I went on the junior class retreat yesterday to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and Museum. I have been to the memorial several times, but this was my first trip through the museum. The memorial is always special, and it was exceptionally beautiful in the falling snow. The museum on the other hand adds several […]
The last song on a beautiful, meditative/prayerful, instrumental CD called A Thin Silence by Jeff Johnson is this song/prayer. Circle me, O God, let Your arms enfold me. Circle me, O God, let Your love surround. Circle me, O God, let Your light shine brightly. Circle me…circle me, O God. Circle me, O God, when […]
I find myself asking God to have mercy on those who died in some long ago battle or tragedy described in the pages of history. Am I a fool? Does love and prayer reach far back into time? What about the future, for people who will die to tomorrow or next year or ten years […]
To see joy in another is to see Christ in them. To see sorrow in another is also to see Christ in them. I don’t want to see Jesus as sorrow, but He is there. I cannot deny Him. It saddens my heart. And sometimes in the midst of sadness and tears, when I remember […]
Something today reminded me of an analogy I had once read by Simone Weil. Joy and sorrow are like two sentences painted on a wall in different colors. Most people do not know how to read the language it is written in, and so only notice the difference in colors. Those who can read it, […]
From James Finley’s Merton’s Palace of Nowhere: In prayer we are “useless.” We do not “do” anything, but rather open ourselves to be the person God calls us to be. The Moslems say, “God does nothing and therefore there is nothing God does not do.” God is beyond pragmatic functions. He is useless, yet by […]
From James Finley’s Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, Finley quotes Thomas Merton: It is…a blindness to prayer that exposes us to the pitfalls of becoming ourselves like those, …for whom a tree has no reality until they think of cutting it down, for whom an animal has no value until it enters a slaughterhouse, men who […]
I saw a bumper sticker on a minivan last night that read, “Parents of twins get twice the love.” I smiled. They really get more than twice.
It is easy to write words about the consolations of love. Just look at all the love songs and poems. But how does one describe the love for another for love’s sake, for who they are, what they are, for themselves and not what they give? The word “love” is too short to describe what […]
In The Lord, Romano Guardini reflects on God’s forgiveness: Men actually did not know that God must be as he is in order to be able to forgive, for what they formerly meant by forgiveness was no true forgiveness, but a covering up, a looking away, a gracious ignoring, cessation of anger and punishment. Genuine […]
Your words to me just a whisper Your face is so unclear I try to pay attention Your words just disappear ‘Cause it’s always raining in my head Forget all the things I should have said So I speak to you in riddles ‘Cause my words get in my […]