An old adventure…
Once two brothers went to visit an old man. It was not the old man’s habit, however, to eat every day. When he saw the brothers, he welcomed them with joy, and said: “Fasting has its own reward, but if you eat for the sake of love you satisfy two commandments, for you give up your own will and also fulfill the commandment to refesh others.”
Desert Wisdom
Our brokenness is the wound through which the full power of God can penetrate our being and transfigure us in God.
Loneliness is not something from which we must flee but the place from where we can find God. Yes through our wounds, the power of God can penetrate us and become like rivers of living water to irrigate the arid earth of others, so that love and hope are reborn.
Jean Vanier
You must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today’s human and Christian promise be realized; and every tomorrow will have its own tomorrow, world without end. Every human act, every Christian act, is an act of hope. But that means you must be men and women of the present, you must live this moment — really live it, not just endure it — because this very moment, for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration, is pregnant with all sorts of possibilities, is pregnant with the future, is pregnant with love, is pregnant with Christ.
Walter Burghardt
Rise up, O Lord, in defense of your people,
do not hide your face from our troubles.
Father of orphans, wealth of the poor,
we rejoice in making you known;
may we find comfort and security
in times of pain and anxity.
Liturgy of the Hours
Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it
again; rejoice! Your kindness should be
known to all. The Lord is near. Have no
anxiety at all.
Philippians 4:4-5
Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect!
Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors, and disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your fill!
Thomas Merton
Good news; but if you ask me what it is, I know not;
It is a track of feet in the snow,
It is a lantern showing a path,
It is a door set open.
G.K.Chesterton
The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of human beings who united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, press onwards towards the kingdom of the Father and are bearers of a message of salvation intended for all. That is why Christians cherish a feeling of deep solidarity with the human race and its history.
The Church in the Modern World
Oh God you are my God, for you I long;
for you my sould is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
Psalm 63
God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear and immediately acted to call it back with love. God invited it by grace, preserved it by love, & embraced it with compassion.
Peter Chrysologus