OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Our Companions
There is a trough in waves,
A low spot
Where horizon disappears
And only sky
And water
Are our company.
– Judy Brown, From the poem “Trough” – book The Sea Accepts All Rivers
We Cannot Survive Singularly
Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules, microscopic entities all come in communities. The singular cannot in reality exist.
– Paula Gunn Allen
Wednesday of Hope – Hope of Trees
May we never forget the crippled, wind-beaten trees, how they, too, bud, green and bloom. May we, too, take courage to bloom where we are planted.
– David Steindl-Rast
Walking a Labyrinth
Not too long ago I walked a labyrinth for the first time in my life. I had flirted with labyrinths for years, but my expectations were so high that I kept finding reasons not to walk one. I did not want to hurry. I did not want to share the labyrinth with anyone who might distract me. I did not want to be disappointed. I looked forward to walking a labyrinth so much that looking forward to it kept me from doing it for years.
– Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
Union with God
Union with God is not something that needs to be acquired but realized… When the mind comes into its own stillness and enters the silent land, the sense of separation goes. Union is seen to be the fundamental reality and separateness a highly filtered mental perception…it is the realization this side of death of the fundamental mystery of our existence as the creation of a loving God.
– Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land
Wednesday of Hope – A Road in the Country
Hope is like a road in the country; there never was a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
– Lin Yutang
A Spiritual Journey
A Spiritual Journey
And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.
– Wendell Berry, Collected Poems
Extending Our Concept of God
The world must have a God, but our concept of God must be extended as the dimensions of our world are extended.
– Teilhard de Chardin
Wednesday of Hope – Letting Go of Anticipation
Before, I always lived in anticipation . . . that it was all a preparation for something else, something “greater,” more “genuine.” But that feeling has dropped away from me completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and the life is worth living.
– Etty Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum,
May I Be a Lamp
May I become an island for those seeking dry land
A lamp for those needing light,
A place of rest for those who desire one,
And a servant for those needing service.
– Shantideva
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