23 September 2009
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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