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Buenos Aires, Sunday, August 27, 2006

Father Oscar Pezzarini

The Value of Self Conquest

Self conquest is a value which makes us strive for perfection in every aspect of our lives, overcoming handicaps and striving to achieve what we have intended. Personal improvement is very related to a person's attitude, it is a permanent wish of “improvement” which avoids falling into “conformism”. We will always find some obstacle in our life which will “slow down” many of our projects, but let us not forget that everything depends on us, on how we are able to cope with these apparent hindrances, in the knowledge that not everything is easy, but that everything can be achieved with effort and perseverance.

Self conquest is a value which makes us strive for perfection in every aspect of our lives, overcoming handicaps and striving to achieve what we have intended.

As we could say, self conquest lies in the very heart of the Human Being. Overcoming limits which hinder us in achieving our goals is typical of Mankind.

When talking about improving and achieving goals we may remain in just a single part of this value, which is achieving a merely human success, economic achievements, a certain social position, when it actually means much more than this, it is not just related to the “number” of achieved things, but also to “how” they are achieved.

Personal improvement is very related to a person's attitude, it is a permanent wish of “improvement” which avoids falling into “conformism”.

In order to achieve improvement we also need to “get down to work” since goals cannot be achieved by “words”, by a continuous development of projects, but by getting up on our way and putting into practice many of the things we planned.

There's no doubt the chances of self conquest we encounter day-by-day are countless but it is necessary to firmly make up one's mind in order to walk in this direction, and above all in order to begin with ourselves.

We must take into account everything we do in our daily life in order to improve, not just at our job, our profession or the development of our vocation, but also in our personal moments we devote to ourselves, with our habits, with our personal care, with our rest and with our spirit, starting from our relation with others up to the different activities we perform.

Self conquest also means staying up-to-date with all the things we have learned instead of just staying behind with what we once learned some time ago, with that degree we have achieved in the past, but also keeping up with updated training, or perhaps following the example of those people who in the past could not finish their studies but who do so today without taking into account time, age, or any other conditions who to many people are “hurdles” they cannot avoid, and to many others they are a chance to achieve a goal.

We will always find some obstacle in our life which will “slow down” many of our projects, but let us not forget that everything depends on us, on how we are able to cope with these apparent hindrances, in the knowledge that not everything is easy, but that everything can be achieved with effort and perseverance.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
Provincial Superior of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico

Father Oscar Pezzarini together with Fr. Leonardo Abregú makes us reflect on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 90.3 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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