A Simple Formula

It's a simple formula;
do your best and
somebody might like it.
--Dorothy Baker

My higher power will help me do whatever task lies before me.
And no task will be mine except those for which I am readied.
My job is simply to go forth, taking God as our partner, and set about completing the task.
I will not falter if I remember where my strength rests, where the guidance lies.

Self-esteem is one of the byproducts of a job done with God's help.
An additional byproduct is that I learn more quickly to rely on God's direction and strength the next time, thus reducing the time I give to fear.

I can be successful today, in every endeavor, if I let God manage my moves.

Mercifully look upon me, O Lord, and

govern all my thoughts,
and all my words,
and all my actions.

Take me where you want me to go;

let me meet whom you want me to meet;

tell me what you want me to say;

and keep me out of you way.

Thy will be done in me and
through me today and always.
Amen

The Sweetest Things In Life

The best things in life are nearest:

Breath in your nostrils,

light in your eyes,

flowers at your feet,

duties at your hand,

the path of right just before you.

Then do not grasp at the stars,

but do life's plain,

common work as it comes,

certain that daily duties and daily bread

are the sweetest things in life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The Paradox Of Our Age

The Paradox Of Our Age

By Dr. Bob Moorehead

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions , but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

Indeed, these are the time!

Dr. Moorehead is the former pastor of the Seattle’s Overlook Christian Church. A post he held for 29 years. “The Paradox of Our Age” is from his book “Words Aptly Spoken.”

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Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.

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The Profit Of Spiritual Growth

When every situation which life can offer is
turned to the profit of spiritual growth,
no situation can really be a bad one.
Paul Brunton

Right Now

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance,
but to do what lies clearly at hand.
-- Thomas Carlyle

I can begin to see what lies clearly at hand -
not a dream or goal years away from now.
All I have is right now.
Tonight I can build my future foundations by working on me.

By Experience

The grateful person knows that God is good,

not by hearsay but by experience.

And that is what makes all the difference.

Thomas Merton

Life's Secret

Love is our true destiny.
We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.
We do not discover the secret of our lives merely by study and calculation in our own isolated meditations.
The meaning of our life is a secret that has to be revealed to us in love, by the one we love.

Thomas Merton

Prayer And Love

Prayer and love are learned in the hour
when prayer becomes impossible and
the heart has turned to stone.
Thomas Merton

Prayer And Love

Prayer and love are learned in the hour
when prayer becomes impossible and
the heart has turned to stone.
Thomas Merton

Keep The Faith

The only limits to our realization of tomorrow
will be our doubts of today.

Let us move forward with
a strong and active faith.

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

When following the inner voice, one must deal with the experience of uncertainty.
The future is not laid out and comes down to trust - trusting that the support will be there; that the money will come; that if one path does not work out, another one will open up.

Let go of the worry, the anxiety, and the doubt.
Have faith in your connection to universal principles, for it is here that your true security lies.
The Universe will not abandon you if you maintain your connection to it.
Keep the faith, and the faith will keep you.

Who We Become

We can't control our destiny,
but we can control who we become.

Anne Frank

Spirituality

Spirituality is the essence of being.

It can shape reality.

Our Difficulties & Misfortunes

Thanking heaven even for our difficulties and misfortunes is the best way to transform them.
You will see your difficulties in a different light, as if you had wrapped them in a film of pure gold.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Seeing With Our Hearts

If we look at the world through suspicious or angry eyes, we'll find a world that mirrors our expectations - a world where tension will mount, arguments will abound, strife will be present where none need be.
However, our experiences in some manner bless us, and we'll recognize that if we'll look upon them with gratitude.
Everything in our path is meant for our good and we'll see the good when our hearts act as the eyes for our minds.
When we see with our hearts, our responses to the turmoil around us, the fighting children, the traffic snarls, the angry lovers, will be soft acceptance.
When our hearts guide the action we can accept those things we cannot change, and change those we can.
And the heart, as the seat of all wisdom, will always know the difference.

Karen Casey

A World Born

Each friend represents a world in us,
a world possibly not born until they arrive.
--Anais Nin

My individual character is growing, changing, maturing.
My understanding of others and my experiences deepens with each unfolding event.
The world is ever changing.
By design, not coincidence, I will befriend those people who need me, just as I need them.

Shifting With The Tide

Since our lives are constantly in motion energetically, change is a constant element of our existence.
As dynamic as that energy is, it is not random or haphazard in nature—the shifts in energy that are constantly taking place are the result of our choices.
The formulation of intention, a change in perspective, or the creation of a goal can transform our lives in blink of an eye.
We think positive thoughts and the world becomes a brighter place.
Or we decide who we want to be and become that person.
With each passing moment, we are given innumerable opportunities to create change using nothing more than our awareness.

In the span of a single second, our lives can change immeasurably because energy moves at a pace more rapid than anything we can consciously fathom.
Though we may not at first be sensitive to the vibrational shifts taking place, our choices are ultimately at the heart of these transformations.
We can typically recognize the consequences of key decisions because we anticipated the resultant energetic shifts.
But many, if not most, of the choices we make each day are a product of instantaneous reactions, and these still have a significant impact on the energy of our existence.
It is for this reason that we should learn to wield what control we can over these shifts.
If we bear in mind that all we think and all we do will shape the existence we know, we can deliberately direct the energetic motion of our lives.

Each day, you make an infinite array of decisions that cause energy shifts in the world around you.
In many cases, these transitions are almost imperceptible, while in others the change that takes place is palpable not only to you but also to those in your sphere of influence.
Your awareness of the immediate energetic consequences of your thoughts and actions can guide you as you endeavor to make the most of the autonomy that defines you as an individual.
The myriad choices you make from moment to moment, however inconsequential they may seem, represent your personal power, which sanctions you to transform the energetic tide of your existence with nothing more than your will.

DailyOM

Moving Through Darkness

In life, most of us want things to go to the places we have envisioned ourselves going.
We have plans and visions, some of them divinely inspired, that we want to see through to completion.
We want to be happy, successful, and healthy, all of which are perfectly natural and perfectly human.
So when life takes us to places we didn’t consciously want to go, we often feel as if something has gone wrong, or we must have made a mistake somewhere along the line, or any number of other disheartening possibilities.
This is just life’s way of taking us to a place we need to go for reasons that go deeper than our own ability to reason.
These hard knocks and trials are designed to shed light on our unconscious workings and deepen our experience of reality.

Often it takes something major to wake us up, to shake us loose from our ego’s grip as it struggles to maintain an illusion of control.
It is loss of control more than anything else that humbles us and enables us to see the big picture.
It reminds us that the key to the universe lies in what we do not know, and what we do know is a small fraction of the great mystery in which we live.
This awareness softens and lightens us, as we release our resistance to what is.
Another gift gleaned from going to these seemingly undesirable places is that, in our response to difficulty, we can see all the patterns and unresolved emotional baggage that stand in the way of our unconditional joyfulness.
Joy exists within us independently of whether things go our way or not.
And when we don’t feel it, we can trust that we will find it if we are willing to surrender to the situation, moving through it as we move through our difficult feelings.

We can take our inspiration from any fairy tale that finds its central character lost in a dark wood, frightened and alone.
We know that the journey through the wood provides its own kind of beauty and richness.
On the other side, we will emerge transformed, lighter and brighter, braver and more confident for having moved through that darkness.

DailyOM

Now Or Never

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle,
but you shall be the miracle.
-- Phillips Brooks

Living is a thing you do,
now or never!
Which do you?
-- Piet HeinGrooks

Cherish all your happy moments:
They make a fine cushion for old age.
-- Booth Tarkington

An Unbeliever

. . . the solitary explorer who, instead of jumping on all the latest bandwagons at once, is bound to search the existential depths of faith in its silence, its ambiguities, and in those certainties which lie deeper than the bottom of anxiety.
In these depths there are no easy answers, no pat solutions to anything.
It is a kind of submarine life in which faith sometimes mysteriously takes on the aspect of doubt when, in fact, one has to doubt and reject conventional and superstitious surrogates that have taken the place of faith.
On this level, the division between Believer and Unbeliever ceases to be so crystal clear.
It is not that some are all right and others are all wrong:
all are bound to seek in honest perplexity.
Everybody is an Unbeliever more or less!

-- Thomas Merton

"Apologies to an Unbeliever"
in Faith and Violence.

[A] faith that is afraid of other people is no faith at all.

A faith that supports itself by condemning others

is itself condemned by the Gospel.

Control

A controller doesn't trust his/her ability to
live through the pain and chaos of life.
There is no life without pain just as
there is no art without submitting to chaos.
-- Rita Mae Brown

What a moment of spiritual adventure it is to risk living through the pain!
When I do not seek an escape or a quick fix but have patience with the process, new possibilities often do develop.
I can only let go of my control - or turn it over to my Higher Power.
And I will do it and forget, taking control back within minutes or within an hour.
Then I will let go again.

Today, I will submit to the insecurity of a changing universe and have faith that I can live through the process and grow.

One Moral Duty

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty:
to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves,
more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others.
And the more peace there is in us,
the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.

Etty Hillesum
An Interrupted Life

Beautiful People

The most beautiful people are those
who have known defeat,
known suffering,
known struggle,
known loss, and
have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have
an appreciation,
a sensitivity, and
an understanding of life
that fills them with
compassion,
gentleness, and
a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.

--Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Centered Withing My Higher Power

We find that as we become more centered
within the Higher Power part of us,
our ego becomes less real, less threatening, less compelling.

--Jerry Hirshfield

It's a struggle at times for me to remember that my Higher Power never moves away.
God is as close as my breath, awaiting my invitation to take charge.
Frequently this strikes me as new information.
But each time a friend or a particular reading triggers my recall; I relax, because I know that God is taking over.
Once again I trust that all is well.

Unknown Blessings

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

-- Native American prayer

Elder's Meditation -- A Great Teacher

Nature is life's greatest teacher.
The natural laws are hidden in nature.
Hidden are solutions to everyday problems such as conflict resolution, how to forgive, lessons about differences, how to manage organizations, how to think.
Hidden are feelings.
You can look at something and you will feel it.
At night, have you ever looked at the sky when there are no clouds?
As you look at all the stars, your heart will become very joyful.
You will walk away feeling joyful and peaceful.
We need to visit nature so we can see and feel these things.

My Creator, let me learn nature's lessons.

Value Your Own Wisdom

The Truths Within

Throughout our lives, we will encounter individuals who presume to know what is best for us.
The insights they offer cannot compare, however, with the powers of awareness and discernment that already exist within us.
From birth we are blessed with wisdom that cannot be learned or unlearned.
It exists whether or not we acknowledge it because it is a gift given to us by a loving universe before we chose to experience existence on the earthly plane.
Yet for all its permanence, it is vital that we value and honor this incredible element of the self.
It is when we do not use our inborn wisdom that we begin to doubt our personal truths and are driven to outside sources of information because we are afraid.
What we know to be true in our hearts is invariably true, and we discover how intensely beautiful and useful self-trust can be when we recognize the power of our wisdom.

Inner wisdom is not subject to the influences of the outside world, which means that it will never demand that we surrender our free will or counsel us to act in opposition to our values.
We benefit from this inspiration when we open ourselves to it, letting go of the false notion that we are less qualified than others to determine our fate.
The wisdom inside of us is the source of our discernment and our ability to identify blessings in disguise.
When we are unsure of who to trust, how to respond, or what we require, the answers lie in our inner wisdom.
It knows where we are going and understands where we are coming from, taking this into account though it is not a product of experience but rather a piece of our connection to the universal mind.

In the whole of your existence, no force you will ever encounter will contribute as much to your ability to do what you need to do and be who you want to be as your natural wisdom.
Through it, you reveal your growing consciousness to the greater source and discover the true extent of your strength.
If you heed this wisdom with conviction and confidence, the patterns, people, and fears that held you back will be dismantled, paving the way for you to fulfill your truest potential.

DailyOM

Thoughts To Ponder . . .

Keep yourself clean and bright;

you are the window through which you must see the world.

Having a Heart of Flesh

On the Journey To Having a Heart of Flesh

written by FR. LARRY GILLICK, S.J.

There was a popular song long ago which began, "Hearts made of stone, do-do-wah, do-do-wah, will never break, do-do-wah, do-do-wah."
During ten years of spending time at the L'Arche houses in Toronto, I received many friends.
Then I was missioned here to Omaha.
Ten years of having my heart warmed and inspired had allowed its flesh to feel joy, accompaniment, forgiveness, and literally, encouragement.
I had received a living heart-spirit transplant.
Then I was geographically transplanted to Omaha, in the "heartland" of the United States.

I remember very clearly as my flight left Toronto, with friends standing at the gate to see me off, vowing that I would never again allow my heart to be touched, molded, softened.
My resolution worked quite well for the first year.
Then other people came knocking at my stone-heart.
They kept knocking and chipping and peeping inside.I would rewrite the lyrics of that old song.

I would skip the "do-do-wahs" and sing, "Hearts made of flesh will always heal, hearts made of flesh were made to feel."
Our flesh-hearts have deep memories of losses and hurts as well as of gains and touches.
Jesus came out into the light after the stone of His tomb was rolled away.
His mission since then has been to call us out as He helps to replace the heart of stone with a fleshy place which pumps life and love through the veins of our relationships.
That "never again" promise as I left Toronto has been replaced with a graceful "often" or "always."
My heart is working again thanks to those who help Jesus roll away the stone.
It is definitely a journey.

- FR. LARRY GILLICK, S.J. was ordained in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin after completing his theological studies at the Toronto School of Theology and Regis College, Willowdale. Canada. It was there he became familiar with the L'Arche-Daybreak Community of Toronto. He is presently the director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Let It Go

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 life depends on it;
and when the time comes, to let it go.
Mary Oliver

Elder's Meditation -- Spiritual Values

When we are aligned with spiritual values, we cannot be in fear or conflict.
When we are aligned to spiritual values, we have the Creator whispering solutions in our ears.
Unity is one of the spiritual values.
When we value unity we value solutions.
If we think this way, then we have no conflict within ourselves.

Great Spirit, let me see through Your eyes.

Over My Morning Coffee

God is the mirror of silence in which all creation is reflected.
Paramahansa Yogananda


What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.
Thomas Merton


Love all that has been created by God, both the whole and every grain of sand.
Love every leaf and every ray of light.
Love the beasts and the birds, love the plants, love every separate fragment.
If you love each separate fragment, you will understand the mystery of the whole resting in God.
Fyodor Dostoevsky


So much of modern life is a feverish anticipation of future activity and excitement.
We have to learn to step back from this into the freedom and possibility of the present.
Fr. Bede Griffiths


God always provides what we need, but we must be ready to open our eyes and see it.
The Midrash


Riding sidesaddle with envy is a dangerous practice:
I would be happy if I had what he or she possesses.
By contrast, giving thanks constantly and in all circumstances liberates us from envy.
Edward Hays

There only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people.
That comes afterward, when you've worked on your own corner.
Aldous Huxley

Life has lessons to teach.
We can remember them and share them with others, or we can forget them and have to learn them again.
Jan Pishok

The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him:
"What are you going through?"
Simone Weil

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

Rain

The night became very dark.
The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor.
Think of it:
all that speech pouring down,
selling nothing,
judging nobody,
drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves,
soaking the trees,
filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water,
washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside!
What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone,
in the forest, at night,
cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech,
the most comforting speech in the world,
the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and
the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it.
It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.
As long as it talks I am going to listen.

-- Thomas Merton.

Beloved Dust

A human life may sometimes look to short to be worth much, but God, who see the works of his hands from the perspective of enduring love, clothes even the passing wildflowers with splendor.
We are only dust -- but beloved dust!

Is God Really There?

Uncertainity is an ever-present reality to the believer.
Is God really there?
Can he really hear prayers?
Does he really act in today's world?
Does he keep his promises even now?
The psalmist faced the same questions with a courageous "yes"!

The Varied Landscapes Of Life

We are pilgrim people, journeying through the varied landscapes of life.
Let me travel light, unburdened by useless baggage -- material or spiritual -- and sing to the God who has given us such a glorious goal in life.

The parable of the Good Samaritan points too my salvalation depending on the way I treat whatever unfortunate person is put on my path so that God's will might be accomplished more perfectly in my live.

"I have fallen into the hands of the angels of darkness
who have not only stripped me of my garment of spiritual gace
but have also wounded me and left me half-dead.

Bind up the wounds of my sins by making me believe
that they can be healed,
for if I despair of healing they will become worse.

Apply the oil of forgiveness to them
and pour in the wine of compunction.

If you place me on your beast,
you will be raising the poor from the dust,
the needy from the rubbish heap.

For it is you who have carried our sins,
who have paid back what you did not take."

-- St. Gregory the Great

Over My Morning Cup Of Coffee

The virtue of humility is often under-appreciated in a world where success and prestige are so highly admired.
True humility is not putting myself down, or refusing to accept a compliment.
Truly humble people acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses in a realistic way.
Real humility is a witness to the Holy Spirit within me.

When I have acted with pride,
-- and seek repentance.
When I am tempted to misuse my power,
-- let me act for the good of the other.
When I cannot see the good in myself
– show me my own lovableness.

Few are called to be pope, but all of us are called to be servants.

Every morning I arise afresh in my Creator’s light.
Ancient Christian writers warn against “morning demons”: yesterday’s worries and grievances returning to poison the new day.

Our total surrender will come today by surrendering even our sins so that we will be poor.
“Unless you become a child you cannot come to me.”
You are too big, too heavy; you cannot be lifted up.
The knowledge of our sin helps us to rise.
“I will get up and go to my Father.”
-- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Let me put into God’s hands my heart, my soul, the deep recesses of my being wherein dwell those beliefs and thoughts that govern my actions, so that he may guide me in the ways of the Gospel.

It is sometimes easy to believe that love me when I am feeling satisfied with myself.
It is much more difficult when I know I have sinned.
Evil makes use of shame, a form of inverted pride, to keep me from seeking God out at the very moment when I most need his forgiving love.
Yet it was to save us from our sins that Christ died on the cross.
How can I fear to approach such love?

Peace lies in surrendering to the Lord in trust and living by his love, not in fretting over the wrongs done by others.
Undue concern over evils I cannot mend prevents me from taking true delight in him.

No matter how far I stray and how lost I feel, God the Father is always right there waiting for me with open arms.
I may feel sinful and unworthy of his love, but all I need to do is make a move toward him and he will run to meet me as his beloved son.
Let me run to receive his love.

The commandments are summed up in the command to love.
Love is not mere sentiment

God’s blessing is true light in the mind’s darkness, true rain for the soul’s earth, true life for the seed of everlasting life that lies buried in the soil of the human heart.
With God’s blessing, the earth yields a rich harvest of generous thoughts, kind words, and good deeds.
For today’s harvest, I give thanks and praise.

The unity for which Christ lived and died is not an abstract ideal.
It is the result of hard work: suspending judgment, choosing others before self, forgiving, seeking reconciliation rather than nursing hurt pride.
In other words, it requires that I die to self in Christ.
The fruit?
The blessing of God’s peace.

The notion of one gains freedom by rebelling against God has been popular illusion since Eden.
The paradox is that I am set free from the chains of my own making by choosing to yoke myself to Christ, who burst mankind’s bonds by his own death and resurrection.

If you will only abandon yourselves to the guidance of Providence, God will take care of you; he will lead you by the hand in the most difficult situations.
-- St. Vincent de Paul

Truly humble people are centers of peace because they fear neither their own failure nor other’s success.
Let me pray for the wisdom to judge as God judges:
to look at my own and other’s achievements from God’s perspective.

The penitential psalms very often speak of sin as sickness brought on by the attack of enemies.
Their vivid descriptions of the sinner’s suffering reminds me again and again that the misery of sin is not what God wants for his beloved children.

Human need of every kind cries out to God for healing.
The sharpest cry is the plea of the human hear betrayed and wounded by the sin of self and others.
The Lord hears every call for help and heals by taking upon himself the suffering of all who are impoverished and weakened by failure, sin and death.

Treasure of every kind, material or not, is a gift from God, given to be shared and not hoarded.
Trust in God rather than my own stockpile of personal resources is the source of my salvation.
Wickedness is not always overt: the neglect of simple kindness, great or small, kills as surely as open violence.

The poor are all those who stand in need of my love, my time, my interest, my concern.
My wealth is not necessarily my money.
It is whatever good God has done for me and given to me.

“Avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.”
(1 Tm 6:11)
Taking St. Paul’s exhortation to heart, let me avoid the pursuit of the kind of selfish hoarding against with the Gospel warns, and let me instead put my energy into pursuing these worthier goals.

Must Suffer Greatly

O my God, you who do not refuse me suffering.
For some time you have accustomed me to love you in the deprivation of all sensible joys, in a suffering heart, and often enough in an exhausted body.
I accept all from your hand and unite myself to your will.
It is not just having received al from you I should give you something in return, and that I should offer you the trials, prayers, sacrifices, and humble activity that is your daily design for me?
Through it all I want to try, by your grace, to maintain joy of spirit.
O God, for some time you have given me the grace of suffering: spiritual trials, the renunciation of my desires and tastes, deeply felt spiritual isolation.
How well you know how to choose the most appropriate suffering, the one that crucifies us and allows the least possibility of selfishness.
In my illness there were still subtle temptations for me, and satisfactions that were legitimate and yet too worldly.
In leaving me this physical misery, with its inconveniences and helplessness, you have given again hidden this from others and sent me other trials that are very painful and known only to you.
From the bottom of my heart, I say to you, “Thank you.”
Blessed are you, O God, for all this pain, through which you allow me to atone for my faults, draw near your heart, and also to obtain, I hope, many spiritual graces for many people, as well as for those I love.
My God, help me to carry the cross you have offered me, and let none of this precious grace of suffering be lost.

-- Elisabeth Leseur

Let Me Find Strength

Help me in my weakness, Lord.
Do not let my fears, terrors and anxieties conquer me.
Let me find that strength that you promise to
those who suffer for the sake of righteousness,
and let me boast only of the cross of your Son.

-- from Saint Paul: Called to Conversion

In Group

Today the planet is the only proper "in group."

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.

We cannot cure the world of sorrows,

but we can choose to live in joy.

Joseph Campbell

The Dance Of Life

The question of how many angels could

dance on the point of a pin

no longer is absurd in molecular physics,

with its discovery of how broad that point actually is,

and what part invisible electronic 'messengers'

play in the dance of life.

Lewis Mumford

Always Working

Your life is always working,
whether you know it or not.

Sometimes it works to bring you what you want,
and sometimes it works to keep you
from what you think you want.

Neale Donald Walsch

Tomorrow's God

A Lovely Day

For me, a lovely day is any day I wake up.

Bernie S. Siegel

Prescriptions for Living

A Matter Of Tense

When we were drinking,
our lives were run by the past;
they don't have to be today.

Preoccupation With Self

Preoccupation with self separates modern men and women from God, from their fellow human beings and ultimately from themselves.
I must relearn to forget myself, to contemplate a God who draws me out of myself and to serve others as the ultimate expression of selfhood.