Monday, May 25, 2009

More Than Just Word . . .


Today I heard, “hell has no bottom.” I remember that I am good at creating my own hell & wallow in it. Today I do not have to stay struck in the mud.
Let me spend my waking hours seeking an example, finding an example, being an example.

A person may rise to the highest degree of contemplation even when busily occupied. -- St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

Patience is the most important asset I bring to my activities - the willingness to allow each step its own time and proper place.

Peacefulness is a feeling everyone deserves.
Thank goodness it's attainable.
Perhaps I am beginning to realize that it always was available even though it didn't seem within my grasp.
The fault was never the result of external circumstances, even though that was where I laid the blame.
Finally, I am becoming willing to see that I will have all the peace and good fortune I want by simply taking charge of how I interpret the experiences that trouble me.
Peace can be enjoyed by me today, regardless of circumstances, if I shift my perception ever so slightly.

In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on. -- Robert Frost

Life doesn't stop for me to lick wounds or add fuel to grievances.
Hours pass, I grow older, nature continues.
Every event is part of life's cycle.
I can't run away from anything.
I must meet life head-on and adjust to its ebb and flow.
I can look at an unplanned event in my life as part of life's cycle.
I need to trust that life will go on.

Genuine contemplation involves no tension.
There is no reason why it should affect anyone's nerves: on the contrary, it relaxes them.
It leaves you rested and refreshed in your whole being.
There is no strain in real contemplation, because when the gift is real, you do not depend on it, you are not enslaved by the "need" to experience anything.
The contemplative does not seek reassurance in himself, in his virtue, in his state, in his "prayer".
His trust is in God, not in himself.
The peace and "rest" of contemplation is the fruit of a living faith in the action of divine grace.
The contemplative is able to let go of himself and everything else, knowing that everything that matters in his life is in God's hands, and that he does not have to "take thought for the morrow."
He fully realizes the meaning of the Gospel message of salvation by the grace of God and not by dependence on human ingenuity. -- Thomas Merton. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation.

Ever let mercy outweigh all else in you. Let our compassion be a mirror where we may see in ourselves that likeness and that true image which belong to the Divine nature and Divine essence. -- St. Isaac of Syria

Be yourself. Who else is better qualified? --Frank J. Giblin, II
Life is not made up of people who are good & bad, happy & sad, rich & poor, beautiful & ugly.
Life is made up of people being themselves.

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