OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Wednesday of Hope – Wisdom from Helen Keller
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
– Helen Keller
Sunshine and Smiles
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
– Joseph Addison
Wednesday of Hope – Room for Great Hope
There is always room for great hope. For at every level of despair there is the possibility of giving up. In the midst of every dimension of delusion there are sparkles of sanity…. In the early years of life, giving up usually takes the form of faith. A leaping forward into a belief that one is loved, accepted, forgiven and redeemed just as one is, with nothing special needing to be done. In later years, giving up more often comes from despair. From the wisdom of realizing that no amount of continuing effort, no amount of fixing, will enable one to ‘get it all together.’ Despair then is forever a doorway to life.
– Gerald May
What Is the Future We Are Creating?
The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.
– John Schaar
Wednesday of Hope – Wendell Berry’s Wisdom
When despair for the world grows in me,
And I wake in the night in fear . . .
I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in beauty on the water,
And the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light.
I rest in the grace of the world and am free.
– Wendell Berry
The Best Seeds to Plant
When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms.
– Ma Jaya Sati
Wednesday of Hope – Dwelling in Possibility
I dwell in possibility.
– Emily Dickinson
Where Do You Tell Your Secrets?
The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.
– Jalaluddin Rumi
Wednesday of Hope – Go Forward with Hope
At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.
– Jesse Jackson
Beauty is a Deep Opening
When we come upon beautiful things, they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.
– Elaine Scary
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