The job of loving

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy." 

-- Fr. Thomas Merton

(Image from Wikimedia Commons)
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Christ Feeding the Multitude

This is a Coptic icon. I found it over on Wikimedia Commons.

Something to gladden your heart

About those troubles

A repost that, undoubtedly, is timely for many.

 

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes it's very difficult to counteract the false message of the "prosperity gospel" that is being so widely preached today. As a result, many people "lose their faith" when they are beset by difficulties. I really like the following:

God has not promised to take away our trials, but to help us to change our attitudes toward them. That is what holiness really is. In this life, happiness is rooted in our basic attitude toward reality.

-- Thomas Keating

Core contemplative principles

Image from Wikimedia Commons

I found the following on facebook:

"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?" 

These are excellent questions, I would suggest, to be used by spiritual directors today.
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Resurrection - the real deal

Image from Wikimedia Commons 

I actually met this man about twenty-five years ago. He's the real thing:

"Wherever we bury Jesus, he comes back to life. We can bury him in the Bible or in stained glass windows, in creeds and formulas and the heritage of our own tradition, in movies and plays and music, in our past. We can even bury him in bread and wine. And each time from each place he rises from the dead. He sheds the words and images and walks right on out into the world." 

–Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE 

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Something about love

This is actually quite important, I would say:

"The things that we love tell us what we are." 

-- Thomas Aquinas 

(Image from Wikimedia Commons) 
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