Monday, November 22, 2010

Welcome Morning


















There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello there, Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.
All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.
So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.

~ Anne Sexton

Monday, November 15, 2010

Unity or Division


"Love affects more than our thinking and our behavior toward those we love. It transforms our entire life. Genuine love is a personal revolution. Love takes your ideas, your desires, and your actions and welds them together in one experience and one living reality which is a new you. You may prefer to keep this from happening. You may keep your thoughts, desires, and acts in separate compartments, if you want: but then you will be an artificial and divided person, with three little filing cabinets: one of ideas, one of decisions, and one of actions and experience."

~ Thomas Merton

selected art, William Blake - The Creation of Eve







Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I'll bring you more than a song



The Emotions of Jesus, by Nadine Rippelmeyer



who He is







To worship God in truth is to recognize Him for being who He is, and to recognize ourselves for what we are.

~ Brother Lawrence


Friday, October 22, 2010

Angels




Angels,living light most glorious!
Beneath the Godhead in burning desire
in the darkness and mystery of creation
you look on the eye of your God
never taking your fill:
What glorious pleasures take shape within you!

~ Hildegard of Bingen



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Each Will Be





"When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of us will still be alive." C.S. Lewis



Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Tree, not the Leaves




Denying self requires us to give up anything that would hinder our doing the will of God.

This does not mean that, if we want something, it is necessarily wrong.

It means we must take our wants and desires down from the throne and place God as the governing power in our lives.

Seasons change; and leaves, though beautiful, come and go...




Monday, October 11, 2010

The Chain of Being


God is unified oneness-- one without two, inestimable. Genuine divine existence engenders the existence of all creation. The sublime, inner essences secretly constitute a chain linking everything from the highest to the lowest, extending from the upper pool to the edge of the universe.

There is nothing -- not even the tiniest thing-- that is not fastened to the links of this chain. Everything is catenated in its mystery, caught in its oneness. God is one, God's secret is one, all the worlds below and above are all mysteriously one. Divine existence is indivisible.

The entire chain is one. Down to the last link, everything linked with everything else; so divine essence is below as well as above, in heaven and earth. There is nothing else.

~ Moses de León (1250-1305)



Behold my Humilty










The eyes of my soul were opened, and I beheld th
e plentitude of God, wherein I did comprehend the whole world , both here and beyond the sea, and the abyss and ocean and all things. In all these things I beheld naught save the divine power, in a manner assuredly indescribable; so that through excess of marveling the soul cried with a loud voice, saying

"This whole world is full of God!"

Wherefore now I comprehended how small a thing is the whole world, that is to say both here and beyond the seas, the abyss, the ocean, and all things; and that the Power of God exceeds and fills all.

Then He said unto me: "I have shown thee something of My Power," and I understood, that after this I should better understand the rest.

He then said, "Behold now My Humility." Then was I given an insight into the deep humility of God toward man. And comprehending that unspeakable power and beholding that deep humility, my soul marveled greatly, and did esteem itself to be nothing at all.

~Angela of Foligno

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Our Security




















Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Even the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love.

Death can't, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.

Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

~ Romans 8:35-39

Friday, October 1, 2010

St. Thérèse of Lisieux





"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be - and becoming that pers
on."







Saturday, September 25, 2010

Follow ~













St. Bonaventure wrote: "Francis sought occasion to love God in everything. He delighted in all the works of God's hands and from the vision of joy on earth his mind soared aloft to the life-giving source and cause of all. In everything beautiful, he saw him who is beauty itself, and he followed his Beloved everywhere by his likeness imprinted on creation; of all creation he made a ladder by which he might mount up and embrace Him who is all-desirable" (Legenda Major, IX, 1).


Thursday, September 23, 2010

St. Padre Pio
















"The life of a Christian is nothing but
a perpetual struggle against self;
there is no flowering of the soul
to the beauty of its perfection
except at the price of pain."

"May your heart always be
the temple of the Holy Spirit.
May Jesus always be the helmsman
of your little spiritual ship.
May Mary be the star
which shines on your path
and may she show you
the safe way
to reach the Heavenly Father. ~Amen"