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Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Finding Beauty
People often say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.
– Salma Hayek
Wednesday of Hope – the Role of Gratefulness
Only gratefulness, in the form of limitless openness for surprise, lays hold of the fullness of life in hope.
– David Steindl-Rast
Surprised by Enchantment
Occasionally we will be overwhelmed, but mostly we will be enchanted.
– Jean Houston
Wednesday of Hope – All Shall Be Well
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…for there is a Force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.
– Julian of Norwich
There Is No Outside
Nature, earth, the world—whatever you call it—is not simply something I am on but something I am. It is not outside of me: it is me, and I am it. There is no outside.
– Paul Kingsnorth
Wednesday of Hope – Let’s Dance
We did not ask for this room or this music; we were invited in. Therefore, because the dark surrounds us, let us turn our faces toward the light. Let us endure hardship to be grateful for plenty…We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we are here, let us dance.
– Stephen King
True Miracles
The true miracle isn’t walking on water or walking in air. Simply walking on this earth.
– Thích Nhất Hạnh
Wednesdays of Hope – The Feast of St. Dominic
Saint Dominic did not leave his sisters and brothers a wealth of written work. Therefore, I don’t have a quote of his that talks about “hope.” Nevertheless, those who followed after him have written many words. What else would one expect from The Order of Preachers?
One of those later Dominicans was Saint Thomas Aquinas, who at the end of his life looked back on his work and said that it was all straw. Thomas called hope, “a movement or stretching forth of the appetite towards an arduous good.” Surely Dominic would have agreed with and approved of, both of Thomas’s arduous study and pursuit of the good, the true and the beautiful, as well as of his hopeful look forward to what was yet to unfold.
We, in the manner of Dominic de Guzman, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and all those who have gone before us, continue to run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Reverence and Respect for Life
Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life.
– Osho
Wednesday of Hope – Possibilities for Change
If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.
– Norm Chomsky
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