CowPi Journal

This is a cool optical illusion, based on persistence of vision. (Thanks to Emily.)

Follow these instructions:

1. Relax and concentrate on the four small dots in the middle of the picture below for about 30-40 seconds.

2. Close your eyes, or look at a wall near you (any smooth, single colored surface should do).

3. You will see a circle of light developing.

4. What do you see? Moreover, who do you see?

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, “Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty.”

Then the second tree said, “Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.”

Finally the third tree said, “I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.”

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, “This looks like a strong tree. I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter,” and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree the woodsman said, “This looks like a strong tree. I should be able to sell it to the shipyard.” The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, “I don’t need anything special from my tree. I’ll take this one,” and he cut it down.

(more…)

Only a while ago you still knelt at the empty grave, a sea of tears. And all you knew was that the Lord was dead, that the life of quiet joy you shared was dead. You only stare into the void of the cave. A cold and chilly wind is exhaled from your soul, where the dead man laid himself to rest, where you embalmed and shrouded him with an awe that no longer expects anything.

You want to be in attendance at his grave. You don’t cease praying or going to empty ceremonies in churches to perform a hopeless service for your dead love. And oh, what is now the meaning of resurrection? Who can know it from among those who have not themselves risen from the dead?

What is now the meaning of faith? It has been sealed within the grave. What is now the meaning of hope? A leaden thought with neither power nor yearning. And love? Alas, perhaps it is now no more than sorrow, the empty pain of disconsolate futility, the weariness that can no longer mourn.

And you stare into the void. For in fact: the grave is empty, you yourself empty, and are therefore, already pure, and only this staring spasm keeps you from looking behind you. You stare ahead of you, and behind your back stands Life! It calls to you, you turn around and cannot recognize it. Yours eyes unused to light, can grasp nothing. And then an abrupt word: your name! Your own dear name coming from the mouth of Love: your being, your very essence — yourself! — bounding from the mouth thought dead…

O word, O name, you, my own name! Spoken to me, breathed forth with a smile and a promise. O stream of light, O faith, hope, love! In a thunderclap I am the new creature (this I am, can be, am allowed to be). I am given back to myself, and then, at the very instant when I shout for joy, I cast myself down at the feet of Life.

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

In the old days, on Easter night, the Russian peasants used to carry the blest fire home from church. The light would scatter and travel in all directions through the darkness, and the desolation of the night would be pierced and dispelled as lamps came on in the windows of the farm houses, one by one. Even so the glory of God sleeps everywhere, ready to blaze out unexpectedly in created things. Even so His peace and His order lie hidden in the world, even the world of today, ready to re-establish themselves in His way, in His own good time: but never without the instrumentality of free options made by free men.

— Thomas Merton, from The New Man (via Daily Dig)