God is like a mirror…
· 31 October 2004
God is like a mirror. The mirror never changes, but everybody who looks at it sees something different.
Quotes for October 2004
Let God love you through others…
· 29 October 2004
Let God love you through others, and let God love others through you.
The love you give and receive…
· 28 October 2004
Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.
Perfectionism is imprisoning…
· 27 October 2004
Perfectionism is imprisoning. As long as I demand it, in myself or anybody else, I am not free, and all my life…I’ve believed that freedom is important, that despite all our misuse and abuse of it, freedom is what makes us a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, according to the psalmist; how like a god, according to Shakespeare; freedom to remember, to share, to dream, to accept irrationality and paradox is what makes us human animals.
« πλ | Detachment »
Success vs. Fruitfulness
· 26 October 2004
We have been called to be fruitful—not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.
« πλ | Motivation »
The quieter you become…
· 25 October 2004
The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
« πλ | Observation, Silence »
The whole history of science…
· 24 October 2004
The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
What I feel like is out of my hands…
· 23 October 2004
What I feel like is out of my hands, and I can’t be responsible for that; what I choose is where morality starts, and this is the true testing ground of good and bad.
Mind and intelligence are woven…
· 22 October 2004
Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our understanding.
When we try to pick out anything by itself…
· 21 October 2004
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
« πλ | Observation »
We care so little…
· 20 October 2004
In this country, unfortunately, as all over the world, we care so little, we have no deep feeling about anything. Most of us are intellectual—intellectuals in the superficial sense of being very clever, full of words and theories about what is right and what is wrong, about how we should think, what we should do. Mentally we are highly developed, but inwardly there is very little substance or significance; and it is this inward substance that brings about true action, which is not action according to an idea.
Cried every kind of tear…
· 19 October 2004
When you’ve cried every kind of tear there is, you’ve lived.
One can no more have a private religion…
· 18 October 2004
One can no more have a private religion than one can have a private sun or a private moon.
Degrade my soul by…
· 17 October 2004
I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
This is salvation…
· 15 October 2004
This, then, is salvation: When we marvel at the beauty of created things and praise their beautiful Creator.
Be who you are…
· 14 October 2004
Be who you are and say what you need to say
because those who mind don’t matter,
and those who matter don’t mind.
« πλ | Character, Motivation »
I can do everything…
· 13 October 2004
I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
When one door of happiness closes…
· 12 October 2004
When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
Three sources of evil…
· 11 October 2004
It is said that there are three sources of evil, “the world, the flesh, and the Devil”; but the world and the flesh would be innocent were it not for the Devil.
If faith does not change a person…
· 9 October 2004
If faith does not change a person on the inside, and ultimately does not change what he or she does on the outside, then that faith is stillborn. Only through and in God can we really, truly change for the better.
We do not do good works…
· 8 October 2004
We do not do good works to get into heaven; we do good works because heaven has gotten to us.
Only God touches us…
· 7 October 2004
Only God touches us in the present moment. Definitely not in our past. Not in our future. Only now. Only now is when the possibility has a chance to happen, if only we are open to it, open to God.
Maybe that is why we call it the “present”, as in “gift”?
God does not call us to do…
· 6 October 2004
God does not call us to do extraordinary things. God calls us to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.
Mystery causes a mental itch…
· 5 October 2004
Mystery causes a mental itch, which the brain tries to soothe with the balm of reasonable talk.
« πλ | Observation »
Every gift requires two freedoms…
· 4 October 2004
Every gift requires two freedoms: the giver’s and the receiver’s.
« πλ | Hospitality »
Envy is the only sin that…
· 3 October 2004
Envy, though not the greatest sin, is the only one that gives the sinner no pleasure at all, not even fake and temporary satisfaction.
Distinguish anger from hatred…
· 2 October 2004
This is the reason why it is crucial to distinguish anger from hatred. There is a kind of anger (nonsinful kind) which…is in God himself, while hate is not in God but is in Satan. If we do not clearly distinguish anger from hatred, then we do not clearly distinguish God from Satan!
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")