Ascension
faith
relief in desert places
If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech, if you bestow your bread on the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness,…and God will guide you always, and give you relief in desert places.
Isaiah 58:9–11
joy & misery
All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
Śāntideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva
Too Clear
Some things are too clear to be understood, and what you think is your understanding of them is only a kind of charm, a kind of incantation in your mind concerning that thing.
This is not understanding: it is something you remember. So much for definition! We always have to go back and start from the beginning and make over all the definitions for ourselves again.
– Thomas Merton
truth
Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi; in interiore homine habitat veritas.
Go not outside, return into yourself: Truth dwells in the inward man.
-St. Augustine,
Liber de vera religione, xxix (72)
Authentic freedom
Authentic freedom and love will not be captured by attachment. Therefore, the journey homeward does not lead toward new, more sophisticated addictions. If it is truly homeward, it leads toward liberation from addiction altogether. Obviously, it is a lifelong process… There is a strange sadness in this growing freedom. Our souls may have been scarred […]
Authentic freedom
A prayer for Holy Saturday by Kathleen Norris –
We praise and thank you, Lord, for the uncertain, in-between times in our lives when we can be still and know that you are God. We praise and thank you for the hidden wonders of each day. We praise and thank you for acts of kindness, great and small, that serve to bring about your kingdom. We praise and thank you for the courage to place ourselves under your protection, not allowing fear to have the upper hand. We praise and thank you for your patience with our weakness, for being willing to work in and through us in ways we do not understand. We praise and thank you for our emptiness, which will one day be filled with your love. We praise and thank you for the silent wonders you work in us, preparing us for a life that will find its completion in you. Amen.
Truth dwells…
Noli foras ire, in teipsum redi; in interiore homine habitat veritas.
Go not outside, return into yourself: Truth dwells in the inward man.
-St. Augustine,
Liber de vera religione, xxix (72)
wrestling with God
“Do you still wrestle with the devil, Father Makários?” I asked him.
“Not any longer, my child. I have grown old now, and he has grown old with me. He doesn’t have the strength…. I wrestle with God.”
“With God!” I exclaimed in astonishment. “And you hope to win?”
“I hope to lose, my child. My bones remain with me still, and they continue to resist.”
– Nikos Kazantzakis, from Report to Greco
cloud of gods…watching
Edge of Atlantic 