Hope of the Poor rescues families from the streets of Mexico City, giving them a home, faith, and a future. Every family we serve is not only housed and fed but also baptized and welcomed into the Catholic Church. Your sponsorship helps a family rebuild their life and grow in faith.

  Episode Transcript  

One

Show me how to live!  

In this series, we have been reflecting on a practical guide to happiness. Our working definition is that happiness is to possess the good things that fulfil human nature. In general, God designed the human person to need certain good things to be happy, fulfilled.

Physical goods like sleep, good nutrition and exercise, good relationships with family and friends, meaningful work, some way to do good for others and the world regardless of whether we get paid for it or not, knowledge, beauty, inner peace, and most importantly, God – the Living Water whom we receive primarily from the Eucharist and prayer. 

These are the basic ingredients for happiness. It’s not enough to have the right ingredients for happiness, we also need the right recipe. A good recipe doesn’t just include the right things, it puts them together in the right order and proportion. 

The same is true for our lives. We need a way to arrange our days so that each of these good things, body, mind, relationships, work, rest, and prayer, finds its proper place and balance. That’s how we turn the ingredients of happiness into a life of true fulfillment.

Two

Recipe of Life 

Let me suggest a daily Recipe for Happiness 

Friendship with Christ 

30 min/day in Meditative Prayer through the Rosary or Lectio Divina 

Daily Mass and Regular Confession 

1.5 hours

Physical and Emotional Needs

Sleep – 8 hours

Personal hygiene – 1 hour 

Prep, eat and clean up meals – 3 Hours 

Exercise – 1 hour – like a good walk

Time for Relationship with your family and friends which we can do over meals or walking while talking which takes no extra time. 

Meaningful Work - Inside the home or out – 8 Hours 

Knowledge - About God and the good world he created – 30 minutes to read or listen to something

Experience beauty in its many forms – 30 minutes 

That’s 23 1/2 hours  

If you combine some of these – like exercise or meal prep and learning or walking praying the rosary you can get all that in in 24 hours with time to spare. 

Three

Order, Structure and Flexibility

These are the ingredients to a recipe for happiness 

They fulfill the way God designed us

There needs to be an order to the way we pursue them. 

For example, we are not much good at anything without sleep or at least rest, so we go to bed on time and get up on time; 

Then the most important ingredient to our recipe for happiness is a relationship with God – so receiving Him in the Eucharist and spending time in prayer is the priority – so it should come first.

As C.S. Lewis writes: “put first things first and we get the second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”

But the recipe must be flexible—life isn’t always predictable  

Some days call for more work, others for caring for children or aging parents. Some days truth and beauty get a little less attention—and that’s okay. A rule keeps us grounded, but if the exceptions become the rule, our lives unravel. 

Do Good things together - By creatively combining good things, we make it easier to live the life that leads to happiness.  

Prepare a meal, eat and talk with your spouse, family or friends. 

Walk and talk with a friend. 

Take a walk outside, pray the Rosary with a friend and talk.

This gets you prayer, friendship, exercise and beauty! 

Four

Cut Out the Wrong Ingredients—And You'll Have Time for the Right Ones

Many people object: “There’s no way I can fit all of this into my day.” Or, “It’s too overwhelming to change everything at once.”

That’s okay. Start small. Start by tracking your time.

For one week, write down how you spend your time in 30-minute blocks. Then look at the results. You’ll likely find hours lost to scrolling, streaming, and distraction.

Now ask yourself: What needs to go?

Cut out the junk—unnecessary busyness, compulsive news-checking, endless entertainment, and phone addiction. These aren’t neutral. They clutter the soul, dull the mind, and train the heart to crave disorder and noise. They numb us to real life—and to God.

But here’s the good news: when you clear the clutter, space opens up.

Space for prayer.
For deep friendships and good books and exercise
For beauty, laughter, nature, music, creativity, restful meals.
These aren’t escapes from life—they are life.

When we remove disordered pleasures, we don’t lose joy—we recover it!

And then, our life—ordered, peaceful, and filled with goodness—becomes not just a recipe for happiness…but for holiness.

Five

Sunday – The Anchor Day of Peace

As a resolution let me suggest that you create your own recipe of life, or rule of life as St. Benedict called it.

Then, if you live with someone, share it with them so that they understand what you are doing and so they don’t inadvertently work against you.

And then, invite them to make their own and try to live this well ordered and balanced life of happiness together!

Hope of the Poor rescues families from the streets of Mexico City, giving them a home, faith, and a future. Every family we serve is not only housed and fed but also baptized and welcomed into the Catholic Church. Your sponsorship helps a family rebuild their life and grow in faith.

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.