OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Gratitude in Abundance
Giving thanks for abundance is sweeter than the abundance itself.
– Jalaluddin Rumi
Wednesday of Hope – with Gratitude
Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly still and wide. I learn it daily, learn it with pain to which I am grateful: patience is everything!
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Grateful for All Gifts
During the month of November it’s been my practice to focus on Gratitude. And so I continue . . .
O Great Spirit, I awake to another sun, grateful for gifts bestowed, granted one by one.
– Twylah Nitsch
Wednesday of Hope – Hope of All Hallows Eve
In our Christian tradition, the eve of a feast is the beginning of the celebration of that feast. Today is Halloween, or originally, All Hallows Eve – the evening before All Saints Day – October 31st. On All Saints Day – November 1st– we remember all those faithful women and men who have died, but never received “official” recognition that their lives were holy. Truly, all of us are holy . . . all of us are saints.
We can recall that wonderful song, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Those words are our hope, “O, Lord, I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in!” The other feast we celebrate at this time is All Souls Day, sometimes known as The Day of the Dead – November 2nd– when we remember those who have died, and hold them in our prayers.
So for this these three days, we celebrate three feasts that remember all those who have died, and we are reminded that we too will die. Our faith in the resurrection gives us confidence in the joyful communion we will share with those we have loved when we are fully united with our loving God.
Finding a Joyous Field
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.
– Rumi
Wednesday of Hope – Facing Life’s Challenges
Even when life challenges us, it’s a gift beyond all measure.
– Parker Palmer
Every Creature Teaches Us of God
Every creature is a word of God and a book about God.
– Meister Eckhart
Wednesday of Hope – Despair Cannot Stain Joy
…no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic joy which is always there.
– Thomas Merton
The Vulnerability of Precious Things
The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence. The destruction of Troy. The fall of the petals from fruit trees in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence – that is beautiful.
– Simone Weil
Wednesday of Hope – Entering the Spaciousness of Uncertainty
Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.
– Rebecca Solnit
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