Jesus was concerned with the healing of human shame and human guilt. He was always taking away people’s shame, always taking away their low self-esteem, and reintroducing them to the village, the temple, the priesthood, and their families. He was healing relationships even more than just healing bodies. And now many would say that we (the Church/Christians) have ended up being the chief purveyors of guilt and shame, instead of healing it and transforming it into life and light. We have decided, for some reason, that it is better to remind people of their unworthiness and brokenness, instead of their potential to be temples of the Holy Spirit. It became taught and learned helplessness in far too many cases. – Richard Rohr, OFM
thankful
beauty is…
When you love something like reading — or drawing or music or nature — it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great. If you are lucky enough to know this, then your search for meaning involves whatever that Something is. It’s an alchemical blend of affinity and focus that takes us to a place within that feels as close as we ever get to “home.” It’s like pulling into our own train station after a long trip — joy, relief, a pleasant exhaustion.
If a writer or artist creates from a place of truth and spirit and generosity, then I may be able to enter and ride this person’s train back to my own station. It’s the same with beautiful music and art.
Beauty is meaning.
What saved me was that I found gentle, loyal and hilarious companions, which is at the heart of meaning: maybe we don’t find a lot of answers to life’s tougher questions, but if we find a few true friends, that’s even better. They help you see who you truly are, which is not always the loveliest possible version of yourself, but then comes the greatest miracle of all — they still love you.
– Anne Lamott, from Stitches: a handbook of hope, meaning, and repair
the light of truth
The light of truth burns without a flicker in the depths of a house that is shaken with storms of passion and of fear. “You will not fear the terror of the night.” And so I go on trying to walk on the waters of the breakdown. Worse than ever before and better than ever before. It is always painful and reassuring when he who I am not is visibly destroyed by the hand of God in order that the simplicity in the depths of me, which is God’s image, may be set free to serve God in peace. Sometimes in the midst of all this I am tremendously happy, and I have never in my life begun to be so grateful for God’s mercy.
– Thomas Merton, Journal entry, October 22, 1952
(photo: Monastery of Christ in The Desert, NM – September 2018)
clay feet
Everyone has clay feet. It does not matter how far up the ladder of supposed holiness they might be, the clay feet that belong to the human condition are still there. We have to depend on God to keep them from cracking or breaking into pieces.
– Fr. Thomas Keating – from Divine Therapy and Addiction
#1057 – table’s turned
accept, change, know
a puddle in the pig lot
Brilliant and gorgeous day, bright sun, breeze making all the leaves and high brown grass shine. Singing of the wind in the cedars. Exultant day, in which a puddle in the pig lot shines like precious silver.
Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself – and, if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.
– Thomas Merton, journal entry – October 2, 1958
Photo by mali maeder on Pexels.com
serenity, courage, wisdom
(Photo: Grindstone, Maine – September 2019)
You know all my ways
O Lord, you search me and you know me.
You yourself know my resting and my rising; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down; you know all my ways through and through.
For it was you who formed my inmost being, knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you who wonderfully made me; how wonderful are your works, which my soul knows well.
O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts.
See that my path is not wicked, and lead me in the way everlasting.
From Psalm 139
(photo: Grindstone, Maine – September 2019)
Take Courage
Take courage, my children, and cry to God,
for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you.
For just as you purposed to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him.
For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.” – Bar 4:27-29
Edge of Atlantic 