At Christmas we hear of the coming of the Saviour and therefore the coming of Holy Hope. We celebrate the birth of the Messiah and relive the moments with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the angels. We hear “Be not afraid…this is good news of great joy to all the people” (Luke 2, 10) This is living hope. Sung by the angels and witnessed by the poor, not the rich. Why then should this be important, this hope? Because after more than 2000 years since his birth we still have poverty and illness, and social ills. We still need that hope coming with the message of the angels.