Mary Oliver wrote a beautiful poem titled In Blackwater Woods. Read it in its entirety here:Its closing lines are selected for the quote of the week:To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes, to let it go, to let it go. … [Read more...]
Teach Me to Listen, Lord – John Veltri – Quote of the Week
Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers.Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is, “Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”Teach me to listen, my caring God, to those far from me– the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside — in the deepest part of me.Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise and in silence.Teach me, Lord, to listen. Amen.This prayer was composed by John Veltri, S.J., a Canadian spiritual director and expert guide for those presenting the Spiritual Exercises. … [Read more...]
The Word of God from God – Quote of the Week
Dear Child,Before you open my Word this morning, stop and consider what you are holding in your hands. It is more than paper and ink, more than words and sentences.You are holding in your hands the very essence of who I am!My Word in my nature, my wisdom, my guidance, my love distilled into letter form.You are holding health and life, truth and healing.Keep my Word before your eyes. Give it permission to roam in the rooms of your heart – cleaning, straightening, rearranging; closing doors on some things, opening windows on others.My Word can be for your heart a companion, a hearth, and a housekeeper; a gardener to weed your thoughts and a guard against intruders.And so, as you open my Word this day, read with your eyes, but listen with your life.I want to speak to you,GodFrom the book Postcards from Heaven by Claire CloningerMy child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring … [Read more...]
What is God Building? – Quote of the Week by C. S. Lewis
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity. … [Read more...]
Our Light Within – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Quote of the Week
People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross … [Read more...]
A Prayer by Joyce Rupp – Quote of the week
A Prayer to Be Free From Tizzies*Dear God,you who did not invent tizzies,be with me when I get caughtin the wild worrying of my mind,and the needless scurrying aroundin my fearful heart.Trip me up when I fret and stewso I can see the trap of tizzies,with their schemes to keep mebunched up in stress and strain.Let me fall headfirst into the truthof your never-ending presence,wrap your kind arms around meand calm my doubts and fears.Shout loudly in my spiritual earwhen my nerves get knotted,my mind feels cramped,and my stomach screams.It may be difficult,but do try to get my full attention,because tizzies are not healthy,and they definitely chase peaceout the front door of my heart.Dear God, you did not invent tizzies,I did,and only I can send them on their way,and I will,if you strengthen meto let go of my anxious holdon what is nonessential.---Joyce Rupp from The Out of the Ordinary*A tizzy is a "state of frenzied excitement or distraction, especially over some trivial matter" … [Read more...]
What We Hold in our Hands – Quote of the Week
"I have held many things in my hands and have lost them all, but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." -Martin Luther … [Read more...]
Autumn Equinox – Quote of the Week
“O sacred season of autumn, be my teacher for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment. As I gaze upon your full-colored beauty, I sense about you an at-home-ness with your amber riches. You are season of retirement, of full barns and harvested fields. The cycle of growth has ceased; the busy work of giving life is now completed. I sense in you no regrets; you’ve lived a full life. “I live in a society ever restless, always eager for more mountains to climb, seeking happiness through more and more possessions. As a child of my culture, I am seldom truly at peace with what I have.“Teach me to take stock of what I’ve been given and received; may I know that is enough, that my striving can cease in the abundance of God’s grace. I know the contentment that allows the totality of my energies to come to full flower, May I know that like you, I am rich beyond measure. As you, O Autumn, take pleasure in great bounty, let me also take delight in the abundance of simple things in life that are … [Read more...]