Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing;
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
Who has God wants nothing.
God alone suffices.
In this beautiful prayer, Saint Teresa implies possession, but also that nothing can be possessed. She does not intent to imply that one can possess God as one possesses things. God is never an object. God is always subject. It is about relationship, I-You, being with another, union, communion. My relationship with God is my choice. I can be open to Him or not. God’s relationship with me never changes, so why should any thing bother me.
I choose You, to be open to You, to be with You, to love You.
“…What I like doing best is Nothing.”
“How do you do Nothing,” asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it, ‘What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?’ and you say, ‘Oh, Nothing,’ and then you go and do it.”
“It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
“Oh!” said Pooh.
Must doing always have purpose? Does being have purpose? Can I exist without purpose? Can my purpose simply be to be?
Is the nothingness I yearn for
a return to the comfortable nothingness of the womb,
or a step forward into the unknown
of total giving, of emptying myself to You?
Is this want from my egoic,
fear and attachment-driven empirical false self,
or from my shy true self that knows itself
to be in, of, and with You?
The one is caused by fatigue,
total tiredness of struggling in the world,
frought with frustions of a feeble will.
The other is from desire to be,
to be with You, to let You fill me.
One is retreat, resignation, giving up.
The other is giving over.
One is about self.
One is about other.
One leads to apathy and hell.
One leads to love and heaven.
Lead me to You.
I bind to myself today:
God’s power to guide me,
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to teach me,
God’s eye to watch over me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to give me speech,
God’s hand to guide me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to shelter me,
God’s host to secure me.
— St. Patrick, portion of his Breastplate
The state of Oklahoma turns 100 this year. The US Post Office just issued this beautiful stamp painted by Mike Larsen of the sun rising over the Cimarron river to celebrate the state’s centennial.
Oh, what a beautiful mornin’
Oh, what a beautiful day
I got a beautiful feelin’
Everything’s goin’ God’s way
