The readings for today are especially powerful, starting with this portion from Wisdom 3:1-3: The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going […]
Only eight Roman Catholic saints have been beatitfied from the United States. And of those eight, I believe only one was born in America; the others were immigrants. Mexico has nearly 30 saints. Japan, a country with a small population of Catholics, has 20 saints. So, what’s wrong with America? What is it about our […]
It all adds up to one thing: peace, silence, solitude. The world and its noise are out of sight and far away. Forest and field, sun and wind and sky, earth and water— all speak the same silent language. — Thomas Merton [via] Definitely don’t get any of this on the internet, especially from reading […]
View from Mt. Scott, Wichita mountains, Oklahoma
That which I am, I offer to you, O Lord, for you are it entirely. — The Book of Privy Counseling
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its […]
Receive in an email… The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of […]
Decide to be happy Render others happy Proclaim your joy Love passionately your miraculous life Do not listen to promises Do not wait for a better world Be grateful for every moment of life Switch on and keep on the positive buttons in yourself, those marked optimism, serenity, confidence, positive thinking, love Pray and thank […]
What is an iHermit? an internet hermit. I have given up visiting, reading and commenting on weblogs, blogs, online journals, forums, list servers, etc. I still use the internet for resources and references for my job, yellow pages, maps, and occasional email with job, family and friends. But not for anything else, except to write […]
Nasty is only one letter away from tasty.
From today’s entry in God Calling: Jesus, hear us, and let our cry come unto Thee. That voiceless cry, that comes from anguished hearts, is heard above all the music of Heaven. It is not the arguments of theologians that solve the problems of a questioning heart, but the cry of that heart to Me, […]
Father, I ask for the grace to be in the present moment, to live in the now where You are.
From yesterday’s entry in God Calling: Jesus, hear us, and let our cry come unto Thee. That voiceless cry, that comes from anguished hearts, is heard above all the music of Heaven. It is not the arguments of theologians that solve the problems of a questioning heart, but the cry of that heart to Me, […]
Father, I don’t know. I don’t quite understand it all. I read Saint Catherine of Siena and her words are harsh for sinners. She says in her own style, and in the style of her times, to wake up idiots! Your time is slipping away from you. The window of opportunity for choosing heaven is […]
I heard the song “Pretending” by Eric Clapton on the radio this morning. It’s about ones heart ache due to another pretending to love in the relationship. O Father, please do not let my love for you, for others, be for pretend. Please help me make it genuine, honest, real, deep, authentic—like your love.
The best love songs always apply to God too.
Lately, when anger comes up I try to ask myself “What am I working so hard to protect or avoid?” Every time I ask this question and breathe instead of trying to run from or shut down the conflict, my anger eventually turns into compassion for myself and for my so-called “attacker” who most likely […]
Contact is all it takes To change your life to lose your place in time Contact, asleep or awake Coming around you may wake up to find Questions deep within your eyes, Now more than ever, you’ve realized And then you sense a change, nothing feels the same All your dreams are strange, Love comes […]
At the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote the Principle and Foundation as a mission statement to guide everything he did and to guide retreatants through the Exercises. About this time last year when I was in A Retreat in Daily Life, I wrote my own Principle and Foundation. It seems […]
The old CowPi Journal is just shy of 800 entries, and I don’t have that much more to say in this format at this time and place. My energy has been elsewhere. The Quote of the Day will continue through the beginning of December and then it will be done at 1007 quotes (with only […]
The struggle to be creative is the friction of the Spirit trying to pass through you to others. It is much like electricity passing through wire. You are the wire, and the friction causes heat to make the wire malleable. And in the end, the wire itself becomes a majestic work of art formed by […]
What the self decides in time is ratified in eternity. — Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life I choose You…
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote a wonderful little book called You, which is really about us and our relationship with God. Although the cultural references are a little dated, here is a cursory explanation, sprinkled with golden nuggets of insight, of why we worship God. If you are a father, do you not like to […]
I feel like I am always out of sync with the liturgical calendar. Next week starts Advent which leads into Christmas, but I keep thinking about Easter Week. The stories and images of Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday all seem to overlap and juxtapose for me. As I searched for an image to put […]
From today’s entry in God Calling: Not our wills but Thine, O Lord. Man has so misunderstood Me in this. I want no will laid grudgingly upon My Altar. I want you to desire and love My Will, because therein lies your happiness and the Spirit-rest. When you feel that you cannot leave the choice […]