Friendship

'Friendship creates hope, hope defeats fear, and we can handle any future so long as we do it together, made stronger not weaker by our differences.' 

- The Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

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Wisdom from Charlie Chaplin....

"We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness — not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another." ~ Charlie Chaplin (The Great Dictator)

 

(Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net )

Celtic prayer

God to enfold me,                                            
God to surround me,                                       
God in my speaking,                                     
God in my thinking.                                       
   
God in my sleeping,                                       
God in my waking,                                          
God in my watching,               
God in my hoping.                                          
     
God in my life,                                                  
God in my lips,                                                  
God in my hands,                                              
God in my heart.                                             

God in my sufficing,                                   
God in my slumber,                                
God in mine ever-living soul,                   
God in mine eternity.                    
           From  Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Alexander Carmichael. 

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St. Columba's prayer for light and love

O Lord, grant us that love which can never die, which will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine in us and bring light to others. Most dear Saviour, enkindle our lamps that they may shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from you so that our darkness will be illuminated and the darkness of the world will be made less. Amen.

--Saint Columba

Picture - a celtic cross on Iona - a photo I took on a visit there...

The divine guide...

“My life is a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in a night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of Him who guides me.” 

– Thomas Merton ( January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968)

 

Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Circles of exclusion or inclusion?

He drew a circle that shuts me out-
Heretic, rebel, and thing to flout.
But Love and I had wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in




Edwin Markham


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Poem - on the simple life

I Taught Myself to Live Simply

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to God,
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops
I compose happy verses
about life's decay, decay and beauty.
I come back. The fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear.

 Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966)

Image courtesy of dan    / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

True joy...

"The only true joy on earth is the escape from the prison of our own false selse, and enter by Love into union with the Life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls." 

- Thomas Merton

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Seeing the church as it really is....

"Sometimes we're so wrapped up in our vision of ourselves that the reality of our life together becomes lost.  We see empty pews and waning energies, and we don't for a moment question our approach.  It's not that we've ossified worship, turning it into little more than an involuntary liturgical spasm.  It's not that we've "redefined worship" to the point that all that is left is formless chaos.  It's not that our vision of God is so sharp and cold that it hurts to touch it, or so diffuse that it is invisible to the naked eye.  It's not that we are organizationally incompetent, or that we strangle growth with layers of bureaucratic folderol. It's that people just don't understand.  They're not ready for our genius or our passion.  Or they're lazy and inadequately rigorous in their faith.  There are a thousand reasons, none of which have to do with us or our vision of life together. When our relationship with the reality of God's creation is broken, we can no longer realize what we have become." 
 - David Williams blogging as "Beloved Spear"  (http://www.belovedspear.org/2013/01/first-church-of-lovelyloveville.html)

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Christians and non violence

"The whole point of Christianity, on a personal level, is a refusal to use violence even in self-defence and even when one's own life is threatened. For centuries, this radical nonviolence was celebrated by the church in its canonisation of martyrs...Martyrdom was the first and ultimate form of nonviolent resistance to injustice and, like the Christian-rooted civil rights movement or Gandhi's campaign for independence, it was precisely this staggering refusal to defend oneself... that changed global consciousness. It was what made Christians different." - Andrew Sullivan  (http://ht.ly/hdH2P)

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Sir Thomas More's prayer

"Give me a good digestion, Lord
And also something to digest.
Give me a healthy body, Lord,
With a sense to keep it at its best.
Give me a healthy mind, good Lord,
To keep the pure and good in sight,
Which, seeing sins, is not appalled,
But finds a way to set it right.
Give me a mind that is not bored,
That does not whimper, whine or sigh.
Don't let me worry overmuch
About the fussy thing called "I".
Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some happiness in life,
And pass it on to other folk."
- Sir Thomas More

Image courtesy of Raktim Chatterjee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Celtic circling prayer

"Circle us Lord,
Keep love within, keep hatred out.
Keep joy within, keep fear out.
Keep peace within, keep worry out.
Keep light within, keep darkness out.
May you stand in the circle with us, today and always."
- Celtic prayer

(Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net )

A prayer

"Father, to You I raise my whole being,
a vessel emptied of self.
Accept, Lord, this my emptiness,
and so fill me with Yourself - Your light,
Your love, Your Life
that these Your Precious Gifts
may radiate through me and over
Flow the chalice of my heart into
The hearts of all with whom
I come into contact this day
revealing unto them
the beauty of Your joy and Wholeness
and the Serenity of Your Peace." 

- The International Order of St. Luke the Physician

 

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A friend

"Oh the comfort, the inexplicable comfort of feeling safe with a person – having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away." 

- Dinah Craik (1826-1887) in her novel "A Life for a Life" (1859)

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Something to live for...

"The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

Comes the dawn - a poem

Comes the Dawn

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security,
And you begin to understand that kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head held high and eyes opened,
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.

You learn to build your roads on today
Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans,
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much,
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers,
And you learn that you really can endure,
That you really are strong.
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and learn...
With every goodbye comes the dawn.

~ Veronica A. Shoffstall

Quaker wisdom...

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

~Quaker saying

The importance of Love

"Therefore once for all this short command is given to you:
'Love and do what you will.'
If you keep silent, keep silent by love:
if you speak, speak by love;
if you correct, correct by love;
if you pardon, pardon by love;
let love be rooted in you,
and from the root nothing but good can grow."
- St. Augustine of Hippo

 

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Prayer from Mexico

"Dear Lord,
I am only a spark;
make me a fire.
I am only a string;
make me a lyre.
I am only a drop;
make me a fountain.
I am only an ant hill;
make me a mountain.
I am only a feather;
make me a wing.
I am only a rag;
make me a king."
- A prayer from Mexico

Violence by Oscar Romero

“We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood,the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.” - Oscar A. Romero

Honesty and God's love...

"We can't know God's love if we overlook parts of ourselves we'd rather weren't true. Sooner or later that trips us up."

Anon

A prayer by David Adam

"Enfold us Lord in your love, surround us with your peace, encircle us with your power, enable us to be what you would have us be; Empower us to do what you would have us do; As you Lord are generous to us, may we be generous to others; As you forgive us, may we learn to forgive others; Lord, you give us life, you give us love, you give us yourself, so may we give our lives, our love, ourselves to You; Help us to choose the way of life and to lead others to Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life." – David Adam

Poem of the day...

Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

 

  Image "Yellow Cosmos Flower And Blue Sky" courtesy of Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Epiphany

When the song of the angel is still
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost, to heal the broken,
To feed the hungry, to release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations, to bring peace among peoples,
To make music in the heart.

~ Howard Thurman (1899-1981)

blessing

May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
- John O’Donohue, 'Celtic blessings'

RS Thomas poem

'Waiting' by R.S. Thomas

Yeats said that. Young
I delighted in it:
There was time enough.

Fingers burned, heart
seared, a bad taste
in the mouth, I read him

again, but without trust
any more. What counsel
has the pen's rhetoric

to impart? Break mirrors, stare
ghosts in the face, try
walking without crutches

at the grave's edge? Now,
in the small hours
of belief the one eloquence

to master is that
of the bowed head, the bent
knee, waiting, as at the end

of a hard winter
for one flower to open
on the mind's tree of thorns.

R S Thomas

 (Welsh poet and priest)

A prayer for today

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and everyone of you.
- St. Teresa of Ávila