CowPi Journal

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 me: No sin is too big for God to forgive. Let that sink deep into […]

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 a way through; There is a way to stand; There is a way to move; […]

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 most precious sexuality with someone you do not trust with the secrets of your heart?” […]

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 Manning

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 element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is […]

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 the honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. — Proverbs 27:7

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

‘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

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 the horizon. Even if we walk for our whole lives, we’ll never arrive at the […]

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 trust yourself.” We all know well that we can do things for others and in […]

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

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 who is. — Patrick Morley (via a comment at Raw Faith)

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

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 order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore […]

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 a prayer to God.

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 is any place where the will of God is done.

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 the ultimate exploitation of women. — Alice Paul

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

Suffering is wishing things were other than they are. — Buddha * Upgrade my ‘attachments’ to ‘preferences’ — Jennifer Rice

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