Archive for January, 2008
Who’s Steering The Boat?
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008I’d like to share a portion of this morning’s journal entry:
In Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints, James Martin explains that we are led to God through our desires.
Martin: The multiplicity of desires leads to a multiplicity of paths to God. [Of course, he is talking about healthy desires, not false-self driven desires.]
This makes perfect sense. It means one’s desires […]
Purpose
Thursday, January 24th, 2008We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.
-Thomas Merton
In the years since my daughter left home, I found myself caught up in the question of What is my purpose? I guess because I suddenly felt like I didn’t have one. Recently, it came bubbling to the […]
Digging Wells, Swimming In The Source
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008An excerpt from a 1977 dialog between Brother David Steindl-Rast and Ram Dass. Swami Satchidananda was also present. (”The occasion was a week-long meeting of forty monks, nuns, and lay people of differing religious traditions to discuss their mutual goals.”)
David Steindl-Rast: “The moment I came to know Buddhist and Hindu monks it became obvious to me that what we […]
MLK Jr. Said:
Monday, January 21st, 2008I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
And: Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
We have only allowed ourselves to become further misguided since he wrote this in 1963, the year I was born.
An Odd Idea: All Shall Be Well
Saturday, January 19th, 2008All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love resonates with messages of God’s unwavering love for us. And this insistence that all shall be well. It is often hard to believe, but in spite of all appearances, deep down way below the level of rationality, […]
The Freshness
Friday, January 11th, 2008When it’s cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.
And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.
The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are that freshness, and I am with you now.
I can’t explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,
and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.
-Rumi (Tr. Coleman Barks)
Sundar Singh’s Vision
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008Thank you to Jan for sharing the story of Sundar Singh with me. The story related here comes from this website.
Following the death of his mother when he was fourteen, Sundar grew increasingly angry and desperate. He took out his anger on local preachers and publically burned a Bible. He became suicidal, deciding that he would […]
Christ
Monday, January 7th, 2008Frederick Buechner wrote a beautiful piece about Paul. In it, he asks, What kept Paul going? Of course it was his visitation by Christ: Everything that Paul ever did or wrote from that moment on flamed up out of that extraordinary encounter on the Damascus road.
Ironically, it seems that non-Christians are visited by […]
LGFI: Letting Go (Yes, Again), Friendship, Intention
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008There’s so much I have to let go of. Including this frantic pace of trying to keep up with everything online.
I’ve been purposefully spending less time at the computer and more time with family and puppy. Since J graduated, she’s been around a little more, which makes me really really happy. And P has committed to […]