“As I walk with Beauty
As I walk, as I walk,
The universe is walking with me,
In beauty it walks before me,
In beauty it walks behind me,
In beauty it walks below me,
In beauty it walks above me,
Beauty is on every side.”
—Traditional Navajo Prayer
| Verse of the day Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. – 1 Peter 4:8 |
| Voice of the day Go out into the world with your chin up and your heart wide open. Go out into the world and be an agent of God’s love. – Rev. Theresa S. Thames |
| Prayer of the day For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve, we thank you, Lord. – The Book of Common Prayer |
Once more the words of Thomas Merton speak volumes in this world of violence and hatred. The fact that his words from the Sixties are equally relevant today is both amazing and sad.
Violence rests on the assumption that the enemy and I are entirely different: the enemy is evil and I am good. The enemy must be destroyed but I must be saved. But love sees things differently. It sees that even the enemy suffers from the same sorrows and limitations that I do. That we both have the same hopes, the same needs, the same aspirations for a peaceful and harmless human life. And that death is the same for both of us. Then love may perhaps show me that my brother is not really my enemy and that war is both his enemy and mine. War is our enemy. Then peace becomes possible. (preface to the Vietnamese edition of No Man Is An Island, found in Thomas Merton: Essential Writings, p. 115)
“Our own pulse beats in every stranger’s throat.
And also there within the flowered ground beneath our feet.
And—teach us to listen! . . .
We can hear it in winter, in wood, and even in stone.
We are earth of this earth, and we are bone of this bone.
This is a prayer I sing, for we have forgotten this and so
The earth is perishing.”
—Barbara Deming
This beautiful creed from the Iona Community https://iona.org.uk/island-centres/the-abbey was shared by Godspace Light almost eight years ago.
We believe in God above us,
maker and sustainer of all life,
of sun and moon, of water and earth,
of male and female.
read further on https://godspacelight.com/2013/10/21/the-ionian-creed/
Sometimes the only thing that I need to do is reflect on Merton’s thoughts and simply share them without commentary. This is one of those instances.
Compassion teaches me that my brother and I are one. That if I love my brother, then my love benefits my own life as well, and if I hate my brother and seek to destroy him, I seek to destroy myself also. The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red hot iron; I have to pick up the incandescent metal and burn my own hand while burning the other. Hate itself is the seed of death in my own heart, while it seeks the death of the other. Love is the seed of life in my own heart when it seeks the good of the other… (preface to the Vietnamese edition of No Man Is An Island, found in Thomas Merton: Essential Writings, p. 115)
May we have that compassion… a compassion that is noticeably lacking today… or so it appears…
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.”—Jane Goodall
| Verse of the day But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. – James 1:22 |
| Voice of the day Outrage without an accompanying action turns into paralysis. – Sr. Helen Prejean |
| Prayer of the day Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon. – Peace Prayer of Saint Francis |
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A lovely day for relaxing
Time to enjoy the day with my sweetheart and our puppy
Yes, neighborhood fireworks halted our evening on the deck
Despite that, we continued to relax indoors
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between [humans] and nature shall not be broken.”—Leo Tolstoy
