Great Souls

The best and most nourishing souls are made of a few great and radiant acts of goodness and a thousand tiny obscure miseries which feed their goodness, like the wheat that lives from the decomposition of the soil.

Marie Noel, 20th c. French Poet

Young and Old

Every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old. (Mt. 13:52)

I was brought up in the old traditions, but listening to younger people and sharing in their private struggles rids me of certain reflexes of fear. Without these thousands of young people here on the hill, where would I be now, in spite of my desire to be open.

Br. Roger of Taize

The Scientific Mind

Engineers taking a refresher course in information processing share our supper.  An atheist among them vigorously contests all that Christians believe.  His scientific mind gauges everything by what he can know.  At the end of the evening I tell him:  "The questions you have been asking are questions that a man living by the certainty of God also dares to keep asking himself during his life.  This kind of questioning, part of our basic doubt, does not prevent us from constantly setting out from doubt to belief."

Brother, who, for you, is Christ?

For me, Christ is he by whom I live, but also the one for whom I, with you, am searching.

Br. Roger of Taize

Writing as Fundamental Indendence

It is good to write each day and if necessary oblige myself to do so.  It is my handwork, as someone else pounds dough and makes bread.  It is the means of a fundamental independence.

Br. Roger of Taize

Endurance

Be steadfast of heart, and keep going forward!

Sirach 2:2

Hope for the Future

God has plans for a future of peace for you, not of misfortune; God wants to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11