I found this question near the end of an interesting post: What if prayer is just a way of talking to yourself that is acceptable? My comment: Maybe at the core of who you are, hidden behind all the layers of your false self, the facade and masks and illusionary persona of nothingness that your […]
In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake, coming back to this life from the other, more secret, movable and frighteningly honest world where everything began, there is a small opening into the new day which closes the moment you begin your plans. What you can plan is too small for you to […]
About a month ago, I realized that I was saying one particular prayer wrong. When I enter a church or chapel, I kneel and pray, and start with, “Lord Jesus Christ, please forgive me because I am a sinner…” and go from there. What is wrong in my prayer is the word because. It is […]
My daughter’s college roommate had a hand-crafted picture of this hanging up in their dorm room.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. — William Blake, from “Auguries of Innocence” To see a World in a Grain of Sand — I am reminded of the Dr. Suess book, Horton […]
An insight into the Trinity? In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water. She asks, “Do you love me or yourself more? Really, tell the absolute truth.” He says, “There’s nothing left of me. I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise. […]
Definition: lover, a person who loves (or is loved). To love someone means to give yourself, at least in part, to another. The more one loves, the more one wants to give. The more one gives, the more one loves. The following prayer was written by Brother Charles of Jesus. It expresses a deep […]
As we mingle through this week’s carnival, our focus will move from the outward to the inward. When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos. (St. Thomas More) Eric at Ales Rarus writes about some startling bad statements regarding the scientific […]
Been inspired to write my first haiku. Plump little blue bird On branch, sitting, listening Amazed at it all
A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.” The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a […]
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that […]
Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new […]
The Our Father is to prayer what Christ is to humanity. (Simone Weil) A couple weeks ago, I discovered by accident(?) this marvelous book in the back a small gift shop, The Prayer of Fire: Experiencing the Lord’s Prayer by Lorraine Kisly. As a blurb on the back cover says, “This is a book on prayer […]
I’m staying in Hot Springs, Arkansas for a week for an AP Institute for math and science teachers. Hot Springs is a neat little town situated among beautiful, tree-covered hills of the southern Ozark mountains. The downtown area with the historical bath houses is full of interesting shops and stuff. As a colleague and I […]