Grand Sacred Angels we are, whether you agree or not! Go to the Creator of You Ask this love what your worth is Ask the Author of existence what you are worth The Almighty Sacred will say: Your nature longs to be worth it You want peace You want stillness Love […]
This is what God says to us from The Cross… Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference? — The Doctor, Doctor Who, episode “Dark Water” (Season 8)
But when I love you, what do I love? It is not physical beauty nor temporal glory nor the brightness of light dear to earthly eyes, nor the sweet melodies of all kinds of songs, nor the gentle odour of flowers and ointments and perfumes, nor manna or honey, nor limbs welcoming the embraces of […]
Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair. — G.K. Chesterton
Experience of life: its routines; the workaday world; home leisure, reassuring in their way, buttress our sense of life’s rational elements, its continuity upholding our need for a beginning, a middle, and an end, and awareness of place along the line, holding off conflicts that bear no resolution: the creep of illness and indifference; the […]
Jesus warns us [that] charity is not genuine if it seeks human praise (Matthew 6:2-3). Our actions are ‘beautiful’ when they reflect the light of God, so it is therefore right that the merit and praise for this light go to him. — Blessed John Paul II
What then is it all about? In a brilliant sentence, Benedict carefully explained the broad sweep of our being to us: “God made the world so that there could be a space where he might communicate his love, and from which the response of love might come back to him.” This passage emphasizes the central […]
That I did always love I bring thee Proof That till I loved I never lived—Enough— That I shall love alway— I argue thee That love is life— And life hath Immortality— This—dost thou doubt—Sweet— Then have I Nothing to show But Calvary— — Emily Dickinson (Poem 549)
Do we dare say it, “it’s all for you”? The winters marked the Earth Its floor with frozen glass You slip into my arms And you quickly correct yourself Your freezing speech bubbles Seem to hold your words aloft I want the smoky clouds of laughter To swim about me forever more I will race […]
Various lines from Don Henley’s song, “The Heart of the Matter”: What are these voices outside love’s open door Make us throw off our contentment And beg for something more? — — — These times are so uncertain There’s a yearning undefined And people filled with rage We all need a little tenderness How […]
True love in every moment praises God. Longing love brings a sorrow sweet to the pure. Seeking love belongs to itself. Understanding love gives itself equally to all. Enlightened love is mingled with the sadness of the world. But selfless love bears an effortless fruit, working so quietly even the body cannot say […]
You will never be alone, you hear so deep a sound when autumn comes. Yellow pulls across the hills and thrums, or in the silence after lightning before it says its names - and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed apologies. You were aimed from birth: you will never be alone. Rain will come, a gutter filled, […]
In further reflection on the song “Laughing With” (see lyrics and this post), the word transcendence has popped into my head. Paradox points to transcendence, to something more. To transcend means to rise above, to see more. It does not deny what is, it just gives a wider vision of what is, depth, a larger […]
If I had a theme song for this summer, it would be Keith Urban’s upbeat and bouncy, “Somebody Like You”. (Listen) The first stanza, especially the third line, is what caught my attention when I heard this song on the radio this morning. It is full of energy and joy. Except for the third line […]
I think there is a choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. — Muriel Rukeyser She is mostly correct, but her warning needs clarification. […]
Asking people to pray is like telling the wind to blow the ear to listen the eye to see We cannot not pray anymore than not be once given the gift of existence We can only shut it out or deny it Prayer is simply the conscious dimension of being when it opens out to […]
I want to record an email conversation that occurred between a friend and I back in late February. My spiritual director reminds me to listen—or rather take my own advice—to what I say to other people. This seems particularly germane to my current sense of lostness. From David: Epistemology is something I think about from […]
Has someone’s courage ever made you look at yourself and ask what you’re afraid of, what you know of love? Your pain has changed me Your dreams inspire Your face a memory Your hope a fire Your courage asks me what I’m afraid of And what I know of love And what I know of […]
God is everywhere. That’s easy to say, but do we really believe it? Are we willing to admit that God is present even in what looks nothing like holiness or love, i.e. in our sin—before, during, and after? Here’s a powerful poem from Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, September, 2008. After the storm, […]
To paraphrase a quote from Flannery O’Connor: Life has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for. What more can one add?!
Today is the feast day for Saint Thomas Aquinas. I was pleasantly surprised to find the prolific theologian and philosopher, Doctor of the Church, and faithful Dominican priest also wrote poetry. I am not qualified to critique his style (or the translation), but his poetry mixes well a deep sense of faith with a lighthearted […]
I discovered an old interview with Father Gabriele Amorth on the internet concerning Satan and exorcism. It is an interesting article, but this particular piece near the end jumped out at me. How does the Devil go about seducing men and women? AMORTH: His strategy is monotonous. I have told him so and he admits […]
love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun more last than star — E.E. Cummings
From Br. Joseph — From today’s Gospel reading, John 3:16-17: God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be […]
From Br. Joseph — This is the fifth reflection on seven signposts for the season of Lent (and for all seasons). Gravitate to humility. This signpost points in the exact opposite direction the world points by pointing to the First Beatitude, the Beatitude from which all the Beatitudes spring forth—blessed are the poor in spirit. […]