Whenever the desert fathers and mothers would get absolutely despondent and didn’t know how they were going to put one foot in front of the next, they had this mantra. And the mantra wasn’t God and the word wasn’t Jesus, but the word was today. And that’s sort of the key.
There’s a play off-Broadway right now, called Now. Here. This. And that’s kind of my — that’s become my mantra. I’m big on mantras. So, when I’m walking, or before a kid comes into my office, I always say, Now. Here. This. Now. Here. This, so that I’ll be present and right here to the person in front of me.
--Fr. Greg Boyle SJ
Fr. Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who founded and directs HomeBoy Industries, an extraordinarily successful gang intervention and rehabilitation program in Los Angeles. His books include Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir.
Image source: Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, anonymous (c.1520), https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-NM-9380
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