The Paradox

"Often it is the dark forest that makes us speak about the open field. Frequently prison makes us think about freedom, hunger helps us to appreciate food, and war gives us words for peace. Not seldom are our visions of the future born out of the sufferings of the present and our hope for others out of our own despair. Only few 'happy endings' make us happy, but often someone's careful and honest articulation of the ambiguities, uncertainties and painful conditions of life gives us new hope. The paradox is indeed that new life is born out of the pains of the old."
-Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

“Every time exhilarated Christians burst out with a new hymn of praise in words or in life, they participate in the songs of the 144,000 before the throne.” -Marva J. Dawn, Joy in Our Weakness

I’m one of those who stand around the throne
to sing a hymn of praise unto the Lamb.
I count among the dozen dozen thousand
who behold the worthy One who overcame.
We are the counted ones past human number
united in our worship of our God.
We bring the incense of our prayers for justice
and painful were the paths we each have trod.
Our voices join with multitudes of angels
to offer praise and honour, glory, power.
To the One who reigns we voice our songs for ever,
though still within the grip of earthy hour.
Then whether word or deed be my expression,
may praise be all my theme without cessation.
-HJ Apr. 11, 2010

"This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. If I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen."
-quoted by Kathleen Norris in Acedia and Me

"Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again."
-Evelyn Underhill

"First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it...we do not write in order to be understood; but we write in order to understand." - C. Day Lewis in Poetic Image

"Oh God, save me from myself, save me from myself...this masterful self which manipulates your creation...this self which throws the thick shadow of its own purposes and desires in every direction in which I try to look, so that I cannot see what it is that you, my Lord and God, are showing to me. Teach me to stand out of my own light, and let your daylight shine." -Austin Farrer, quoted in Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch

 

BE STILL
"You have striven so hard, and so long, to compel life. Can't you now slowly change, and let life drift into you? Surely it is an even greater mystery and preoccupation even than willing, to let the invisible life steal into you and slowly possess you". - D H Lawrence, in a letter to a friend

 

'Become what you already are,

find Him who is already yours,

listen to Him who never ceases speaking to you,

own Him who already owns you'.

By St Gregory of Sinai (13th Century)
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It's a dry and thirsty land and the sun beats down
on our aching heads. Tears and sweat abound.
And we long for shade and we long for rest
and we long for peace like a sparrow for its nest.
We are strangers here; we do not belong.
And we long to fly, but gravity's too strong.
So we wonder why we are stranded here
when our longings show us a grander sphere.
So we struggle on with our heavy load
(for some it's their body, this earthy abode,
for others their mind and the way it's wired,
or a sadness so deep they feel permanently mired).
Whatever our burden, we bear what we must
and help others bear until we all turn to dust.
Then the dust turns to the new life we sought all along:
You only long for the peace to which you belong.
-HJ July 12, 2009

"Before we can pray, "Lord, Thy kingdom come," we must be willing to pray, "my kingdom go." -Alan Redpath

 

"Awake, thou wintry earth-- Fling off thy sadness! Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness! Christ is risen."
-- Thomas Blackburn

 

“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.”
-Henry Van Dyke

 

"At heart I am lazy, yet I find such peace and delight in it that I believe it is a natural state, and in what looks like my laziest periods I am closest to my center."
- Andre Dubus, "A Father's Story", The Substance of Things Hoped For

"If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents - the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else's. But if their thoughts - i.e. of materialism and astronomy - are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It's like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset."

C. S. Lewis

A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or he may be in Church and be aware of God; but if he is more aware of Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him... He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere.
-Meister Eckhart, 1260-1328

"Preach the gospel always. If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi

"Humans, having special abilities, are responsible to the rest of the earth, not superior to it." Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter