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Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Watching the Dawn Arise
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. And on Friday it is one of our readings – the Responsorial Psalm.
Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
Waiting for God Takes Courage
Thursday’s Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 27
“I believe that I shall see the bounty of God
in the land of the living.
Wait for the God with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for God.”
How right it is to say that waiting for God takes courage,
because, really, what I would like to do is run ahead.
How about you?
Merton on Gratitude
To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything.”
– Thomas Merton
The Feast of the Guardian Angels
Tuesday, October 2nd is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. We can’t prove they are there, but I’m pretty sure that they have been around and kept me out of a scrap or two in my life. The picture below is from a fresco at San Domenico in Bologna. It shows the angels carrying the body of St. Dominic.
May the angels be with us “now and at the hour of our death.” Amen.
The Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
October 1st is the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower. She is a favorite saint of many; many of my sisters are fond of her. I share a quote of hers today.For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. “
Why Are We Content to Simply Wait for Heaven?
We are reminded by Henry David Thoreau to be attentive now:
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
And Catherine of Siena, the Dominican Saint, said centuries before him that,
All the way to heaven is heaven.”
Why wait?!
Lingering Fragrances
Whenever I am walking and pass rosemary or lavender, I reach out my hand to touch the fragrant leaves and blossoms so that I can smell them on my hands. Isn’t it wonderful the way that fragrances can linger with us? What fragrance do we want to leave with others?
The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.”
– Heda Bejar
Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Gratitude
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May the Familiar in our Lives Be Transformed
The following quote was posted on “Word for the Day” from Gratefulness.org just last week.
One of life’s most fulfilling momemts occurs in the split-second when the familiar is suddenly transformed into the dazzling aura of the profoundly new. ”
-Edward B. Lindaman
Thinking in the Future Tense
To Believe in God
God is not too hard to believe in.God is too hard not to believe in it.
(in my opinion anyway . . .)
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