· 14 July 2008 | 226 words
There is a line from a William Stafford poem: "It's for the best," my mother said, "Nothing can ever be wrong for anyone truly good." And then I look at the suffering Jesus endured, and the suffering of all people....
· 7 June 2008 | 36 words
love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun more last than star -- E.E. Cummings...
· 4 June 2008 | 28 words
Silence is-- the song of God, singing to every one and every thing to be, being, to be witness, with-ness, to each other, and to be with God....
· 2 April 2008 | 185 words
From Br. Joseph -- From today's Gospel reading, John 3:16-17: God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send...
· 27 March 2008 | 16 words
The form of haiku-- Like banks of a river flows, Creativity (inspired by this article)...
· 21 February 2008 | 200 words
From Thursday's collect in Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours (emphasis added): My mind is scattered among things, not because of my work, but because I am not detached and I do not attend first of all to God. On...
· 29 December 2007 | 56 words
A thought for what needs to be done this coming year... I am a humble artist moulding my earthly clod, adding my labour to nature's, simply assisting God. Not that my effort is needed; yet somehow, I understand, my maker...
· 5 December 2007 | 222 words
It is so challenging to lead when one can not grasp the Way. Even more challenging when one knows from experience too many of the irrelevant detours available, to hear the voice of one crying out in a self...
· 17 November 2007 | 569 words
All men complain that they haven't enough time. They look at their lives from too human a point of view. There is always time to do what God wants us to do, but we must put ourselves completely into...
· 16 November 2007 | 35 words
Leave me here freely all alone, In cell were sunlight never shone, Should no one ever speak to me, This golden silence sets me free! -- Blessed Titus Brandsma, portion of poem written in Dachau...
· 15 November 2007 | 123 words
If I just do my thing and you do yours, We stand in danger of losing each other and ourselves I am not in this world to live up to your expectations; But I am in this world to...
· 30 September 2007 | 149 words
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back, Guiltie of dust and sinne. But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I...
· 19 September 2007 | 483 words
From Br. Joseph (Sept. 18, 2007) -- Sunday's Gospel reading was about the Lost Son in Luke 15 (aka Prodigal Son). I want to share a marvelous poem written about a century ago by Charles Péguy that references this parable....
· 12 July 2007 | 168 words
What did God whisper to the bird to make him sing? What was said to the rose to make her unfold? And to the tree to stand tall and spread its canopy? What did the cricket hear to make him...
· 3 June 2007 | 47 words
Silence asserts not. It is simple nothingness Around every sound. Like God, silence waits To be heard among the thoughts. It never changes. Not to soothe with balm, Silence calls to stimulate, To notice no-thing. The song of silence Teaches...
· 28 May 2007 | 122 words
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one...
· 14 April 2007 | 11 words
Butterfly flutters, A flower basks in the sun, Contact charges life....
· 12 April 2007 | 10 words
Slow is patience taught; Waiting teaches non-doing; Instilled is wisdom....
· 10 April 2007 | 14 words
On the thin border between faith and doubt walks Christ, calling all to trust....
· 10 April 2007 | 12 words
To do something small, it is very difficult to have much meaning....
· 10 April 2007 | 19 words
An haiku of hope: Made is the promise: all lost things are someday found, if they want to be....
· 5 March 2007 | 142 words
Christ on the cross bows his head, Waiting for you, That he may kiss you, His arms are outstretched, That he may embrace you, His hands are open, That he may enrich you, His body spread out, That he...
· 31 January 2007 | 80 words
Sound -- music -- prayer no words -- emotions, feelings, but more... essence, existence, but more... A lifting up of the heart from within the heart, not the head, not the intellect, a place reachable without words, beyond words. The...
· 28 January 2007 | 84 words
Found this little poem in a book laying around in the sacristy of the chapel at camp. For every pain we must bear, for every burden, for every care, there's a reason. for every grief that bows the head for...
· 16 January 2007 | 129 words
Is the nothingness I yearn for a return to the comfortable nothingness of the womb, or a step forward into the unknown of total giving, of emptying myself to You? Is this want from my egoic, fear and attachment-driven empirical...
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us