We come here to search…
to go on searching through silence and meditation,
to get in touch with our inner life.
Christ always said,
Do not worry,
give yourself.
Br Roger of Taize
Tag: Joy
The gift of life
A reminder to see each day as a gift to be celebrated:
God has given us the gift of life
It is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living fully
(Dieu nous a donné le vivre; c’est à nous de nous donner le bien vivre)
Voltaire, 1694–1778, French writer, philosopher and public activist, Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: melanges. commentaires sur corneille.
In this ordinary life
On Sunday during his sermon in Bolton Abbey, Fr Michael said that an awareness of goodness can strike at any moment, cutting through our complacency and reminding us that, deep down, there is wonder at the heart of our experience, even when we struggle and cannot see it. He saw it in the tender care of a cow for its new-born calf. Merton saw it in the swallows flight:
There are days when I am convinced that Heaven starts already, now, in this ordinary life, just as it is, in all its incompleteness, yet, this is where Heaven starts. See within yourself, if you can find it. I walked through the field in front of the house, lots of swallows flying, everywhere! Some very near me. It was magical.
We are already one, yet we know it not
Thomas Merton,
All we get are glimpses
Saints and bodhisattvas may achieve what Christians call mystical union or Buddhists call satori — a perpetual awareness of the force at the heart of things. For these enlightened few, the world is always lit. For the rest of us, such clarity comes only fitfully, in sudden glimpses or slow revelations. Quakers refer to these insights as ‘openings.’ When I first heard the term … I thought of how, on an overcast day, sunlight pours through a break in the clouds. After the clouds drift on, eclipsing the sun, the sun keeps shining behind the veil, the memory of its light shines on in the mind.
Scott Russell Sanders, A Private History of Awe
Radiate joy
This is the primary…affirmation within all of Scripture…
To believe that we and our world are good, very good;
to take delight in our lives and in each other;
to live lives that radiate joy rather than depression, boredom, and resentment;
well … that sounds simple and easy, but remains a rare thing that’s seldom accomplished.
The most important challenge that all of us face in life is to….bless rather than to curse!
Ron Rolheiser, Blessing and Cursing Life
Beyond what can be seen
At Ryoan-ji in Kyoto there is a famous rock garden;
Wherever in it a person stands, one of the fifteen rocks cannot be seen.
The garden reminds that always something unknowable is present, just beyond what can be perceived or comprehended – and that something is as much part of the real as any other stone amid the raked gravel.
Jane Hirshfield
photo adriano
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