In April 2018, the well-known Benedictine Father Dr. Anselm Grün visits FollowYourTalent. The evening talk with the founders Thomas Falkenstein and Martin Behrens in front of more than 400 spectators became an encouragement to rest, to serenity and to life.
“The world is falling apart” you hear again and again in these days. Natural disasters, wars and conflicts make us shudder. The everyday work of many people has become a daily stress test – we live in the “high-speed economy”, the “burnout” is now part of the ubiquitous clinical picture. In addition, every day challenges us with a veritable flood of seemingly endless possibilities. Which path should I take as a young person? Should I start again in the middle of life? What is left of my life if I am to work until 70 or more in the future?
“Life” does not seem to be easy in these times, even though we are doing better economically than ever before. Often, it is difficult to accept the gift of life and rejuvenate and “experience” each day with joy, serenity and serenity. Out of sheer self-assurance or self-decision-making, we run the risk of missing out on life.
In an interview with the foundation founders Thomas Falkenstein and Martin Behrens, Anselm Grün showed that not concerns and fears in our lives should prevail, but the indiscretion to do something and to dare. “We should not put our own limits too tight,” he says. “Only then will we learn what we are capable of and how we can really live our dreams.”
At the opening of the evening FollowYourTalent mentor Harry Kemp played some of his new songs and enriched the evening with his wonderful lyrics.
The net proceeds from the ticket sales benefited 100% of the founding work of the FollowYourTalent Foundation.
Download: Press report “Die Rheinpfalz”, 13.04.2018 (German only)
Quotes of the evening from Father Dr. Anselm Grün
“I often experience people who miss out on life because it just doesn’t fit the way they imagine. But they can wait as long as they want, in fact they never find what they’re looking for. There’s always something wrong. And because life doesn’t fit, you let it pass. You don’t play the game of life.”
“Many people hesitate to make a decision because they want to make the absolutely right decision. But there is no absolutely correct decision. It is not as important as I decide, but that I decide and then stand by my decision. I can only do that if I say goodbye to the illusion of having chosen the absolutely right thing.”
“We want to follow our inner impulse. But at the same time we want everyone to find our way great, that everyone admires us because of our way. We need confirmation from others to be able to go our way. But if we are convinced of our path, then we must go it without letting it be approved by everyone. Sometimes it’s lonely, but this loneliness is part of my way.”
“We’re a generation of viewers today. The audience always knows better how to do it right. But they never take responsibility to take the fall for their part. Whoever remains a spectator, misses his life.”
“Only if we do what we do out of love will we get the “flow feeling” that fills us inwardly with peace. All external commitment is of no use if I miss love, love for people, love for animals, love for nature, love for music and art. Only that which I love truly nourishes me.”
“The meaning of life from my point of view is above all that I am who I am – that all my life I search for the secret of my person and bury my very personal trace of life in this world, which corresponds to my being”.
“It is our job to live life so that we have a sense of its finiteness.”
About Father Dr. Anselm Grün OSB
Anselm Grün has written over 300 books on life’s great questions so far, translated into more than 30 languages and sold millions of copies. He is considered one of the most widely read spiritual authors of the world today. For decades, he has also been in demand as a consultant and spiritual guide to managers and politicians, and even at the age of 72 he still graduates more than 200 lectures and seminars around the world each year.
Father Dr. theol. Anselm Grün OSB was born in 1945 in the Franconian town of Junkershausen. He spent his childhood in Munich. At the age of 19 he became a Benedictine monk in the abbey of Münsterschwarzach near Würzburg. There Father Anselm got to know the art of human conduct from the Rule of Benedict of Nursia and discovered already in the 70s the tradition of the old monk fathers, whose meaning he sees particularly in connection with the modern psychology. From 1977 to 2013, after studying philosophy, theology and business administration, he was responsible for the economic management (cellar) of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey and thus for around 300 employees in more than 20 companies.
Anselm Grün holds the Bavarian Order of Merit and in 2007 received the Federal Cross of Merit.