Do we want to live forever?

Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life, because of sin... began to experience teh burden of wretchedness in unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing."

St. Ambrose, quoted in Spe Salvi (10)

Learned Ignorance

We do not know what we would really like... and yet we know that there must be something we do not know towards which we feel driven.

Spe Salvi 12

Imagining Eternal Life

To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality -- this we can only imagine.

Spe Salvi

The Instruments of Good Works

Fear the Day of Judgment: be in dread of hell. Ardently desire everlasting life with deep spiritual longing. Keep death daily before your eyes.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Put your hope in God. Attribute any good that you see in yourself to God and not to yourself; but recognize and always impute to yourself the evil that you do.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Do not murmur or speak evil of others.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Do not be proud, nor given to wine (Titus 1:7, 1 tim. 3:3). Do not be a glutton, nor given to much sleeping, nor slothful (Rom. 12:11).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Do not render evil for evil (1 Thess 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9). Do no wrong to anyone; rather, bear patiently the wrong done to yourself. Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27). Do not render cursing for cursing, but rather blessing. Bear persecution for justice's sake (Matt 5:10).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Not to gratify anger; not to harbor a desire of revenge, not to foster guile in your heart, not to make a feigned peace, not to forsake charity. Not to swear, lest perchance you perjure yourself; to utter truth from your heart and your mouth.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

To keep aloof from worldly attractions; to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

To deny yourself, in order to follow Christ (Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23). To chastise the body (1 Cor. 9:27): not to seek after delicate living: to love fasting. To relieve the poor; to clothe the naked, to visiti the sick (Matt. 25:36), to bury the dead. To help in affliction; to console the sorrowing.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

Then, to love your neighbor as yourself. you are not to kill, not to commit dultry, not to steal, not to covet (Rom. 13:9). You are not to bear false witness (Matt 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). You must honor all (1 Pet. 2:17). You must not do to another what you would not have done to yourself (Tob. 4:16; Matt 7:12).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

The Instruments of Good Works

In the first place, to love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength [and to love your neighbor as yourself]. (Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:47).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 4

Obedience to God, the Rule, the Abbot and the Community

Let all, therefore, follow the Rule in all things as their guide, and from it let no one rashly turn aside. Let no one in the monastery follow the will of his own heart: nor let anyone presume insolently to contend with his Abbot, either within or without the monastery. But if he should dare to do so, let him be subjected to the Rule. The Abbot himself, however, must do everything with the fear of God, and in observance of the Rule: Knowing that he will have without doubt to render to God, the most just judge, an account of all his judgments.

If it happens that less important matters have to be transacted for the advantage of the monastery let him take counsel with the seniors only, as it is written: Do all things with counsel, and you will not afterwards repent of it (Sir. 32:24).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 3

Community meetings

As often as any important matters have to be transacted in the monastery, let the abbot call together the whole community, and himself declare what is the question to be settled. And, having heard the counsel of the brethren, let him weigh it within himself and then do what he shall judge most expedient. We have said that all should be called to the council, because it is often to the younger that the Lord reveals what is best. But the brethren give their advice with all the restraint of humility, and not presume stubbornly to defend their own opinion; but rather let the matter rest with the Abbot's discretion, that all may submit to whatever he shall consider best. Yet, even as it becomes disciples to obey their master, so does it behoove him to order all things prudently and with justice.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 3

Those in Authority must always remember they are under judgment

Let the abbot know that he who has undertaken the government of souls, must prepare himself to render an acount of them. And whatever may be the number of the brethren under his care, let him be certainly assured that on the Day of Judgment he will have to give an account to the Lord of all these souls, as well as of his own. And thus, being ever fearful of the coming judgment of the shepherd concerning the solicitous also of his own. And so, while correcting others by his admonitions, he will be himself cured of his own defects.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

Spider Man Principle and Getting Priorities Right

The abbot ought always to remember what he is, and what he is called, and to know that to whom more is committed, from him more is required. And he must consider how difficult and arduous a task he has undertaken, of ruling souls and adapting himself to many dispositions. Let him so accomodate and suit himself to the character and intelligence of each, winning some by kindness, others by reproof, others by persuasion, that he may not only suffer no loss in the flock committed to him, but may even rejoice in their virtuous increase.

Above all let him not, overlooking or undervaluing the salvation of the souls entrusted to him, be more solicitous for fleeting, earthly, and perishable things; but let him ever bear in mind that he has undertaken the government of souls, of which he shall have to give an account. And that he may not complain for want of wordly resources, let him remember what is written: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33), and again: Nothing is wanting to them that fear him (Ps. 34:9).

Being Gentle and Stern

For in his teaching the Abbot should always observe the recommendation of the Apostle, in which he says: Reprove, convince, rebuke. (2 Tim. 4:2). That is, he should suit his action to the circumstances, mingling gentleness with sternness; showing now the rigor of a master, now the loving affection of a father, so as sternly to rebuke the undisciplined and restless, and to exhort the obedient, mild, and patient to advance in virtue. And such as are negligent and haughty we charge him to reprove and correct. let him not shut his eyes to the faults of offenders; but as soon as they appear, let him strive, as he has the authority for tht, to root them out, remembering the fate of Eli, the priest of Shiloh (1 Sam 2:11-4:18). Those of good disposition and understanding let him correct, for the first or second time, with words only; but such as are troublesome and hard of heart, proud or disobedient, let him chastise with bodily stripes at the very first offense, knowing tht it is written: The fool is not corrected with words (Prov. 29:19), and again, Strike your son with a rod and you will have freed his soul from death (Prov. 23:14).

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

The abbot is not to make any distinction of persons in the monastery. He should not love one more than another unless he finds one better in good actions and obedience. A free-born man is not to be put before a slave who becomes a monk, except for some other reasonable cause. Although, if justice requires it, the abbot may see fit to change anyone's rank. Otherwise let each keep to his regular place, because whether we are slaves or free, we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28), Eph. 6:8) and serve alike in the army of the Lord; for with God there is no partiality among persons (Rom. 2:11).

Solely in this only are we distinguished in his sight: if we are found t surpass others in good works and in humility. Therefore, let the abbot show equal love to all and impose on all the same discipline, according to their merits.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

Teaching by words and deeds

Therefore, when anyone receives the name of abbot he is to govern his disciples by a twofold teaching: that is, he must show forth all that is good and holy more by deeds than by words; declaring to receptive disciples the commandments of the Lord with words, but demonstrating the divine precepts to the stubborn and the simple-minded by the example of his deeds. And all of the things which he teaches his disciples are contrary (to the law of God) - it should be seen from his own actions that these are not to be done, lest while preaching to others, he himself be found reprobate (1 Cor. 9:27); and God say to him in his sin: How is it that you recite my justice and declare my covenant with your mouth, when you hate discipline and cast my words behind you (Ps. 50:16-17)? And also this: How is it that you can see a speck in your brother's eye, and not notice the plank in your own (Matt. 7:3)?

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

Parental responsibility

Let the abbot remember always that at the fearful judgment of God both his (the Abbot's) teaching and the obedience of his disciples -- both of these matters -- will be examined. the abbot must, therefore, know that the shepherd will be considered at fault if the father of the household (paterfamilias) finds that the sheep have yielded no profit. If, on the other hand, he has exercised all pastoral diligence over a restless and disobedient flock, always striving to heal their unhealthy ways; then the shepherd will be acquitted at the Judgment of the Lord, and will say to the Lord with the prophet: I have not hidden your justice in my heart; I have declared your truth and your salvation (Ps. 40:11), but they condemned and spurned me (Isa. 1:2, Ezek. 20:27). Then at last the sheep disobedient to his care will be punished by overpowering death.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

The antidote to exhaustion

The antidote for exhaustion is not necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is whole heartedness.

David Stendl-Rast, OSB

The Abbot

An abbot who is worthy to govern a monastery must always remember what he is called, and fulfill his title through his deeds. For he is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, since he is addressed by a title of His (Christ's), as the Apostle has said, "You have received the spirit of adoption of sons by which we cry, 'abba, father" (Rom. 8:15).

Therefore, the abbot should never teach or enact or command anything contrary to the teaching of the Lord; rather let his commands and his teaching, like the leaven of divine justice, suffuse the minds of his disciples.


Rule of Benedict, Chapter 2

Working from the Inside Out

Are we not perhaps seeing once again, in the light of current history, that no positive world order can prosper where souls are overgrown.

Spe Salvi 15

Kinds of Monks part 4

The fourth kind of monks are those called gyrovagues, who spend their whole lives seeking hospitality in province after province, monastery after monastery, staying three or four days at a time; always wandering and never stable, they are slaves to self-will and the snares of appetite: they are in all things worse than the Sarabaites.

Of the most wretched life of all these it is better to remain silent than to speak. Leaving these behind us, therefore, let us proceed, with the help of God, to make provision for the Cenobites -- the strong kind of monks.


Rule of Benedict, Chapter 1

Kinds of Monks part 3

A third and detestable kind of monks are the Sarabaites, who have been tried neither by rule nor by experience as gold by the furnace (Prov. 27:21) but, being soft as lead, still keep faith with the world in their behavior, lying to God with their tonsure. Living in twos or threes, or even singly without a shepherd, they enclose themselves not in the Lord's sheepfolds but in their own. Their law consists in their own pleasures and desires: whatever they think fit or choose to do, that they call holy; and what they do not like, that they consider unlawful.


Rule of Benedict, Chapter 1

Kinds of Monks part 2

The second are the anchorites - hermits: that is, those who, not in the first fervor of monastic life, but after long probation in the monastery, have learned by the help and experience of others to fight against the devil. They go forth well-armed from the ranks of their brethren to the solitary combat of the desert. They are not able to fight safely without the support of others, by their own strength and with God's assistance, against the vices of flesh and thoughts.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 1

Kinds of Monks

It is plain that there are four kinds of monks. The first are the Cenobites: that is, those who do their service in monasteries under a rule and an abbot.

Rule of Benedict, Chapter 1

Do not fear the narrow way

We have therefore, to establish a school of the Lord's service. In the institution of it we hope to establish nothing that is harsh or oppressive. But if anything is somewhat strictly laid down, according to the dictates of equity and for the amendment of vices, or for the preservation of love; do not therefore flee in dismay from the way of salvation, which cannot be other than narrow at the beginning.

For as we progress in this our way of life and in faith, our hearts shall expand, and we shall run the way of God's commandments with the unspeakable sweetness of love. So that , never departing from his guidance, but persevering in his teaching in the monastery until death, we may by patience participate in the sufferings of Christ; that we may deserve also to be partakers of his kingdom. Amen.


Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue v. 45-50

God is waiting

With these (admonitions) concluded, the Lord is waiting daily for us to respond by our deeds to his holy guidance. Therefore, in order that we may amend our evil ways, the days of our lives have been lengthened as a reprieve, as the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God is leading you to repentance? (Romans 2:4) For the loving Lord says: I do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live. (Ezek. 33:11)

Since then brethren, we have asked of the Lord who is to dwell iin his tent, we have heard his commands to those who are to abide there, it remains for us to complete the duties of those who dwell there. Our hearts, therefore, and our bodies must be prepared in fight in holy obedience to his commands. And let us ask God to supply by the help of his grace what by nature is hardly possible to us. And if we wish to reach eternal life, escaping the pains of hell, then -- while there is yet time, while we are still in the flesh and are able to fulfil all these things by the light which is given us -- we must run and perform now what will profit us for eternity.


Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue v. 35-44

Rooting our action in Christ

These are they (dwelling in God's tent) who, fearing the Lord, are not elated over their own good works; but knowing that the good which is in them comes not from themselves but from the Lord, they magnify (Ps. 15:4) the Lord who works in them saying with the Prophet: Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto your name give the glory (Ps. 115:1) In this way the Apostle Paul imputed nothing of his preaching to himself, but said: By the grace of God I am what I am. (1 Cor. 15:10) And again he says: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. (2 Cor. 10:17)

Hence also the Lord says in the Gospel: He who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock: the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall; because it was founded upon a rock. (Mt. 7:24-5)


Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue v. 29-34

Dealing with Temptation

But let us ask the Lord with the Prophet, saying to him: Lord, who shall dwell in your tent, or who shall rest upon your holy mountain? (Psalm 15:1) After this question, brethren, let us hear the Lord answering and showing us the way to his tent, saying: One who walks without stain and works justice; one who speaks the truth in his heart, who has not practiced deceit with his tongue; one who has done no evil to his neighbor, and has not believed false accusations against his neighbor. (Ps. 15:2-3)

One who has brought the malignant devil to naught, casting him out of the sight of his heart with all his suggestions; and has taken hold of his bad thoughts, while they were still young, and dashed them down upon Christ. (Ps. 15:4, 137:9)


Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue v. 23-28

Run by doing good

What can be sweeter to us, dear brothers, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold in his loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life. Having our loins, therefore, girded with faith and the performance of good works, let us walk in his paths by the guidance of the Gospel, that we may deserve to see him who has called us in his kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12)

And if we wish to dwell in the tabernacle of this kingdom, we shall never reach it unless we run there by our good deeds.

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue vv. 19-22

Pursue Peace

And the Lord, seeking his own workman in the multitude of the people to whom he cries out, says again: Who is it who longs for life, and desires to see good days (Pslm 34:12)?

And if you, hearing him, answer, "I am the one!" God says to you: If you long for true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn aside from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34:13-14).

And when you have done these things, my eyes will be upon you and my ears will be open to your prayers; and before you call upon me, I will say unto you, Behold, I am here (Isa. 58:9).

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue v. 14-18

The Call of Scripure

Let us then at last arise, since the Scripture stirs us up saying: It is time now for us to rise from sleep (Rom. 13:11). And our eyes being open to the deifying light, let us hear with wondering ears what the Divine Voice admonishes us, daily crying out: Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Psalm 95:7-8). And again, You who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the Churches (Rev. 2:7).

And what does he say? Come my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Psalm 34:12). Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death seize hold of you (John 12:35).

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue 8-13

Begin with Prayer

To you therefore, my words are now addressed, whoever you are, that renouncing your own will, you take up the strong and bright weapons of obedience, in order to fight for the Lord Christ, our true King.

In the first place, whenever you begin any good work, beg of him with most earnest prayer to perfect it; so that he who has now granted us the dignity of being counted in the number of his children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must always so serve him with the good things he has given us, that not only may he never, as an angry father, disinherit his children; but may never as a dread Lord, incensed by our sins, deliver us to everlasting punishment as most wicked servants who would not follow him to glory.

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue 3-7

Listen

Listen, O my son to the precepts of the master, and incline the ear of your heart: willingly receive and faithfully fulfil the admonition of your loving father; that you may return by the labor of obedience to him from whom you had departed through the sloth of disobedience.

Rule of St. Benedict

Divine vs. Human Wisdom

“Years of working with Scripture has taught me that the most explosive divine concepts (for example, continual prayer, complete detachment, a sparing-sharing lifestyle) while they at first seem impossible are seen upon further study to be absolutely correct. It is quite otherwise with human wisdom. At first it has the appearance of truth, but upon further testing and experience it is found to be lacking in only too many cases.”

Thomas Dubay S.M.

Prayer and Life

“Strange it is that when people experience emptiness in prayer, they assume the main problem must be that they have not yet found the right book or the right technique – oriental or occidental. Scripture says nothing about method at prayer, but it does say a great deal about true poverty. The main problem in developing a deep prayer life is by far the failure to live the radicality of the Gospel, hour by hour and day by day.”

Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Poverty

“[Poverty] gives the poor man the experience of a radical readiness for the kingdom.”

Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Knowing our desires

“In the basic decisions of life, God moves persons to will freely whatever He wills for them.”

Francis Kelly Nemeck and Marie Therese Coombs

Listening

“[The spiritual dimension of] listening is that attitude of heart whereby that which is deepest and most mysterious in us remains in loving attentiveness to that which is deepest and most mysterious in God.”

Francis Kelly Nemeck and Marie Therese Coombs

Bulletin Bloopers

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

Bulletin Bloopers

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight "Searching for Jesus."

Listeniing

“[On the psychological level, listening is] the attentiveness of our being to another’s becoming in all his/her beauty and sinfulness, struggle and mystery.”

Francis Kelly Nemeck and Marie Therese Coombs

Identity

[After creating the heavens and the earth] “God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’ God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth… And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.”

Gn. 1:26-31

Bulletin Bloopers

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at St. Martin's Church. Please use
the large double doors at the side entrance.

Mission

Variation on a Theme by Rilke

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task, The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.

Levertov, Denise

Surrender

God is the only one we can surrender to without losing ourselves.

Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Scripture

Bulletin Bloopers

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Bulletin Bloopers

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.

Bulletin Bloopers

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Bulletin Bloopers

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Bulletin Bloopers

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Bulletin Bloopers

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

Bulletin Bloopers

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Bulletin Bloopers

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Father Jack's sermons.

Bulletin Bloopers

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

Bulletin Bloopers

The Priest will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth Into Joy."

Bulletin Bloopers

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

Bulletin Bloopers

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Gratitude

“Father, we acknowledge your greatness: all your actions show your wisdom and love. You formed us in your own likeness and set us over the whole world to serve you, our creator, and to rule over all creatures. Even when we disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon us to the power of death, but helped all to seek and find you. Again and again you offered a covenant to us, and through your prophets taught us to hope for salvation. Father, you so loved the world that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our savior.”

Eucharistic Prayer IV

Love

Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offense or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end.

1 Cor. 13.4-8

Simplicity

“Simplicity means that we live close enough to the limits of our resources so that we can rely on God’s providence and appreciate the beauty of life. Simplicity fosters spontaneity, truthfulness, and clear speech. Simplicity also is required of anyone who seeks justice, peace, and equitable stewardship of resources. Simplicity is not a simple way to live. It requires serious reflection to sort out what is necessary and what is luxury. With all the pressures to buy this and have that, it is difficult to be satisfied with having just enough to be generous and caring. It is not simple to speak plainly and truthfully. We are tempted to equivocate, massage the truth, and manipulate our speech. Only conscious and consistent meditation, prayer, and examination can help us live the simplicity of Jesus.”

People’s Companion to the Breviary

Faith

Faith is a quality of the person, a perfection of the mind and will that adhere to the light of God… Faith is a passive or receptive virtue and at the same time it is active. It communicates divine light to us and also leads us into the darkness of mystery.

Servais Pinckaers, O.P.

Loving the Questions

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Rilke

Identity and Integrity

“Identity lies in the intersection of the diverse forces that make up my life and integrity lies in relating those forces in ways that bring me wholeness and life rather than fragmentation and death.”

• • • • Parker Palmer

Teaching with Heart

“[The heart is] the loom on which the threads [student, subject, and teacher] are tied, the tension is held, the shuttle flies, and the fabric is stretched tight.”

• • • • Parker Palmer

Heart

“[The heart is] the place where intellect and emotion and spirit will converge in the human self.”

• • • • Parker Palmer

Teaching and Community

• “To teach is to create a space where the community of truth is practiced”
• 
  
• Parker Palmer

Teaching

“To teach is to create a space where obedience to truth is practiced”

• Parker Palmer

Identi

Bulletin

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

Risk

"You just heard in the Gospel that one must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life...Whoever out of love for Christ gives themselves to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies-but only apparently. If it did not die, it would remain alone. Only in undoing itself does it produce the harvest."

Oscar Romero

thou shalt not kill

"I want to make a special appeal to soldiers, national guardsmen and policemen: each of you is one of us. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God's words, 'thou shalt not kill.' No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression."

Oscar Romero

Death and Resurrection

"I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the hearts of the Salvadoran people."

Oscar Romero

Love and Justice

"A civilization of love that did not demand justice of people would not be a true civilization...it is a caricature of love to try to cover over with alms what is lacking in justice."

Oscar Romero

Preaching

"To try to preach without referring to the history one preaches in is not to preach the gospel. Many would like a preaching so spiritualistic that it leaves sinners unbothered and does not term idolaters those who kneel before money and power. A preaching that says nothing of the sinful environment in which the gospel is reflected upon is not the gospel."

Oscar Romero

God's Word

"I study the Word of God to be read on Sunday. I look around me, at my people. I use this Word to shed light on my surroundings...Naturally, the idols and idolatries of the earth are irritated by this Word, and they would like very much to remove it, to silence it, to kill it. Let happen what God wills, but God's Word, as St. Paul said, is not tied down."

Oscar Romero

Peace

"Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."

Oscar Romero

Truth and Paradox

“The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth”

Niels Bohr

Morality and Law

It may be true that morality can’t be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that legislation cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The measuer of a person

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reason and Imagination

When Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” he did us no favor, but further fragmented us, making us limit ourselves to the cognitive at the expense of the imaginative and the intuitive. But each time we read the gospels we are offered anew this healing reconciliation and, if we will, we can accept the most wondrous gift of the magi.

Madeleine L'Engle

Theology

Theology is the name we give to the efforts of our minds and hearts to catch up with the work of the Living God in the world. Or… theology is the name we give to the effort of our minds and hearts to grasp the world conjured by God and construed by Scripture. Or… theology is our successfully imagining the world imagined by Scripture, which reveals the world imagined by God.

• • Luke Timothy Johnson

Taking Sides

“I am not altogether on anyone’s side because no one is altogether on my side.”

Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings

Stress and Sloth

“Stress, overwork, stretching our mental and physical resources too thinly, too fast, or too often is a common characteristic of modern life. It is also an easy way of avoiding doing what we should be doing. Doing too much can be a form of sloth. If stress could be measured, it would be by the distance we have allowed to develop between our selves and ourselves, between body and mind, grace and nature, our work and God’s work…. It is often also related to a sense that what we are doing in the world, even successful and acclaimed work, is useless and meaningless. If we are not doing what we love, what we should be doing, everything we do will feel compromised or guilty.”

Laurence Freeman, O.S.B.

Discernment and Entering Community

“As the Rule [of St. Benedict] describes, entering a community is a process and requires discernment. This is not because the community is any kind of elite. But because the full benefit of entering demands the clearest possible understanding of one’s reasons and of the call to which one is responding.”

Laurence Freeman, O.S.B.

Conversion

“Dramatic experiences of conversion may have their value but their meaning is in opening a new phase of life. This vow is a commitment to be always a pilgrim, living an ongoing conversion of one’s way of life by an ever fuller harmony with the principles of peace, tolerance, selflessness and generosity and the courage to say the truth about injustice.”

Laurence Freeman, O.S.B.

Fundamentalism

"..."fundamentalisms" all follow a certain pattern. They are embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis. They are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil. They fear annihilation, and try to fortify their beleaguered identity by means of a selective retrieval of certain doctrines and practices of the past."

Karen Armstrong

Messy Spirituality

You and I are incomplete. I'm unfinished. I'm unfixed. And the reality is that's where God meets me is in the mess of my life, in the unfixedness, in the brokenness. I thought he did the opposite, he got rid of all that stuff. But if you read the Bible, if you look at it at all, constantly he was showing up in people's lives at the worst possible time of their life.

- Mike Yaconelli

The drive to write

“Writing is like breathing, it’s possible to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what”

Julia Cameron

Tolkein on Evil

I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present moment: The millions parted, fretting, wasting in unprofitable days - quite apart from torture, pain, death, bereavement, injustice. If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapour, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens! And the products of it all will be mainly evil - historically considered. But the historic version is, of course, not the only one. All things and all deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their 'causes' and 'effects'. No man can estimate what is really happening sub specie aeternitatis. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labors with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.

J.R.R. Tolkein

Proclaiming the Gospel

In the proclamation of this Gospel, we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking (cf. Rom 12:2). We must be in the world but not of the world (cf. Jn 15:19; 17:16), drawing our strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33).

Pope John Paul II

Seeking the Star

“We hunger for truth, we thirst to drink beauty, we yearn to celebrate, we seek to delight, we stretch out to love and to be loved. That is why anything less than everything is not enough.”

Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Death Penalty

“The nature and extent of the punishment… ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent.”

Pope John Paul II

Compassion

“True ‘compassion’ leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear”

Pope John Paul II

Euthenasia

“The temptation grows to have recourse to euthanasia, that is, to take control of death and bring it about before its time, ‘gently’ ending one’s own life or the life of others. In reality what might seem logical and humane, when looked at more closely is seen to be senseless and inhumane. Here we are faced with one of the more alarming symptoms of the ‘culture of death,’ which is advancing above all in prosperous societies, marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation with efficiency, and which sees the growing number of elderly and disabled people as intolerable and too burdensome. These people are very often isolated by their families and by society, which are organized almost exclusively on the basis of criteria of productive efficiency, according to which a hopelessly impaired life no longer has any value.”

-Pope John Paul II

Loss and Growth

"We don't like to dwell on our losses, but our whole lives are filled with losses, endless losses. And every time there are losses there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression, and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper. The question is not how to avoid loss and make it not happen, but how to choose it as a passage, as an exodus to greater life and freedom."
Henri Nouwen

Loss

"Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 10:39