I rediscovered this piece of dialogue from the movie Matrix between Neo and the Spoon Boy in the waiting room of the Oracle’s apartment: Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. Neo: What truth? Boy: There is no spoon. Neo: There is no spoon? Boy: […]
If a tree falls, it makes a lot of noise; but if a thousand flowers bloom, it happens in the greatest of silence. — Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Something to ponder this Christmas day… Wake me up Father so that I won’t miss you. Purify my heart so that I may see You, so that […]
From Br. Joseph — There is a philosopher’s axiom that says, “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, how you see is what you see. This is best illustrated by a little story. A fat, overweight Buddha was sitting under a tree one day. An arrogant, young […]
From Br. Joseph — There is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find. (William Blake) I saw this quote the other day. My mind searched for a specific time or moment to label as “Satan free.” Was it in those precious few moments just after waking before the thoughts of the day rush in? […]
From the movie, Red Planet: Chantilas: [Suppose] we just finished poisoning the earth and everyone was dead in a hundred years. Then what was the point of anything? Art, beauty—all gone—the Greeks, the Constitution, people dying for freedom, ideas. None of it meant anything? What about religion? Do we give up on God too? Gallagher: […]
I’m on page 148 of Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be. He has painstakingly described three types of anxiety that are part of being human (ontologically speaking). There is the anxiety of fate and death, of which the western ancients were most troubled. There is the anxiety of guilt and condemnation, of which the Medieval […]
My deepest desire and most longing want is to see the face of Jesus Christ. Based on one of the Beatitudes, my daily prayer is for God to purify my heart so that I may see Him, see Him in others, and for others to see Him in me. I often think or imagine or […]
As one has to learn to read or to practice a trade, so one must learn to feel in all things, first and almost solely, the obedience of the universe to God. It is really an apprenticeship. Like every apprenticeship, it requires time and effort. He who has reached the end of his training realizes […]
Inspired to react to a Frederick Franck quote, I wrote this. While watching the six o’clock news, I am forced to face the poverty of my spirit. I am powerless. I am impotent. I am not in control. There is nothing I can do to effect a change. But I do feel compelled to do […]
I was in the middle of the first part of a three-step prayer yesterday evening when my whinny little four-year suddenly bursted into my room and demanded he needed a fresh pair socks at that very moment so he could put on his shoes to go back outside. It jolted me out my prayer and […]
Like Neo in the Matrix movies, Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story” found enlightenment too.
Anthony de Mello tells the following story in the forward of his book, Awareness: A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking […]
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. — G. K. Chesterton
Are you holy? This question was asked by the guest speaker at a conference I attended this past weekend. No one raised their hand. The speaker went on to say that she has asked this same question for many years. No one has ever raised their hand, except for one person. The speaker asked this […]
Another coincidence in light of some of my recent entries? From today’s official church reading is Luke 11:9-10: And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who […]
What a coincident! In light of some of my recent journal entries, I happened to open up a daily prayer book for 2003 this morning and found a very timely reading. The ironic thing is that I have not opened this particular book since June. I have been reading the Church’s daily readings through the […]
Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love. — Thomas Merton
Before school started, the faculty and staff of my high school had a retreat. Fr. Boyer lead a wonderful, insightful, and motivating discussion on the virtues needed to be a disciple of Christ. Jesus teaches these virtues to his apostles and disciples in Luke’s Travel Narrative: The Journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51-19:27). What follows are […]
Brian, the senior religion teacher, delivered the morning prayer before an all-school assembly yesterday. Before the prayer, he told us this story: There was a farmer working out in his field one day. A traveler was walking down the road next to the field. The traveler motioned for the farmer to come over to talk. […]
The song “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence as been playing on popular radio stations lately. It has an edgy rock sound, and the lead singer has an incredible voice. But when I read the lyrics (after my previous entry), it gave me goose bumps…
Over the last month or so, little things have been popping up here and there that have reminded me of my old self—the self-reliant, skeptical agnostic. I used to believe in a Creator-God, the Initiator of the Universe. I was not sure if He interfered with things on this planet, and if He did, science […]
I have a friend who says that there is no such things as coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. The mathematician inside of me is skeptical with images of probability calculations and statistical charts. I am resistant to ascribe a higher meaning to why I ran into a former student yesterday, but it feels at […]
I was watching a TV show called Oswald with my three-old son this afternoon. Oswald is a children’s cartoon about an eternally optimistic, soft-spoken, blue and round octopus. In this particular episode, he first meets his happy-go-lucky friend Daisy the flower. She is busy catching leaves for her leaf collection. Then he meets his anal-retentive […]
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. — Danny Kaye
There are no such thing as problems, only opportunities. — Author unknown