...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ... And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4: 8 -9
What is my only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
~Heidelberg Catechism
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
~Mary Oliver
I must consume the abundance of moments now. Days I am overwhelmed, wanting to write the music of my life in a slower tempo … yet this is the glorious dance of now.
So I shall dance in bare feet. For I am on holy ground.
~Ann Voskamp "A Holy Experience"
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.
~ T.S. Eliot
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To live is so startling, it leaves little room for other occupations.
~Emily Dickinson
I believe in God as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
~ C. S. Lewis
Remember this. When people choose to withdraw far from a fire, the fire continues to give warmth, but they grow cold. When people choose to withdraw far from light, the light continues to be bright in itself but they are in darkness. This is also the case when people withdraw from God.
~ Augustine
Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
~ Mary Oliver
The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope while darkness does its work.
~ Wendell Berry
Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine the true poetry of life.~ Sir William Osler
But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
~George Eliot's final sentence in Middlemarch
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
~ E.B. White
Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith: what we need is here. And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. What we need is here.~~ "The Wild Geese" Wendell Berry
Let it come, as it will, and don’t be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come.
~ Jane Kenyon from "Let Evening Come"
You can only come to the morning through the shadows.~ J.R.R. Tolkien
If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. ~ Thomas Merton
This life therefore is not righteousness,
but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet
what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.
The process is not finished
but it is going on.
This is not the end
but it is the road.
~Martin Luther
Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.
~ Mary Oliver
Love isn’t a function of communication so much as Love is a function of communion.
~ Ann Voskamp
It is not your love that sustains the marriage —
but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
She has done what she could...
~Mark 14:8
What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?~ J. R. R. Tolkien from The Hobbit
Touching pictures; moving poetry; breathless perspective … thanks.
PRH
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Breathtaking, dazzling photos. Each one is so unique and perfectly complements your inspired comment, Emily.
(As a ‘Type A’ Organizer personality, I recognize your extraordinary talent for the appropriate aesthetic matchups of texts and photos. )
Your last paragraph, the recap, ‘Only God sees us…,’ brought back some memories of my Catholic school education
in the late 30s to the cusp of the 50s. Many of us (at least I did) believed that God was a stern-faced, white-haired, old man sitting down with a two-column tablet in hand, writing down every single thing that we did — good and bad — the latter being very specific and judgmental and filling up that column more often than the other . He seemed to us to give no quarter nor consider our excuses. Once written down, the infraction could not be retracted. No erasers there. Most likely indelible ink was used also.
That perception of ‘God’ changed after Vatican II (1962-65) when the Conciliar Documents and massive outpouring of books and papers of supporting research and suggested new ways of doing things became available to laypersons. We were hungry to learn, to hope for needed changes in the Catholic Church. (For the first time, we were told that ‘We [the laity] are the Church.” Quite a dramatic turnaround from ‘pray, pay and obey!)
We formed Bible study groups in our parishes and individual homes and in other Christian churches. We learned a new, hopeful term — ‘ecumenism.’ It was a heady time for Catholics especially because very few persons were biblically knowledgeable. Our sisters and brothers in other Christian churches were years ahead of us in that respect. We soon changed that and quickly narrowed the gap.
Eventually, I formed a Bible study group in my parish that lasted for 13 years. I found a wonderful program that included 40 study books (20 in each the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures). We amassed reference and supportive research materials from recognized Scripture scholars (including other Christian as well as Jewish authors)
It was during that magical, blessed time in my life that I met Jesus, the Incarnate God who took on our humanity with all its problems and severe injustice. For His short 33-year life he lived in a Roman- occupied country, dealing with a religious leadership that resented His increasing following and feared His influence among the people and what the leadership considered His ‘radical’ teaching among the crowds of the poor and dis-enfranchised people who followed him and took hope in His words as dangerous, even heretical .
And so it began — and continues to this day. He came to show us His Father’s love for us, promised us that He would never leave us orphans, will be with us always, and will return.
So, my dear Emily, I thank you for your true and powerful closing words in today’s post. I, too, now know and love a God who:
“sees us fully in every moment, witness to our freedom and captivity, our loneliness and grief, our joy and tears, knowing our best and our worst. And because He knows us so well, in Him we must trust.”
Our responsibility now is to do as He taught us to do: To SEE with His eyes and to REACH OUT to all who are suffering, alienated, seeking justice…. TELL THEM about Jesus and His story, what He taught us, what He promised, what He has waiting for us at the end of our earthly journey – nothing less than to see His face – the face of God – in the forever Home that He has prepared for us – in His Kingdom.
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