CowPi Journal

Recognize

· 17 November 2006 | 124 words

Lately, when anger comes up I try to ask myself "What am I working so hard to protect or avoid?" Every time I ask this question and breathe instead of trying to run from or shut down the conflict,...

Desire to Be

· 8 October 2006 | 109 words

From the last chapter of The Cloud of Unknowing: It is not what you are nor what you have been that God sees with his all-merciful eyes, but what you desire to be. The original Middle English written in the...

Illusory vs. Real Religion

· 10 May 2006 | 72 words

The maxim of illusory religion runs: "Fear not; trust in God and he will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you;" that of real religion, on the contrary is, "Fear not; the things that...

There is a Moment…

· 19 April 2006 | 302 words

There is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find. -- William Blake I saw this quote today. My mind searched for a specific time or label for this moment in each day. I was tempted to answer,...

Our Part, God’s Part

· 2 March 2006 | 47 words

It is our part to seek,      His to grant what we ask; ours to make a beginning,      His to bring it to completion; ours to offer what we can,      His to finish what we...

Scandal of the Cross

· 8 February 2006 | 167 words

From a Newsweek article titled "Visions of Jesus", March 27, 2000 [via]: Clearly, the cross is what separates the Christ of Christianity from every other Jesus. In Judaism there is no precedent for a Messiah who dies, much less as...

We are bums who have been given…

· 31 December 2005 | 152 words

This seems an appropriate thought for the last day of the year. If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He were to ask you, "Why should I take you to Heaven?" What would you say? We...

What time…

· 20 October 2005 | 13 words

What time I am afraid, I will trust in you. -- Psalm 56:3...

We Set the Limits, Not God

· 1 September 2005 | 75 words

God never forces himself upon us or works in us beyond what we are willing to allow him to do. If we do not grow in love, it is not because his love for us is limited, but because...

Half an idea…

· 12 July 2005 | 37 words

It's a hundred and six blocks; I've got a full bladder, half an idea of where I'm going; it's Tuesday, and I am wearing sunglasses. -- Bloo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends What more do you need?...

My Name is I AM

· 10 May 2005 | 95 words

I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking: "My name is I am." He paused. I waited. He continued. "When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I...

A Constant Exchange of Love

· 8 April 2005 | 184 words

A couple weeks ago, I changed the subtitle to this weblog from "Watch your step..." (a play on words with the title of this journal) to "Got prayer?" because it seems to fit more with who I am and what...

Resurrection

· 27 March 2005 | 190 words

Resurrection--not progress, not evolution, not enlightenment, but a call from heaven to us: "Rise up! You are dead, but I will give you life." That is what is proclaimed here, and it is the only way that the world can...

Three Quotes

· 13 March 2005 | 88 words

From Happy Catholic, via Flos Carmeli, via Summa Minutiae, here is a blogger challenge: Describe yourself with three quotes--serious, ironic, humorous, whatever--from various (literary?) sources. My quotes: Life is a gift, not to possess, but to share. -- Henri Nouwen If I...

Life

· 27 January 2005 | 50 words

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I...

Not Because the Sin was Too Big

· 1 November 2004 | 134 words

None of the damned was ever lost because his sin was too great, but because his trust was too small! -- Blessed Fr. Francis Seelos I heard this quote on a talk radio show today. It says two things to...

There is a Way

· 22 September 2004 | 67 words

In main entrance to my school, we do not have the Ten Commandments posted. We have the Beatitudes. A little ways into the main hallway, there is another big picture framed around these words: We are with you. There is...

Lets Talk About Sex

· 21 September 2004 | 645 words

Last week, my quote on the corner of the chalkboard in my classroom was: You have to unzip your heart before you unzip your pants. Written in parenthesis under the quote was, "In other words, why would you trust your...

Greatest Single Cause of Atheism

· 20 September 2004 | 41 words

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. -- Brennan...

A Frightening Conclusion…

· 24 August 2004 | 145 words

Every year that I have taught, going on 14 years now, I have had a copy of this quote taped to the inside of my gradebook as a reminder: I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive...

Seeking God for God or Just for the Light?

· 13 July 2004 | 79 words

Know that when you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, because you do not seek God purely. You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing. -- Meister Eckhart

The full soul loathes…

· 7 July 2004 | 24 words

The full soul loathes the honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. -- Proverbs 27:7

If you are patient…

· 18 June 2004 | 19 words

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape 100 days of sorrow. -- Chinese proverb

…to become anonymity

· 13 June 2004 | 106 words

'Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.' The meaning is very clear; it is the meaning of all religious practice. The individual, through prolonged psychological disciplines, gives up completely all attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears, no longer resists the self-annihilation that is prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth, and so becomes ripe, at last, for the great at-one-ment. His personal ambitions being totally dissolved, he no longer tries to live but willingly relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him; he becomes, that is to say, an anonymity. -- Joseph Campbell

What a Christian Means by “Mystery”

· 9 June 2004 | 127 words

A mystery means that a reality is so big that our minds cannot completely surround it. A mystery means that the more we learn something, the more we find that we have yet to learn. It is like walking toward...

Love and Revelation…

· 10 May 2004 | 96 words

To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: "You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can...

Past, Present, Future: Learn, Live, Hope

· 29 April 2004 | 15 words

Learn from the past, live in the present, hope for the future. -- Brian Boeckman

There is a God we want…

· 14 April 2004 | 52 words

There is a God we want, and there is a God who is and they are not the same God. The turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God...

The more you try to avoid suffering…

· 12 February 2004 | 46 words

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. -- Thomas Merton

Grace Known by Faith

· 11 February 2004 | 189 words

I randomly opened up the Catechism of the Catholic Church this morning. It opened to an old bookmarked page on God's grace. I found this paragraph comforting in light of my current mood. 2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural...

Meaning of Grace

· 6 February 2004 | 52 words

Meaining of grace: It is a touch of truth that lets you see the world in a new way. It is a gift that can only be felt when you are open enough to accept it.

Live life like…

· 4 February 2004 | 326 words

Live life like a prayer to God.

Holiness does not consist of…

· 27 January 2004 | 34 words

Holiness does not consist of doing extraordinary things. It consists of accepting with a smile, what Jesus sends us. It consists in accepting and following the will of God. -- Mother Teresa

The Kingdom of God

· 26 January 2004 | 40 words

The Kingdom of God is any place where the will of God is done.

Roe v. Wade

· 22 January 2004 | 156 words

America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts--a child--as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. -- Mother Teresa

Abortion is…

· 22 January 2004 | 14 words

Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women. -- Alice Paul

The path of love…

· 12 January 2004 | 54 words

It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for 'God is Charity' (1 Jn 4:8). -- St. Albert the Great

Upgrade My Attachments to Preferences

· 12 January 2004 | 89 words

Suffering is wishing things were other than they are. -- Buddha * Upgrade my 'attachments' to 'preferences' -- Jennifer Rice

Key to unlocking human destiny…

· 11 January 2004 | 40 words

The key to unlocking our human destiny is the joy of possessing the Beloved, not loving what we possess. -- Gordon Fuglie

Affected (or should that be Infected?)

· 1 January 2004 | 62 words

I cannot affect you without you affecting me.

What we carry in our hearts…

· 12 December 2003 | 27 words

What we carry in our hearts is what we will have to answer for when we face God at the end of our journey.

I do not need to seek God…

· 8 December 2003 | 46 words

I do not need to seek God. God is already here waiting to be found, soaked in my reality. My journey is to be one of recognizing God, always, already present, and surfacing that presence in my daily life. -- Edwina Gateley, from "A Mystical Heart"

Going with the Flow

· 31 October 2003 | 127 words

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. -- G. K. Chesterton

Everyone has a bad hair day…

· 11 October 2003 | 24 words

Everyone has a bad hair day; the trick is not to have one on picture day. -- Mark Woodward (advice given to my students)...

You have been told…

· 8 October 2003 | 90 words

I think of this verse from Micah 6:8 in some of my darker or confused moments: You have been told, O man, what is good,     and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to...

Vices of the parent…

· 28 September 2003 | 77 words

My 16 year-old daughter I were leaving the church parking lot this morning when we spotted one of her childhood friends light up a cigarette in the back of her mom's car. My daughter turned to me and asked with...

Success happens…

· 8 September 2003 | 9 words

Success happens when preparation meets opportunity. -- author unknown...

Some Days…

· 27 July 2003 | 0 words

Ardent Reader…

· 9 July 2003 | 51 words

If you are an ardent reader, seek not brilliant and erudite texts; otherwise the demon of haughtiness will strike your heart. But like a wise bee that gathers honey from flowers, so also through your reading obtain healing for your...

Finding a really good weblog…

· 4 June 2003 | 51 words

Finding a really good weblog is like finding the peanuts in a box of Cracker Jacks. They are in there, but you have to hunt for them. And when you find one, you savor it.

Life is a great big canvas…

· 2 June 2003 | 28 words

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. -- Danny Kaye

No such thing as a problem…

· 5 May 2003 | 71 words

There are no such thing as problems, only opportunities. -- Author unknown

Perfect Happiness…

· 14 April 2003 | 62 words

Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite. -- Primo Levi

Empire Building?

· 25 March 2003 | 215 words

Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. -- Colin Powell

Experience is like a knife…

· 7 March 2003 | 33 words

Experience is like a knife. It can either hurt you or benefit you depending on whether you grab it by the handle or the blade. -- Author unknown

Love is not measured…

· 14 February 2003 | 39 words

The wizard said to the tin man, "Remember my friend, Love is not measured by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." -- from "The Wizard of Oz"