Detachment is often understood as letting loose of what is attractive. But it sometimes also requires letting go of what is repulsive. You can indeed become attached to dark forces such as resentment and hatred. As long as you seek retaliation, you cling to your own past. Sometimes it seems as though you might lose yourself along with your revenge and hate—so you stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the other who wants to heal you. . . .
Praying means, above all, to be accepting of God who is always new, always different. For God is a deeply moved God, whose heart is greater than our own. The open acceptance of prayer in the face of an ever-new God makes us free. In prayer, we are constantly on our way, on a pilgrimage. On our way, we meet more and more people who show us something about the God whom we seek. We will never know for sure if we have reached God. But we do know that God will always be new and that there is no reason to fear.
“There are some persons whose great gift, in a dark age, is simply to maintain a candlelight of humanity and so to guarantee that darkness should not have the final word.”—Robert Ellsberg
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
“Not to share our wealth with the poor is to rob them and take away their livelihood. The riches we possess are not our own, but theirs as well.”—St. John Chrysostom
An excellent blog from Jake Owensby!
When my daughter was diagnosed with autism, I had a few choice words for God. On a long evening walk under the stars, I railed at the unfairness of it all. At God’s unfairness. “Honestly, the kid’s barely out of preschool and she’s already undergone open heart surgery. Now this? Really? Would it have killed you to give us a break?”
You might be thinking that this is no way to talk to God. God has a plan. Faith is all about trusting God’s plan and rolling with it. You know, let go and let God. And while the whole God has a plan thing isn’t quite so simple, I’ve spilled more than my share of ink stressing the importance of letting go. Still, there’s more to our relationship with God than passive acceptance… read further at https://jakeowensby.com/2023/08/11/arguing-with-god/?amp=1
The greatest spiritual battle begins—and never ends—with the reclaiming of our chosenness. Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God’s loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love.
“I was once interviewed on a radio talk show. A listener called in to chide me, saying that an advocate of nonviolence shouldn’t be angry. . . . I said I felt it was both a sign of health and essential to my life as an advocate of nonviolence. It is evidence of my love for life. Without the anger I’d probably be silent as stone, passive, complacent.”—Pam McAllister, You Can’t Kill The Spirit
An excellent reflection on this, her feast day ♥️🌹
One of the more sugary movies made about Francis of Assisi pictures Clare as a golden-haired beauty floating through sun-drenched fields, a sort of one-woman counterpart to the new Franciscan Order.
The beginning of her religious life was indeed movie material. Having refused to marry at 15, Clare was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide.
— Read on www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-clare-of-assisi/
“When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.
There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.
Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.”
—Tao Te Ching, Chapter 46, translated by Stephen Mitchell
Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 