OPreach

A Good Reason to Slow Down

opreach — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:00:40 +0000

My, how busy we become when we lose sight of how God loves us.

- Julian of Norwich

It’s hard to find a place busier than Grand Central Station

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

opreach — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:00:06 +0000

The best escape may be being present to what is in the here and now. But, oh, what a challenge!

The crowded bus, the long queue, the railway platform, the traffic jam, the neighbor’s television sets, the heavy-footed people on the floor above you, the person who still keeps getting the wrong number on your phone. These are the real conditions of your desert. Do not allow yourself to be irritated. Do not try to escape. Do not postpone your prayer. Kneel down. Enter that disturbed solitude. Let your silence be spoiled by those sounds. It is the beginning of your desert.

- Alessandro Pronzato, Meditations on the Sand

Old Inuit Song

opreach — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:01 +0000

Golden Dawn

I think over again my small adventures
my fears
those small ones that seemed so big

For all the vital things
I had to get and to reach

And yet there is only one great thing
the only thing

To live to see the great day that dawns
and the light that fills the world.

- from Journeys of Simplicity by Philip Hamden

Finding the Treasure

opreach — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:11 +0000

Finding the treasure is only the beginning of the search.

-Henri Nouwen, from The Inner Voice of Love

Heading out . . .

Wisdom from Rachel Carson

opreach — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:02 +0000

I remember reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson when I was in high school (seems like ages ago!). It seems we still have not learned from her wisdom.

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.

- Rachel Carson

A simple thistle, yet it is a wonder of beauty

God’s Love

opreach — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:00:47 +0000

Artist’s rendition of the Descent of the Holy Spirit – found in Sopra Minerva,a church in Rome

Today, on the Feast of Pentecost which signals the end of the Easter Season, I offer a poem offered among the Easter resources from Education for Justice. It was written by Richard Rolle in the14th Century. I appreciate Scott Cairns information that allowed me to correct the source material.

God’s Love

O Holy Spirit, Who breathes

where You will, breathe into me

and draw me to Yourself.

Invest the nature You have shaped,

with gifts so flowing with honey that,

from intense joy in Your sweetness

this clay might turn from lesser things,

that it may accept (as You give them)

spiritual gifts, and through pleasing

jubilation, it may melt, entirely,

in holy love, reaching finally out

to touch the Uncreated Light.

Source: Love’s Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life, by Scott

Cairns. Brewster, MA:Paraclete Press, 2007. p. 105

This is not an original poem written by me. It is published in my collection of translations and adaptations from the writings of Christian mystics. This is not the first time that folks have failed to do their homework in attributing these and other of those poems; I’m hoping, however, that it might be the last. The text from which I constructed the poem was written in the 14th Century by Richard Rolle. My adaptation also employs lineation which the above text does not resemble. Just saying.

Gratitude and Wonder Go Hand in Hand

opreach — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:02 +0000

Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

- G.K. Chesterton

The wonder of spagnum moss, hanging from a tree

More on Beauty

opreach — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:56 +0000

Somewhere between 551 and 491 BCE, Confucius observed the same thing that we might say today:

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.

- Confucius

Wisdom of Kahil Gibran

opreach — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:25 +0000

Here is another author that I read in high school; The Prophet was quite popular those days.

But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

- Kahil Gibran

Following beauty

May Hatred Be Transformed by Beauty

opreach — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:04:59 +0000

May those whose hell it is to hate and hurt be turned into lovers bringing flowers.

- Shantideva, 8th century Buddhist teacher

What can bring more joy than a patch of golden poppies?