CowPi Journal

All men complain that they haven’t enough time. They look at their lives from too human a point of view. There is always time to do what God wants us to do, but we must put ourselves completely into each moment that he offers us.

I went out, Lord.
People were coming and going,
Walking and running.
Everything was rushing:
     cars, trucks, the street, the whole town.
People were rushing not to waste time.
They were rushing after time,
     to catch up with time,
     to gain time.
Goodbye, excuse me, I haven’t time.
I’ll come back, I can’t wait, I haven’t time.
I must end this letter… I haven’t time.
I can’t accept having no time.
I can’t think, I can’t read,
I’m swamped, I haven’t the time.
I’d like to pray, but…
     I haven’t time.

You understand, Lord,
     they simply haven’t the time.
The child is playing,
     there is no time right now. Later on.
The schoolchild has homework to do,
     there is no time… Later on…
The student has courses and so much work…
     Later on…
The young man is at his sports,
     he hasn’t time… Later on…
The young married couple has a new house;
     they have to fix it up.
     They haven’t time… Later on…
The grandparents have their grandchildren.
     They haven’t time… Later on…
They are sick and have their treatments,
     they haven’t time… Later on…
They are dying, they have no… Too late!
     They have no more time!

And so all people run after time, Lord.
They pass through life
     running, hurried, jostled, overburdened, frantic,
     and they never get there.
They haven’t the time.

In spite of all their efforts
     they’re still short of time,
     of a great deal of time.
Lord, you must have made
     a mistake in your calculations.
There is a big mistake somewhere.
The hours are too short.
The days are too short.
Our lives are too short.

You who are beyond time, Lord,
     you smile to see us fighting it.
And you know what you are doing.
You make no mistakes in your distribution
     of time to us, Lord.
You give each one time to do what you want us to do.

But we must not lose time,
     waste time, kill time,
For time is a gift that you give us,
     but a perishable gift,
     a gift that does not keep.

Lord, I have time, I have plenty of time,
     all the time that you give me,
     the years of my life,
     the days of my years,
     the hours of my days.
They are all mine.
Mine to fill, quietly, calmly,
     but to fill completely up to the brim,
To offer them to you,
     that of their insipid water
You may make rich wine such as
     you made once in Galilee.

I am not asking you tonight, Lord,
     for the time to do this and then that,
But for your grace to do conscientiously,
     in the time that you give me,
     what you want me to do.

— Michael Quoist

Leave me here freely all alone,
In cell were sunlight never shone,
Should no one ever speak to me,
This golden silence sets me free!

— Blessed Titus Brandsma, portion of poem written in Dachau

If I just do my thing and you do yours,
We stand in danger of losing each other and ourselves
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations;
But I am in this world to confirm you
As a unique human being,
And to be confirmed by you.

We are fully ourselves only in relations to each other;
The “I” detached from a “Thou” disintegrates.
I do not find you by Chance;
I find you by an active life of reaching out.

Rather than passively letting things happen to me,
I can act intentionally to make them happen.

I must begin with myself, true;
But I must not end with myself;
The truth begins with two.

— Walter Tubbs

From Br. Joseph —

There is a philosopher’s axiom that says, “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, how you see is what you see.

This is best illustrated by a little story.

A fat, overweight Buddha was sitting under a tree one day. An arrogant, young soldier walked by, saw him, and said, “You look like a pig!”

The Buddha looked up at the soldier and said, “And you look like God!”

Surprised, the soldier asked him, “Why do you say that I look like God?”

The Buddha replied, “You see, we don’t see what’s outside us, we see what’s inside and project it outwards. I sit here all day and think about God and when I look out, that’s what I see. You, on the other hand, must be thinking about something else!”

The prism of attitude is how we see the world.

Father, help me to polish my prism of attitude to see You in everything and in everyone.

All is gift.

Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…