Another Reason to Hope
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by the sorrow, pain, and violence in our world. Still the Resurrection teaches us to hope. No matter how hopeless a situation or a person’s behavior may appear, there is always a reason to hope. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
Many an individual has turned from the mean, personal, acquisitive point of view to one that sees society as a whole and works for its benefit. If there has been such a change in one person, there can be the same change in many.
A reason to hope
Finding God in the Here and Now
We are often inspired by stories of holy people and doubt that we would ever hear God’s voice or experience God’s awesomeness in a burning bush. Yet God probably spoke to the prophets and saints in the most ordinary ways. Elizabeth Barret Browning expresses it best in her poem “Aurora Leigh”.
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes -
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware…
Not a blackberry bush, but a bush crammed with juniper berries in a desert "afire with God"
Pay Attention!!
Why Is the Grass Always Greener?
The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence.
Fences have nothing to do with it.
The grass is greenest where it is watered.
When crossing over fences,
carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.
- Robert Fulghum
The heron doesn't even think about the green-ness of the grass. He simply waits.
The World is Holy . . . A Flower is Holy
A flower is indeed holy.
The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.
-Terry Tempest Williams
from Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer (anthology)
Hope in the Face of . . . Seeming Doom
The message of the Gospel is a message of Resurrection – of Easter. It does not deny darkness. It does not seek to cover-up Good Friday.
We are always pointed toward Hope – toward Easter.
In the words of the beloved Pope John the XXIII:
We feel we must disagree with those prophets of doom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand. . . In the present order of things Divine Providence is leading is to a new order of human relations which, by our own efforts and even beyond our very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs.
Hope of the morning sunrise
A Reminder to Turn Ourselves toward Gratitude
Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude says it so well:
Every breath we draw is a gift of God’s love; every moment of existence is a grace.
A solitary blue heron at a lagoon in San Francisco is a gift of God's love.
Let Us Be Blessing
The more alert we become to the blessing that flows into us through everything we touch, the more our own touch will bring blessing.
-David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart
We Continue to Give Thanks
The Easter Iris gives thanks
From Psalm 118
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.
We Give Thanks this Easter and Always
From Psalm 8 we read:
Give thanks to the LORD, for God is good,
for God’s mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“God’s mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the LORD say,
“God’s mercy endures forever.”
God's mercy endures forever
Peace Be with You
Peace of the Easter tulip be with you.
We hear Jesus say in Thursday’s reading from the Gospel of Luke:
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
Jesus said it often, “Peace be with you.” He also often said, “Be not afraid.”
He faced death and came back from it, so clearly he know what he was talking about, and offers that same gift of peace that dwelt in him so deeply.
