OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Astonishingly Beautiful
To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.
-Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Quoted in Age Doesn’t Matter Unless You’re Cheese, by Kathryn and Ross Petras
Joy and Pain
Don’t be concerned about being disloyal to your pain by being joyous.
– Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom
Expect Hope
Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
A Reason to Hope
The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Looking for Hope
Be still, and the world is bound to turn herself inside out to entertain you. Everywhere you look, joyful noise is clanging to drown out quiet desperation.
– Barbara Kingslover, High Tide in Tucson
In Times of Darkness, Let Us Make Hope
It seems that there is no end to the evil that confronts us. We need hope to face each day. I found this peace of wisdom from the artist Corita Kent. And I’m sure that when she said/wrote it, it was in beautiful colors on one of her vibrant and colorful serigraphs.
It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.
– Corita Kent
The Wonders Around Us
Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.
– Jalaluddin Rumi
The Grace of a Crocus
A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace.
– David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer
Weekly Photo Challenge – Change
How will we allow ourselves to be changed . . . for the common good . . . or simply, for good?
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the “atomic age” — as in being able to remake ourselves.
– Mahatma Gandhi
Reunion
Today’s Easter Poem from Education for Justice is by Scott Cairns.
Reunion
You know already that the breath
moves in and out in order to infuse
the heart with the air it craves;
as I have said, then recollect
your mind, and draw it—and yes,
I am speaking of your mind—
as if you drew it in
through your very nostrils.
Attend to its descent, as it finds
the path to reach the heart. Drive it then,
and force it downward with the very
air you breathe to enter with a rush into
that famished, pulsing chamber.When it arrives, you will taste
the joy that follows. You’ll have nothing
to regret. Just as a man who has been far
from home a long time cannot restrain
his delight at seeing his wife and children—
just so, the spirit overflows with joy
and with unspeakable delight when it is
once more united with the soul.Source: Love’s Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life, by
Scott Cairns. Brewster, MA:Paraclete Press, 2007. p. 91
