28 September 2009
70 x 70 x 70 x 70 x 7
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
26 September 2009
sliver meet plank
"We would all much better mend our ways if we were as ready to pray for one another as we are to offer one another reproach and rebuke." ~St. Thomas More
Light One Candle
Light one candle for the maccabee children
With thanks that their light didnt die
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice
Justice and freedom demand
But light one candle for the wisdom to know
When the peacemakers time is at hand
Chorus:
Dont let the light go out!
Its lasted for so many years!
Dont let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears.
Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe
And light one candle for those who are suffering
Pain we learned so long ago
Light one candle for all we believe in
That anger not tear us apart
And light one candle to find us together
With peace as the song in our hearts
(chorus)
What is the memory thats valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
Whats the commitment to those who have died
That we cry out theyve not died in vain?
We have come this far always believing
That justice would somehow prevail
This is the burden, this is the promise
This is why we will not fail!
(chorus)
Dont let the light go out!
Dont let the light go out!
Dont let the light go out!
25 September 2009
23 September 2009
you can only do what you are
The Benedictine ideal of the human being is not that of one who achieves and accomplishes things, not a person with an unusual religious gift, not a great ascetic, but the wise and mature person who knows how to bring people together, who creates around herself or himself an atmosphere of peace and mutual understanding.
Behind this idea image stands a high demand. No one can simply resolve to become a peacemaker. Only those who have created peace within themselves can make peace, only those who have become reconciled with themselves, their own weaknesses and faults, their needs and desires, their contradictory tendencies and ambitions.
Making peace is not a program of action that one could write on one's banners; rather, it must arise from inner peace. And inner peace is achieved only through a hard and unremitting struggle for inner purity and through prayer, in which one seeks to accept everything God presents, whether one's own weaknesses or those of others.
Benedict of Nursia - His Message for Today
Anselm Grun OSB
triumph of the cross
In one respect the cross does have a terrible aspect that we ought not to remove. To see that the purest of men, who was more than a man, was executed in such a grisly way can make us frightened of ourselves. But we also need to be frightened of ourselves and out of our self-complacency.
Here, I think, Luther was right when he said that man must first be frightened of himself so that he can then find the right way. However, the cross doesn't stop at being a horror; it is not merely a horror, because the one who looks down at us from the cross is not a failure, a desperate man, not one of the horrible victims of humanity.
For this crucified man says something different from Spartacus and his failed adherents, because, after all, what looks down at us from the cross is a goodness that enables a new beginning in the midst of life's horror. The goodness of God himself looks on us, God who surrenders himself into our hands, delivers himself to us, and bears the whole horror of history with us.
Looked at more deeply this sign, which forces us to look at the dangerousness of man and all his heinous deeds, at the same time makes us look upon God, who is stronger, stronger in his weakness, and upon the fact that we are loved by God.
It is in this sense a sign of forgiveness that also brings hope into the abysses of history. God is crucified and says to us that this God who is apparently so weak is the God who incomprehensibly forgives us and who in his seeming absence is stronger.
Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI
Here, I think, Luther was right when he said that man must first be frightened of himself so that he can then find the right way. However, the cross doesn't stop at being a horror; it is not merely a horror, because the one who looks down at us from the cross is not a failure, a desperate man, not one of the horrible victims of humanity.
For this crucified man says something different from Spartacus and his failed adherents, because, after all, what looks down at us from the cross is a goodness that enables a new beginning in the midst of life's horror. The goodness of God himself looks on us, God who surrenders himself into our hands, delivers himself to us, and bears the whole horror of history with us.
Looked at more deeply this sign, which forces us to look at the dangerousness of man and all his heinous deeds, at the same time makes us look upon God, who is stronger, stronger in his weakness, and upon the fact that we are loved by God.
It is in this sense a sign of forgiveness that also brings hope into the abysses of history. God is crucified and says to us that this God who is apparently so weak is the God who incomprehensibly forgives us and who in his seeming absence is stronger.
Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI
21 September 2009
19 September 2009
Wake up and go!
"You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests." - St. John Chrysostom
16 September 2009
14 September 2009
12 September 2009
Five decades...
... from the Rosary
We spent a few minutes at the beach, and a child we don't know took John by the hand to show him the tidepools. The same kid grabbed my arm for balance on the rocks. His willingness to reach out to us was striking. I wonder whose hand I would hold if I had the same faith in strangers.
My friends Liz and Dan have a hummingbird feeder outside their bedroom window.They watch the tiny birds come and go and drink their fill of sweet nectar. One of the birds, Dan has noticed, is particularly protective of this resource. This bird swoops down and scares off the other birds from enjoying a drink. Dan tries to reason with the poor creature. "It's not yours. I give it to you freely. There's more than enough. And when it's empty, I'll refill it." The bird is unconvinced, and I wonder how often we ignore the same reassurance from God.
I possess approximately four million tiny pieces of paper scribbled with thoughts and half thoughts.Sifting through receipts and whatnot, tonight I found this:“Maybe what feels like a test is meant to be a stretch.”In which case, I should take a deep breath and lean in.
“ ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” ~ Matthew 19:21-22 I would like to be a minimalist, but I’m not. I have many possessions, some of which I carry with me almost all the time in my purse. It makes me think how silly we must look to God, like children playing make believe, setting up house and shop, finding treasure in trinkets.
Come as you are. Be as you are. Go as you are.
We spent a few minutes at the beach, and a child we don't know took John by the hand to show him the tidepools. The same kid grabbed my arm for balance on the rocks. His willingness to reach out to us was striking. I wonder whose hand I would hold if I had the same faith in strangers.
My friends Liz and Dan have a hummingbird feeder outside their bedroom window.They watch the tiny birds come and go and drink their fill of sweet nectar. One of the birds, Dan has noticed, is particularly protective of this resource. This bird swoops down and scares off the other birds from enjoying a drink. Dan tries to reason with the poor creature. "It's not yours. I give it to you freely. There's more than enough. And when it's empty, I'll refill it." The bird is unconvinced, and I wonder how often we ignore the same reassurance from God.
I possess approximately four million tiny pieces of paper scribbled with thoughts and half thoughts.Sifting through receipts and whatnot, tonight I found this:“Maybe what feels like a test is meant to be a stretch.”In which case, I should take a deep breath and lean in.
“ ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” ~ Matthew 19:21-22 I would like to be a minimalist, but I’m not. I have many possessions, some of which I carry with me almost all the time in my purse. It makes me think how silly we must look to God, like children playing make believe, setting up house and shop, finding treasure in trinkets.
Come as you are. Be as you are. Go as you are.
06 September 2009
It takes more...
"Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car." - Garrison Keillor
next war
"Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination."
— Robert Fulghum
— Robert Fulghum
I must decrease...
Mary's birth is the dawn of redemption; her appearance casts a new light upon all mankind: a gift of innocence, of purity, and of grace, a harbinger of the great light that will flood the earth when Jesus, the "light of the world," appears.
Our Blessed Mother, preserved from sin and full of grace in view of the merits of Christ, not only announces the approach of redemption, but bears its first fruits within her, for she is the first to be redeemed by her divine Son. Her immaculate conception is the first flower, blossoming in anticipation of his paschal mystery - a flower which brings joy to the world and is most pleasing to Almighty God.
After the birth of Jesus no other birth was ever as important in God's eyes or as precious for the good of the human race as was Mary's. Yet her birth remains in shadow; no one registered it, Sacred Scripture says nothing about it. Her early years disappear into silence just as all the rest of her life does.
Mary's birth is an even whose magnitude is wrapped in deepest humility. The more any of us wish to grow in God's eyes, the more we must make ourselves small and humble, and hid ourselves both from our own eyes and those of others.
Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD
Our Blessed Mother, preserved from sin and full of grace in view of the merits of Christ, not only announces the approach of redemption, but bears its first fruits within her, for she is the first to be redeemed by her divine Son. Her immaculate conception is the first flower, blossoming in anticipation of his paschal mystery - a flower which brings joy to the world and is most pleasing to Almighty God.
After the birth of Jesus no other birth was ever as important in God's eyes or as precious for the good of the human race as was Mary's. Yet her birth remains in shadow; no one registered it, Sacred Scripture says nothing about it. Her early years disappear into silence just as all the rest of her life does.
Mary's birth is an even whose magnitude is wrapped in deepest humility. The more any of us wish to grow in God's eyes, the more we must make ourselves small and humble, and hid ourselves both from our own eyes and those of others.
Divine Intimacy
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD
03 September 2009
01 September 2009
sometimes our own worst enemy
“Religion. It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion."
― Jon Stewart
― Jon Stewart
hum
You know when you listen to music playing from another room? And you’re singing along because it’s a tune that you really love? When a door closes or a train passes by so you can’t hear the music anymore, but you sing along anyway…then, no matter how much time passes, when you hear the music again, you’re still in the exact same time with it. That’s what love is like.
-from the movie Music From Another Room.
-from the movie Music From Another Room.
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