Today is Gaudete Sunday
Joy is not to be found in things;
we find it inside ourselves
When we are free of all created things,
we find the uncreated joy of God.
Meister Eckhart, Sermon 12, “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”
Sunday Quote: joy
Tag: balance
What am I looking for?
The symbol of the heart has often been used to express love…… Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today. Yet living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart
Instead of running after superficial satisfactions and playing a role for the benefit of others, we would do better to think about the really important questions in life. Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I want to look back on my life once it ends? What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? …All these questions lead us back to the heart.
Pope Francis, Dilexit Nos
finding a place of rest in the midst of things
now air is air and thing is thing
now wind is wind
on forever’s very now we stand.
e.e.cummings, from No Thanks
Remind yourself when you are being blown about
After a very wild and windy day in Ireland….
The Tao is always at ease.
It overcomes without competing,
answers without speaking a word,
arrives without being summoned,
accomplishes without a plan.
Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching, 73 [Mitchell translation]
Longings and limitations
Happiness is not a reward for virtue, nor a gift of the gods.
It is the natural state of a mind that has learned to balance its longings with its limitations.
The rituals of religion once taught this; we must now learn it consciously
Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists
Sunday Quote: dancing
When I am grateful,
I am neither rushing nor slouching through my day-
I’m dancing.
David Steindl Rast
Mindfulbalance 