Artist: Carl Larsson No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy the sunlight today, mix good cheer with friends today, enjoy it and bless God for it. Do not look back on happiness -- or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it.
-- Author Unknown
"Praying in a Greek church"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere aprentice and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master of the art.
Moses striking the rock in the desertOh God, you are my God; egerly I seek you;What a wonderful prayer for beginning the day. Truly.
My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you
As in a barren and dry land
Where there is no water.
For your loving-indness is better than life itself;And this one:
My soul clings to you;I was taught many years ago in Sunday School that every prayer I would ever need could be found in the Psalter. It's so true.
Your right hand holds me fast.
Artist: Margret Hofheinz-DöringJesus really did say that we are to love our enemies and to pray for and do good to those who persecute us. Yes, it's hard. Yes, we fail over and over. And, still, as Christians, we are called to love them no matter how many times we try and fail. Perhaps even that repeated failure will bring us to the humility needed to hold both "the good guys and the bad guys" together in our souls.Don't waste any time dividing the world into good guys and the bad guys. Hold them both together in your own soul — where they are anyway — and you will have held together the whole world.
Artist: Angelika KauffmannAn illuminating Lenten exercise could well be that of reflecting on various occasions of grace throughout our lives and how we were not, indeed, left as we had been when that grace found us.I do not at all understand the mystery of grace -- only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.
- Anne Lamott, from Traveling Mercies
Artist: Margret Hofheinz-Döring God is a shower to the heart burned up with grief; God is a sun to the face deluged with tears.
-- Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest
One thing have I asked of the LORD;Here are two other verses that I particularly cherish:
one thing I seek; *
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days
of my life;
You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." *The Rev. Dr. Agnes Norfleet considers this to be a "psalm of thin places" You can read her reflection about that right here.
Your face, LORD, will I seek.
~~~
What if I had not believed
that I should see the goodness of the LORD *
in the land of the living!
Artist: Marianne Stokes - Saint John ChrysostomThe word, "Chrysostom", by the way, means "golden-mouthed". You can see why he was called that!Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.Forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences.-- Gary Zukav
Artist: Rembrandt PealeWhen tears come, I breathe deeply and rest. I know I am swimming in a hallowed stream where many have gone before. I am not alone, crazy, or having a nervous breakdown . . . My heart is at work. My soul is awake.
Artist: Heinrich UhlWe bless the life around us far more than we realize. Many simple, ordinary things that we do can affect those around us in profound ways: the unexpected phone call, the brief touch, the willingness to listen generously, the warm smile or wink of recognition. All it may take to restore someone's trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.
Artist: James Carroll BeckwithThat hollowness we sometimes feel is not a sign of something gone wrong. It is the holy of holies inside of us, the uncluttered throne room of the Lord our God. Nothing on earth can fill it, but that does not stop us from trying. Whenever we start feeling too empty inside, we stick our pacifiers into our mouths and suck for all we are worth. They do not nourish us, but at least they plug the hole.
To enter the wilderness is to leave them behind, and nothing is too small to give up. Even a chocolate bar will do. For 40 days, simply pay attention to how often your mind travels in that direction. Ask yourself why it happens when it happens. What is going on when you start craving a Mars bar? Are you hungry? Well, what is wrong with being hungry? Are you lonely? What is so bad about being alone? Try sitting with the feeling instead of fixing it and see what you find out.
Artist: RembrandtPrayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is rather like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home.
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.-- T.S. Eliot (from Ash Wednesday)
Artist: Vincent Van GoghWhen we think about laying down a life for another we usually think in terms of a singular event. But it is possible for us to lay down our lives over the course of a lifetime, minute by minute and day by day. And it is the work of the Spirit to empower us as we seek to lose ourselves in acts of lovingkindness and sacrificial living.
Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.
- William Shakespeare
"Saint Panteleimon the Healer"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Artist: Gustave Courbet I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.
-- John Newton
Artist: Alfred SisleyGod, we remember all those who have been adversely affected by inclement weather, including heavy rain in California, and heavy snow in the D.C. area in particular. We pray for all those who have lost electricity and whose homes have been damaged. But we pray especially for those who have no homes and no shelters in times such as these. We ask that your hand would protect them and keep them safe. May our paths cross with theirs so that we might have an opportunity to love and serve them. Amen.Yes, may it be so.
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."
It is now known as the Serenity Prayer. It's been adopted by 12-step recovery programs and cited in numerous self-help books. Yet few people know who wrote it. His name is Reinhold Niebuhr, and he was a Protestant pastor in the mid-20th century whose words tended to unsettle people, not offer comfort.
Niebuhr is getting attention again because he has a fan in the Oval Office.
...
Niebuhr was a blunt critic of morally complacent Christians. He thought the church was full of idealists who believed that progress was inevitable and that love alone would ultimately conquer injustice, some Niebuhr scholars say.
"He said there was a difference between being a 'fool for Christ' and a plain damn fool," says Richard Crouter, author of the upcoming book Reinhold Niebuhr: On Politics, Religion and Christian Faith.
...
Niebuhr distilled his view of human nature in his monumental book, Moral Man and Immoral Society. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. cited the book in his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail." Former President Carter is also an admirer of Niebuhr's.
People are capable of doing good, but groups are driven by "predatory self-interest," Niebuhr wrote.
"As individuals, men believe that they ought to love and serve each other and establish justice between each other," Niebuhr wrote. "As racial, economic and national groups, they take for themselves, whatever their power can command."
Artist: Sergei VinogradovIf we are willing to spend hours on end to learn to play the piano, operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it.
-- Paul Rees
Shamelessly nicked from our good friend, the Mad Priest and he got it from Paul A.
Candlemas primarily focuses on Jesus’ early life. Many Christians believe that Jesus’ mother Mary presented him to God at the Temple in Jerusalem after observing the traditional 40-day period of purification (of mothers) following his birth. According to a New Testament gospel, a Jewish man named Simeon held the baby in his arms and said that he would be a light for the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). It is for this reason that this event is called Candlemas.It's from a little article about today's date found right here.
Statue of Pascal People never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
Scanned from a card given to me some time ago Feeling caught in the difference between the mystical and the mundane is characteristic of beginners, really. Give your deep permission to experience no difference. Because, in reality, that's the way it really is: there is no difference at all.It is said that the Christian mystic Teresa of Avila found difficulty at first in reconciling the vastness of the life of the spirit with the mundane tasks of her Carmelite convent: the washing of pots, the sweeping of floors, the folding of laundry. At some point of grace, the mundane became for her a sort of prayer, a way she could experience her ever-present connection to the divine pattern which is the source of life. She began then to see the face of God in the folded sheets.
Artist: William TurnerThis is something I've never really understood about the religious fundamentalists. Why would they prefer that the world, the universe, be small enough (that is, simplistic enough) to be comprehended by the human mind?I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
"Thomas of Villanova giving alms to the poor"I so agree with this. My own faith is not that God is "a" being alongside other beings but that God is Being itself. Love itself. Compassion itself. As the writer above observes, that makes all the fuss about the "existence" of God quite irrelevant....Edward Schillebeeckx (one of the greatest catholic scholars of the 20th century) expressed the conviction that God is simply too great for human understanding to grasp completely - which means that no human tradition will ever have the final say about who or what He/She is. This same Schillebeeckx states that the primacy within christian tradition belongs to ethics - the question whether purely human good is brought about or not. The question whether God exists or not is, within this context, actually an irrelevant one. The question is whether God happens, i.e. whether liberation, justice, compassion and love is brought about.What I basically want to say is this: religion is much richer and more complex than the writer of this piece apparently assumes. As far as christian tradition is concerned, it is not about the existence of God but about the event of God, who is revealed in the liberation, justice, compassion and love that happen to concrete human beings.
Artist: Margret Hofheinz-DöringThe message of salvation is more than our verbal proclamation of the gospel. We must redefine evangelism to include how we live and interact with people -- what it means for us to call them into God's family to become members of God's household. This is as important as our ability to accurately quote scriptures.
Saint PaulThis life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.It is not our job to make ourselves perfect. We do need to cultivate, however, a willingness to allow ourselves to be made perfect in God's good time.
"Miracle of the Spring"Suppose we made it an objective to cultivate our perceptions so that they become more fine tuned. What might we see that we've been missing?The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much on faces or voices or healing power suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.
-- Willa Cather
Artist: Carel P. Brest van Kempen This is very wise advice because, I think, most of us would wish to change it. It takes both courage and a certain trust not to.Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venemous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt in public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.
NightingalesWhat else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.
Lord's Prayer in Persian (Farsi)Prayer is neither black magic nor is it a form of a demand note. Prayer is a relationship. The act of praying is more analogous to clearing away the underbrush which shuts out a view than it is to begging on the street. There are many different kinds of prayer. Yet all prayer has one basic purpose. We pray not to get something, but to open up a two-way street between us and God, so that we and others may inwardly become something.
-- John Heuss
We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.-- Chinese Proverb
"The Poor and Money"The heart of the Christian Gospel is precisely that God is the all holy One; the all powerful One is also the One full of mercy and compassion. He is not a neutral God inhabiting some inaccessible Mount Olympus. He is a God who cares about His children and cares enormously for the weak, the poor, the naked, the downtrodden, the despised. He takes their side not because they are good, since many of them are demonstrably not so. He takes their side because He is that kind of God, and they have no one else to champion them.
-- Desmond Tutu
The last sentence is quite stunning, really. It simply flies in the face of the so-called "just world theory" that has so infected the United States. Perhaps we can remember these remarks of the Archbishop as we ponder our continued response to the disaster in Haiti.
I also want to say a word about God and evil. Pat Robertson said that Haiti’s earthquake was caused because of the country’s “pact with the devil.” I don’t even know what he means, nor do I care. But I want to say this: My God does not cause evil. God is not a vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down; instead, God is in the very midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who are suffering. When evil strikes, it’s easy to ask, where is God? The answer is simple: God is suffering with those who are suffering.
- Jim Wallis
Throughout the gospels we are repeatedly told that after some word or deed of Jesus "his disciples believed in him." The point of this statement is not that up to that point they had no faith, but rather that their faith deepened with the passage of time. To believe in God is more than simply to profess God's existence; it is to enter into communion with God and -- the two being inseparable -- with our fellow human beings as well. All this adds up to a process.
"Fiery Furnace"If you want a television, you go out and work for it and you buy it. If you want to learn about Aztec pottery, you take a course. But the relationship with God requires the active and passionate participation of you, yourself. You have to risk it. You have to abandon yourself to it. You have to leap into the fire. Nobody will do it for you; nobody can do it for you.
Artist: James TissotBut here's another one that is equally powerful:Baptism is not a bath, but a funeral bier. If it was a bath, you would need it again and again. But since it is a death and new life, it is a once for all picture of the transformation that has taken place in our lives. Baptism is not about your goodness; it's about God's Grace.
My goodness. God is on the loose in the world. Let's think about that.One evening the New Testament professor from Princeton Seminary visited a high school youth group. After the professor finished speaking about the significance of Christ's baptism as a revelation of God's presence in Jesus, the high schooler said without looking up, "That ain't what it means."
Glad that the student had been listening enough to disagree, the professor asked, "What do you think it means?"
"The story says that the heavens were opened, right?"
"Right."
"The heavens were opened and the Spirit of God came down, right?"
"That's right."
The boy finally looked up and leaned forward, saying, "It means that God is on the loose in the world. And it is dangerous."
After his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness, and it was dangerous. Jesus taught in the temples, and it was dangerous. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and it was dangerous. Jesus confronted the authorities and turned over the tables, and it was dangerous.
The performance is utterly sublime. I think that's all I can say right now.
UPDATE: I have just listened to this again and also to another video of the same ensemble. What amazing performances. Back in the day (when I was still performing), I would love to have worked for this conductor (Philippe Herreweghe). Impeccable. Truly.
By the way, if you have any interest in learning more about the solo instrument above, do watch this delightful video: Baroque Oboe Little Known Facts.
Artist: Joseph Dalton HookerEvery moment becomes a prayer. This is possible. It truly is.It’s really quite simple. When we look at a tree, God is there. When we look at a flower, God is there. When we look at the sky, God is there. When we look at the earth, God is there. We can see God in the faces of people on the street, in the faces of our children, our friends, our partners, our colleagues, and our bosses. When we see God shining through the faces of all those around us—those like us and those unlike us—every moment becomes a prayer and the world becomes a different place to live in.
[The magi] see the child with his mother. She is holding him on her lap as they kneel and bend to touch their foreheads to the ground. What is Mary thinking when she sees the gifts they offer? Does she feel a premonition when she smells the myrrh, an herb used for burial? Later in her life, will she stand at the foot of the terrible cross remembering that beautiful visit and the premonition of his death?So, once more we see how the Kingdom is about the valleys being exalted and the mountains and hills made low.
We can only guess. We only know that something remarkable happened on that day when the far east and the near east came together. But the gift to us is that the visit of the magi reveals something else that has as much meaning for our lives today as it did in that first year of the first century. The rich and the poor mingle in harmony in this story. The rich don’t withhold from the poor; they offer not only necessities, but luxury and beauty. For a few minutes, there is a strong hint of the kingdom of God the grown Jesus would proclaim—peace on earth, good will toward all people, mercy to the poor—the acknowledgment of the full humanity of the poor, of women, and of children (which was an alien concept in the ancient world). The rich, the educated, the respected are kneeling before a child and a mother, in a poor hamlet in Bethlehem.
Twelfth Night: Or King and QueenNow, now the mirth comesWith the cake full of plums,Where bean's the king of the sport here;Beside we must know,The pea alsoMust revel, as queen, in the court here.Begin then to choose,This night as ye use,Who shall for the present delight here,Be a king by the lot,And who shall notBe Twelfth-day queen for the night here.Which known, let us makeJoy-sops with the cake;And let not a man then be seen here,Who unurg'd will not drinkTo the base from the brinkA health to the king and queen here.Next crown a bowl fullWith gentle lamb's wool:Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,With store of ale too;And thus ye must doTo make the wassail a swinger.Give then to the kingAnd queen wassailing:And though with ale ye be whet here,Yet part from henceAs free from offenceAs when ye innocent met here.
Yes, the infant Jesus and his parents were immigrant refugees. They fled to another country in order to survive. Perhaps we could think about that in pondering our personal positions on immigration.The story of the flight to Egypt, of a poor couple and an infant escaping to another land, has given hope to millions of refugees the world over. It is possible that thousands of refugees have been given asylum and been resettled by churches because of the memory of the One who started his life as a refugee.
The sweet Name of Jesus produces in us holy thoughts, fills the soul with noble sentiments, strengthens virtue, begets good works, and nourishes pure affections... Jesus is honey in our mouth, light in our eyes, a flame in our heart. This name is the cure for all diseases of the soul. Are you troubled? Think but of Jesus, speak but the Name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? so that you fear death? Invoke the Name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy Name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name. Are you surrounded by sorrow and danger? Invoke the Name of Jesus, and your fears will vanish.
... To think of Jesus is to think of the great, infinite God Who, having given us His life as an example, has also bestowed the necessary understanding, energy and assistance to enable us to follow and imitate Him, in our thoughts, inclinations, words and actions. If the Name of Jesus reaches the depths of our heart, it leaves heavenly virtue there.
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