testimony

The bit of God's love that I know is the bit of God's love that has been made real for me in the love of those who have loved me. – INCARNATION – I have longed for much of my total life and all of my adult life to have the same kind of impact on the world that my father had. I longed to give myself to the world and I longed to be recognized for the great things that I would accomplish. – I wanted all of the benefits but I did not want any of the requisite cost and sacrifice. I wanted a meaningful life but I wanted it on my terms. Life is not like that. We seldom get to live life on our own terms. But we do get to live life meaningfully if we choose to. → ←
HOLY SPIRIT – God's love overflowing – discernment – connection – the human connection

The Day (dated 09/27/2016)
Nothing big happened today. It was just one more day of ordinary. I was sitting in my chair thinking about the day just past and many more just like it and I realized that my memories were much greater than my dreams.

“I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible, loving, human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.”
-William James

The Holy Spirit comes as a quiet and gentle breeze, so soft that we might very well miss it.
Is that the way that it is? That is the way that it is.
     -from Brother Ben's notebook

Excerpt from Meditation XVII of John Donne

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

Celtic Cross

Fullness of Life

For myself, the wonder of the Resurrection is not so much discovered in my shoulder-shrugging acknowledgment of the power of God to effect the impossible. It is discovered instead in our own capability, pried open by the sight of the empty tomb, to live into our most poignant longings, to dream our farthest dreams, and to hope with the full expansion of our hearts. We are met, at the far limits of our resources, with limitlessness. We are met at the gates of death with a freshness and fullness of life barely grasped by the wildest stretches of our imaginings. ... It is the custom of the Christian community in Tanzania at the close of the vigil to dance until the coming of Easter dawn. What better way to celebrate the feasts of feasts: to dance for sheer joy! 
-Wendy M. Wright 
The Rising

True Wealth

True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire. 
-Cesar Chavez

Creating Community

A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of humanity lies in the acceptance of our insignificance, our human condition and our earth.
         Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p.109

Killing Time

How do I kill time?
Let me count the ways.
By worrying about things
over which I have no control.
Like the past.
Like the future.
By harboring resentment
and anger
over hurts
real or imagined.
By disdaining the ordinary
or, rather, what I
so mindlessly
call ordinary.
By concern over what’s in it for me,
rather than what’s in me
for it.
By failing to appreciate what is
because of might-have-beens,
should-have-beens,
could-have-beens.
These are some of the ways
I kill time.
Jesus didn’t kill time.
He gave life to it.
His own.
—Leo Rock, SJ, in Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits

Prayer For Comfort

Heavenly Father
I call on you. I ask you to touch [us] with your healing power.
Cast out all sickness and recreate [us].
Let the warmth of your healing love pass through [us].
Lord grant that [we] will be free from pain,
from anxiety, and from discomfort.
Please allow your love and the compassion of caregivers,
family and friends to bring peace and comfort to [us].
This we ask through Christ, our Lord.
Amen

- Walter Whitmore
The word [us] may be exchanged with the word [me] when praying for oneself or a person's [name] when praying for someone else.

Ancient Words Ever True Lyrics by Lynn Deshazo

Verse 1
Holy words long preserved
For our walk in this world
They resound with God’s own heart
O let the ancient words impart
Words of life words of hope
Give us strength help us cope
In this world where’er we roam
Ancient words will guide us home

Chorus
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart

Verse 2
Holy words of our faith
Handed down to this age
Came to us through sacrifice
O heed the faithful words of Christ
Holy words long preserved
For our walk in this world
They resound with God’s own heart
O let the ancient words impart

Chorus
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart

Verse 3
Martyr’s blood stains each page
They have died for this faith
Hear them cry through the years
Heed these words and hold them dear

Chorus
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart

Misc 1
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart
O let the ancient words impart

from Howard Thurman

There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have.

         

'Tis a Fearful Thing

 ‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.
Yehuda HaLevi (1075 – 1141)

Saint Augustine speaks

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that shall pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
Saint Augustine

advice from Saint Francis of Assisi

Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.
-Saint Francis of Assisi

I am done with great things

I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible, loving, human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride. -William James

A Deep Question from Rabbi Menachem-Mendel

A disciple of Rabbi Menachem-Mendel complained: "I come from Rizhin. There, everything is simple, everything is clear. I prayed and I knew I was praying; I studied and I knew I was studying. Here in Kotzk, everything is mixed up, confused; I suffer from it. Please help me so I can pray and study as before. Please help me to stop suffering." 
Menachem-Mendel replied: "And whoever told you that God is interested in your studies and your prayers? And what if he preferred your tears and your suffering?"

Rumi translated by Coleman Barks

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. 

I'll meet you there. 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. 

I'll meet you there. 

When the soul lies down in that grass, 

the world is too full to talk about ideas, language, 

even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.

Who makes these changes? 

I shoot an arrow right, 

It lands left. 

I ride after a deer and find myself chased by a hog. 

I plot to get what I want and end up in prison. 

I dig pits to trap others and fall in. 

I should be suspicious of what I want.

Today, like every other day, we woke up empty and frightened. 

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

The mind cannot understand Rumi's poetry. Neither can desire. Mind and desire are not enough. There's something else, some other way of knowing, some deeper part of our being that knows we're not in grief, that knows we're in eternity, you know, that sings out of that. That's the mystery, I think, that cannot be said.

Let the beauty we love be what we do. 

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. 

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Old Inuit Song

I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, all those vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet there is only one great thing: to live and see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world.

Levidrome - Let's get this word in the dictionary

from The Elder

Is the life that you are living the life that you truly want to be living? If you could do just exactly what you want to do, what would you do?

Gratitude -

"To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference." - Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton said:

"Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith." - Thomas Merton

Meditation

"Learn how to meditate on paper. Drawing and writing are forms of meditation. Learn how to contemplate works of art. Learn how to pray in the streets or in the country. Know how to meditate not only when you have a book in your hand but when you are waiting for a bus or riding in a train." - Thomas Merton

Where value lies

"Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness." - Thomas Merton

Father Greg Boyle

"I want to be prophetic and take stands and stand with those on the margins, and I want to laugh as much as I can." - Greg Boyle

The Silence of Surrender

We enter the land of silence by the silence of surrender, and there is no map of the silence that is surrender…. The practice of silence…cannot be reduced to a spiritual technique. Techniques are all the rage today. They suggest a certain control that aims to determine a certain outcome. They clearly have their place. But this is not what contemplative practice does…. A spiritual practice simply disposes us to allow something to take place. For example, a gardener does not actually grow plants. A gardener practices certain gardening skills that facilitate growth that is beyond the gardener’s direct control.
-Father Martin Laird

Nine Requisites for Contented Living

Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future. 
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rumi Again

"... Move beyond any attachment to names." Every war and every conflict between human beings has happened because of some disagreement about names. It's such an unnecessary foolishness, because just beyond the arguing there's a long table of companionship, set and waiting for us to sit down.

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too, many jugs being poured into a huge basin. All religions, all this singing, one song. The differences are just illusion and vanity. Sunlight looks slightly different
on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different on this other one, but it is still one light. We have borrowed these clothes, these time-and-space personalities, from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.

mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi - 13th century
Translation by Coleman Bark

Importance Of Small Efforts

"People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words, and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do." - Dorothy Day

"Worry is an old man with bended head, carrying a load of feathers which he thinks are lead." - Corrie Ten Boom

Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
~ Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero ~
(murdered on March 24, 1980)

A Little Gem

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Judy Cannato - Receiving Love

Receiving love brings us to a place of vulnerability. That is why it is so difficult. So often we live in the illusion that it is much easier to love than to be loved. We may think we can exercise a bit of control in loving another, but there is no control in being loved. The ones who truly love us walk into our hearts, often unnoticed, unannounced, and then reveal to us how genuinely lovable we are. And nothing feels more vulnerable than that.

Compassion - Frederick Buechner

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

Realizing God's Presence - Frederick Buechner

What deadens us most to God's presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continually engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought.

Doubts - Frederick Buechner

"Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving." 

God's Grace - Frederick Buechner

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

A Confession From Me, "R. B."

I am all too quick to blame others for my failures. It seems that I can better live with my failed dreams if I can blame someone else for the failure. I can then be the righteous victim and better live with the anger...but I know better than that. Anger is lethal in so many ways and I am not a victim of anything except when I want to be. Looking too closely at what I want, insisting on my way, denigrating others, are all ways that I live.

"I am not worthy to gather the crumbs from under your table but say the word and I shall receive."
____________________________________________________________________________________

The great gift that a person has - Frederick Buechner

"Whatever you do with your life-whatever you end up achieving or not achieving the great gift you have in you to give to the world is the gift of who you alone are; your way of seeing things, and saying things, and feeling about things, that is like nobody else’s. If so much as a single one of you were missing, there would be an empty place at the great feast of life that nobody else in all creation could fill.

Wise Observation - Dalai Lama

Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. 

from T. J. Grey

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To cry is to risk appearing weak and sentimental.

To reach out to others is to risk being rejected.

To show feelings is to risk exposing our humanity.

To risk nothing is

DEATH.

- T. J. Grey

George Elliot observation

It is never too late, no matter how old you get because anytime or at any point in your life you can always have a chance to make a difference. You can always make a change for the better no matter what background you derived from. You can always do your best and be all that you can be because you will always be uniquely you. It is why it is always wise to listen to your eternal heart, your eternal instincts, and what it had always strove for and/or to do because really anybody can make a difference not only in their own lives but in the lives of others. It is never too late to shine; never.

St. Augustine said:

“So anyone who thinks he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.” (On Christian Teaching 1:86)

Thomas Merton Says:

"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."

To Be Extended and Expanded

Selflessness
Holy Spirit – Human Spirit
Holy Human Spirit
God Inside – God Outside
They accused him of being crazy. They accused him of doing work by the power of the evil one. They were blinded by their prejudices and their fear. He was love, pure love, and they could not understand it...

I give away all that I have and then I must rely on the kindness of others. But doesn't my dependence on others take away valuable resources from those who need them more than I do? The questions are “How much do I need and if I refuse to give what I have am I not also using valuable resources that might be of help to others?” “But you must take care of yourself and then you can take care of others,” they say. – How can I receive from those to whom I give? That might be the most relevant question.

CONNECTION –     

Fears

Because I fear your grasping hand calling me to the unknown of love, because I fear my emptiness, my poverty, my call to death, I fear myself, I close my hearth, I shut myself from you, my despairing brother. Your presence is a call. Do I turn away or do I dare? Love is the greatest of all risks. Do I dare leap into the cool, swirling, living waters of loving fidelity?
Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, p. 22

HOPE - Chittister

"The spiritual task of life is to feed hope. Hope is not something to be found outside of us. It lies in the spiritual life we cultivate within. The whole purpose of wrestling with life is to be transformed into the self we are meant to become, to step out of the confines of our false securities and allow our creating God to go on creating. In us."
 - Joan D. Chittister

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks

from T. J. Grey- A Thought -

Crossing bridges can be a scary thing to do. When we cross a bridge we put our lives in the hand of those who designed it, those who built it, and those who maintain it. --- Some bridges are so long that we can't see the other end. We trust that the other end is there because we see no indication that it isn't. 

I can not live my life very well if I do not place my trust in God, the designer, builder, and maintainer of all that was, all that is, and all that will be.

more from Brother Ben

I am thankful that there is not a requisite “feeling” that I must experience to show my gratitude. I have had mountaintop experiences that have invoked very powerful emotional responses. 
I, like Peter, would build a shrine to that experience but the emotion would not remain. We cannot live on the mountaintop forever. – When I go looking for the “feeling” I can't make it happen. The “feeling” comes and goes as it pleases.

My home garden and my relationship to it is a good example of what I am talking about. I have known absolute bliss in my garden. Yesterday, after many days of neglect, I went out to the garden to work and to find the bliss. The work happened but the bliss did not come. – The bliss did not come yesterday but it will come when I least expect it to. LIVE LIFE even when you don't feel alive.   

more thoughts from Brother Ben

The bit of God's love that I know is the bit of God's love that has been made real for me in the love of those who have loved me. – INCARNATION – I have longed for much of my total life and all of my adult life to have the same kind of impact on the world that my father had. I longed to give myself to the world and I longed to be recognized for the great things that I would accomplish. – I wanted all of the benefits but I did not want any of the requisite cost and sacrifice. I wanted a meaningful life but I wanted it on my terms. Life is not like that. We seldom get to live life on our own terms. But we do get to live life meaningfully if we choose to. → ←
HOLY SPIRIT – God's love overflowing – discernment – connection – the human connection

The Day (dated 09/27/2016)
Nothing big happened today. It was just one more day of ordinary. I was sitting in my chair thinking about the day just past and many more just like it and I realized that my memories were much greater than my dreams.  
The Holy Spirit comes as a quiet and gentle breeze, so soft that we might very well miss it.

From William Barclay

"So long as we judge ourselves by human comparisons, there is plenty of room for self-satisfaction, and self-satisfaction kills faith, for faith is born of the sense of need. But when we compare ourselves with Jesus Christ, and through Him, with God, we are humbled to the dust, and then faith is born, for there is nothing left to do but to trust to the mercy of God."

Three By Will Rogers

"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the entire government working for you."

"After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him... The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." 

"The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands."

"Yesterday is done. Tomorrow never comes. Today is here. If you don't know what to do, sit still and listen. You may hear something. Nobody knows." - Carl Sandburg

"The biggest mistake you can make in your life is to be always afraid of making a mistake."
                Dietrich Bonhoeffer                  

"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."                               -                   Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart." 
             - Louise Erdrich

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." 
                                  - Thomas Merton

"You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind ON, but what you can't keep your mind OFF." 
                             - A. R. Ammons

Go not to the temple - Tagore

"Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is downtrodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you."

 - Rabindranath Tagore

Light ?

Just a bit of humanity

a brief bit of connected understanding

one flash of no hate

no giving in to fear just yet

A flash of light in the darkness

one momentous moment

without this light

all life is hell

QUESTION:

From whence does this light come?

What Work Should Be

"Work is not primarily a thing one does to live but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God."
                        - Dorothy L. Sayers

From poet Dylan Thomas

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass. And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

–Dylan Thomas (1914–53)

Advice on Arguing

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. - Mark Twain

from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope." - Thomas Merton

 

Lesson from a young Christian

It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle. One of the verses I have grown to love is the one where Jesus is preparing to leave the disciples and says, "I no longer call you servants... Instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:15). Servanthood is a fine place to begin, but gradually we move toward mutual love, genuine relationships. Someday, perhaps we can even say those words that Ruth said to Naomi after years of partnership: "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried" (Ruth 1:16-17).” 
― Shane Claiborne

from Father Richard Rohr

Good leaders must have a certain capacity for thinking beyond polarities and for tapping into full, embodied knowing (prayer). They have a tolerance for ambiguity (faith), an ability to hold creative tensions (hope), and an ability to care (love) beyond their own personal advantage.

MORE WORDS FROM BROTHER BEN'S NOTEBOOK

Your life is what you make of it. It is not what you do that matters. It is your attitude that matters. A positive attitude toward yourself, others, and the jobs you have to do will make your life more satisfying. 

I Was Blind But Now I See - T. Hershey

I don't have three steps to compassionate living. However, here’s the deal; if we are open to it, grace—the power of love—changes our life.  And that change spills to everyone around us.  Even if we can't explain it.  "All I know," said the man, "is that once I was blind and now I see."
               

About Light

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first and is waiting for it. ---Terry Pratchett

Taking Risk

Here is the choice: I have a small hand full of seed. Do I eat the seed now or do I sow them in the hopes of having much seed later on? Every time we plant a plant or sow a seed, we are participating in an act of hope that is inherently risky. This is the way life is. This is faith. We sow the seed, believing that the harvest will come.
               from Brother Ben's Notebook

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One Root Truth

Whatever I may have written, I think it all can be reduced in the end to this one root truth: that God calls human persons to union with Himself and with one another in Christ, in the Church which is His Mystical Body. It is also a witness to the fact that there is and must be, in the church, a contemplative life which has no other function than to realize these mysterious things and return to God all the thanks and praise that human hearts can give Him. It is certainly true that I have written about more than just the contemplative life. I have articulately resisted attempts to have myself classified as an "inspirational writer." But if I have written about interracial justice or thermonuclear weapons, it is because these issues are terribly relevant to one great truth: that man is called to live as a child of God. Man must respond to this call to live in peace with all his brothers and sisters in the One Christ.
-Thomas Merton

from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

VI

In Reading gaol by Reading town

There is a pit of shame.

And in it lies a wretched man

Eaten by teeth of flame,

In burning winding-sheet he lies,

And his grave has got no name.

And there, till Christ call forth the dead,

In silence let him lie:

No need to waste the foolish tear,

Or heave the windy sigh:

The man had killed the thing he loved,

And so he had to die.

All men kill the thing they love,

By all let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some do it with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man does it with a sword!

"I don't stand for the black man's side, I don' t stand for the white man's side. I stand for God's side." ~ Bob Marley

"He's not perfect. You aren't either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can." ~ Bob Marley

"True friends are like stars; you can only recognize them when it's dark around you." ~ Bob Marley

A Bit Of Wisdom From The Desert

Just as a treasure exposed is quickly spent, so also any virtue that becomes famous or well publicised vanishes. Just as wax is quickly melted by fire, so the soul is emptied by praise and loses firmness of virtue.
                                        Saint Syncletica

EASTER GREETING

       CHRIST HAS RISEN.

CHRIST HAS RISEN  INDEED.

The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life. 
               ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God, first fill your own house with the fragrance of love. Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God, first remove the darkness of sin from your heart. Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer, first learn to bow in humility before your fellow men. Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees, first bend down to lift someone who is downtrodden. Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins, first forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.
                ~Rabindranath Tagore

A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lesson to his students, can only load their minds, he cannot quicken them...
               ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Made In the Image of God

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.
                  ~ Thomas Merton

Ancient/Modern Wisdom

"My dear heart, never think you are better than others. Listen to their sorrows with compassion. If you want peace, don't harbor bad thoughts, do not gossip and don't teach what you do not know."
                  ~ Rumi

Envy - definition

Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody else be as unsuccessful as you are.      Frederick Buechner

The Power of Love

I am touched by the stories of young men and women who have been in L'Arche for three or four years living in a house with [people with intellectual disabilities]. So many affirm that they have been transformed by the people they live with, by their simplicity, their trust....In spite of the difficulties, I can truly bear witness to the power of love that attracts many assistants and anchors them in L'Arche. There is something that reveals to them the fundamental beauty of their humanity.
          Jean Vanier

A Vision

ONE SUMMER DAY I lay upon the grass. I'd sinned, no matter how, and in sin's wake there came a kind of drowsy peace so deep I hadn't even will enough to loathe myself. I had no mind to pray. I scarcely had a mind at all, just eyes to see the green wood overhead, just flesh to feel the sun. A light breeze blew from Wear that tossed the trees, and as I lay there watching them, they formed a face of shadows and of leaves. It was a man's green, leafy face. He gazed at me from high above. And as the branches nodded in the air, he opened up his mouth to speak. No sound came from his lips, but by their shape, I knew it was my name. His was the holiest face I ever saw. My very name turned holy on his tongue. If he had bade me rise and follow to the end of time, I would have gone. If he had bade me die for him, I would have died. When I deserved it least, God gave me most. I think it was the Savior's face itself I saw.
–Frederick Buechner - Originally published in Godric

Thomas Merton's Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. 
~Thomas Merton

Easy to Believe

It is surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path. Certainly, it is easier to believe that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the trees in the wasteland across the street, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park across the way. There are wars and rumors of wars, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, and God’s continuing promise to be with us always, with comfort and joy, if we will only ask.

Dorothy Day 

Merton Wisdom

"To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name." ~ Thomas Merton

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A thought from Thomas Merton

"It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him." ~ Thomas Merton

DREAM GARDEN DREAM

           What kind of seed do I want to plant?
            What kind of garden do I want to grow?
            What kind of fruit do I want to harvest?
            What will I do when the harvest is over?
            Who will I feed and what will I feed them?

            Why plant a garden?
            The world needs a place of sustenance and beauty.
            My garden is not large but it is one more spot of beauty and calm.

            Gardening is an advent activity.
            There is a lot of waiting involved.
            Most of what I do with my garden includes the need for patient waiting.
            A garden does not happen overnight.
            A garden does not happen unless I am actively involved in making it so.

The Garden For Which I Give Thanks

One row for those who are physically hungry
One row for those who hunger spiritually
One row of flowers
One row for seed …
One row to fill our needs whatever they might be
The garden where we all will grow
Into a flourishing community

This I believe:

I believe that the seed of good and evil resides in each of us.
I believe that each of us is capable of committing acts of good and evil depending on which seeds we   nourish. It is for us to choose.
I must work diligently to identify the acts of violence that I participate in knowingly or unknowingly   and take action to make things right with the victims of said violence.
I believe that I should not stand in judgment of anyone.
I must never believe that violence can serve righteousness.
I must never believe that I am incapable of violence.
I must never believe that good is good if it is only for me and mine.
I believe that I will know peace only when I find it at the center of my being.
I believe that I will be an effective peacemaker in the world only to the degree that I know the peace   that is at my center.
I believe in silliness.
I believe in taking “ME” lightly.
I believe in the spirit of play that is holy.
I believe in the holy human spirit.
I believe that this is the spirit of “LIFE”.
pax

How the story transforms the teller | Donald Davis | TEDxCharlottesville

Let Your Light Shine In The Darkness - New Scottish Hymns

CHOOSING MY NAME

CHOOSING MY NAME

It all comes down to how I answer one question.

Who do I want to be when I grow up?

Too many choices,

I can’t decide –

Narrow the options, please.

Is it the lure of material things?

Am I as good as they are?

Will I have to show them?

Hello,

My name is Richard.

My grandfather’s father was Richard.

My father’s father had a brother named Richard.

My father and mother had had a daughter and three boys

And one more named Richard.

Uncle Ben seemed better than Uncle Richard when I was fifteen years old.

VOCATION

Take yourself seriously.

Work as if no one else can do your work.

Infuse your work with an intensity that only you can know the reason for.

Obscurity and gravitas will make you a poet extraordinaire in the eyes of some

And you will die just as the rest of us, little understood and mostly forgotten.

That’s why you had better enjoy what you are doing

while you are doing it.

PILGRIMAGE

A pilgrim is a person who is on a pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred shrine,

an important place, an important memory,

an important truth…

I am one traveler

searching for

a history,

a time,

a story,

a place,

my name.

My Field of Expertise?… I have no field of expertise…All that I have known is me…

How well can one know God?

Looking for Affirmation… Tell me that I am good. I won’t believe it but tell me anyway.

Familial illusion … tightly knit back coverers

Community of individuals … They have backs too.

And then a sudden revelation:

All of those whom I have idolized are as ordinary as I am.

I am somebody,

ORDINARY

and

PLAIN

No Regrets

I had no regrets as we said goodbye.

As we parted, I knew that I had said the words

that needed saying.

 I knew that I had loved with the love that needed loving.

The inevitable parting knew no regrets.

How lovely is your dwelling place

Who Am I? - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!
March 4,1946

Julian of Norwich's Body Prayer

“The fruit and the purpose of prayer is to be one with and like God in all things.”

AWAIT(hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, not as you
expect, hope, or imagine, but just as it is in this moment.
ALLOW(reach up, hands open): Allow a sense of God’s presence (or not) to come
and be what it is, without meeting your expectations.
ACCEPT(hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or
does not come. Accept that you are not in charge. Accept the infinity of God’s
presence, present whether or not you are aware.
ATTEND(hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called
to, actions that God invites you to from this stance of openness

Blessing of the New Day

GOD, bless to me the new day,
Never vouchsafed to me before;
It is to bless Thine own presence
Thou hast given me this time, O God.

Bless Thou to me mine eye,
May mine eye bless all it sees;
I will bless my neighbor,
May my neighbor bless me.

God, give me a clean heart,
Let me not from sight of Thine eye;
Bless to me my children and my wife,
And bless to me my means and my cattle.
ex Carmina Gadelica, Volume 1, by Alexander Carmichael

Failure

It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
J. K. Rowling

Solitude

Solitude is not an absence of energy or action, as some believe, but is rather a boon of wild provisions transmitted to us from the soul. In ancient times, purposeful solitude was both palliative and preventative. It was used to heal fatigue and to prevent weariness. It was also used as an oracle, as a way of listening to the inner self to solicit advice and guidance otherwise impossible to hear in the din of daily life.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes

from Saint Francis of Assisi

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Hope in Bad Times

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic...If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

Howard Zinn

STILL RELEVANT

originally posted                Friday, November 6, 2009             

A New POV for me anyway

"in ministry with rather than in ministry to" - Do you see the difference? I do not come to you as the lone giver in the relationship. I come to you with an open hand and an open heart ready to receive the gifts that you have to offer me as well as to give you the gifts that I have for you.

QUESTION
When will you and me become we?

from Brother Ben's Notebook

Saint Teresa's Bookmark

Let nothing disturb you;

Let nothing dismay you;

All things pass:

God never changes.

Patience attains all that it strives for.

One who has God

Lacks for nothing.

God alone suffices.

~St. Teresa of Avila

Seven Steps to Rebuilding Trust

        Boundaries

       Reliability

              Accountability

Vault

    Integrity

               Non-judgement

       Generosity

       ~Brene Brown

A TEST

This is a test only a test

Great Advice

Life is short,

Break the rules,

Forgive quickly,

Kiss slowly,

Love truly,

Laugh uncontrollably,

And never regret anything that made you Smile.

Life may not be the party we hoped for,

but while we're here we should

Dance....

~Anonymous

For A New Beginning -John O'Donohue

In out of the way places of the heart

Where your thoughts never think to wander

This beginning has been quietly forming

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire

Feeling the emptiness grow inside you

Noticing how you willed yourself on

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the grey promises that sameness whispered

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Body Prayer_ from Julian of Norwich

AWAIT(hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, not as you
expect, hope, or imagine, but just as it is in this moment.

ALLOW(reach up, hands open): Allow a sense of God’s presence (or not) to come
and be what it is, without meeting your expectations.

ACCEPT(hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or
does not come. Accept that you are not in charge. Accept the infinity of God’s
presence, present whether or not you are aware.

ATTEND(hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called
to, actions that God invites you to from this stance of openness.

Wisdom of Rumi (1)

Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you'd ever imagined. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.

Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love

Do not look back, 
No one knows how the world ever began. 
Do not fear the future, Nothing lasts forever. 
If you dwell on the past or future, 
You will miss the moment.

Today I Choose

Today, I choose to live deliberately. I choose sufficiency, not scarcity.
Today is a good day to learn and to grow. 
To risk, to fall down and to get up and try again.
To right a wrong. To forgive (beginning with my self).
To embrace. To offer a hand, or a kind word. Or both.
To hope. To delight. To wonder.
To wander. To sit still. To laugh out loud.
To question. To dance. 
To drink that bottle of wine (from the cellar saved for a special occasion).
To follow passion. To be open to Teannalach.
To savor. To love. To lose. To die.
~Terry Hershey 

a question from Meister Eckhart

How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad? 
~Meister Eckhart

An Entry from a garden blog 7 years ago

Friday, July 2, 2010
A Passion and a Way to Share It
I have been blessed with a passion for gardening and with a need to share this passion with others. I have been looking at some different ways to involve my church in a garden ministry. My original excitement was the possibility that we might start a garden right on the church campus. After thinking about it, this just didn't seem doable. The next idea was that maybe we could start a garden on the property of one of the members. Before that was ever finalized or really even acted on, the associate pastor of our church, volunteered his backyard. I was excited about that until I realized that we would have to destroy some rather nice landscaping and as Methodist pastors are apt to be moved any year, there was also the possibility that the next family to occupy that house would not be happy about it being there.

After we went through all of this thinking, the eureka moment happened. I had been involved in a neighborhood garden for several years that was improving every year but never seeming to live up to its potential. The garden was started after the City of Tifton was given a piece of derelict land across the street from Brother Charley’s Rescue Mission, a place for homeless men to stay. The idea has been to get the men from the mission involved in the garden. Some of them have but they are the ones who seem to get jobs or move on. The turnover among residents is enough that no one is there to take charge of the garden so a lot of the vegetables are not harvested. I am hoping that we can get a group of people to commit to working this garden as a community outreach mission project. I would love to see people of all ages from my church and other churches working together with folks from the mission and the community around the garden. If we can get a group of committed people involved, enough produce can be grown to provide fresh vegetables for the mission, the soup kitchen, the food bank and people from the surrounding community.

And the Lord said to them, “When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me a drink to quench my thirst." And they asked him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food? When did we find you thirsty and give you something to drink?” And the Lord replied, “The food and drink that you share with the least of my brothers and sister, you also share with me.
from Matthew 25:31-46 - my paraphrase
Posted by Richard Burton at 6:49 PM 

The moment we choose to love

The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.
~Bell Hooks

Amazement

Newly wonderful
Emerging life
Must know