To come to possess all (St. John of the Cross)

To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing.
To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. 

To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. 

To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. 

 --St. John of the Cross 

Image source: Crucifix drawn by St. John of the Cross after a vision, https://aleteia.org/2017/09/22/discover-the-crucifix-drawn-by-saint-john-of-the-cross-after-a-mystical-vision/
Quotation source

Let go (Yoda)

 

Train yourself to let go 

of everything you fear to lose. 

--Yoda       

 Image & quotation source: https://www.starwars.com/news/8-great-life-teachings-from-yoda

The timeless embrace of God (Henri Nouwen)

    I have always been very conscious of my clock-time. Often, I asked myself: Can I still double my years? When I was thirty, I said: I can easily live another thirty! When I was forty, I mused, Maybe I am only halfway! Today I can no longer say that, and my question has become: How am I going to use the few years left to me? 

   All these concerns about our clock-time come from below. They are based on the presupposition that our chronology is all we have to live. But looked upon from above, from God’s perspective, our clock-time is embedded in the timeless embrace of God. Looked upon from above, our years on earth are not simply chronos, but kairos—another Greek word for time—which is the opportunity to claim for ourselves the love that God offers us from eternity to eternity. 

--Henri Nouwen          

Image source: https://www.stephenchamberlain.net/personal-reflections/chronos-and-kairos-the-gods-of-time 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 31, 2022: Rich in what matters to God...

Rich in what matters to God… 

Where do you find meaning? 

    In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher Qoheleth suggests that people often seek meaning in their possessions or their achievements, when in fact, such an endeavor is simply vanity, For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? In fact, the truth we need to focus ourselves in is not a tangible one; true wisdom comes from an appreciation of all that God is doing in our midst. We pursue the temporary when in fact we need to focus on the eternal, the timeless that God has put into our hearts. Otherwise, all things are vanity! Psalm 90 similarly encourages us to seek wisdom of heart rather than of head: Teach us to number our days aright, the psalmist asks. God is a power beyond our comprehension, an extraordinary power at work in our lives, not because we earned it, deserved it but because God loves us. Imagine if we began each day aware that we are filled at daybreak with God’s kindness, and lived from that kindness! 

    Jesus similarly encouraged his disciples to beware privileging the temporal over the eternal: Take care to guard against greed, he tells them in Luke’s Gospel, for to hoard our possessions for ourselves is another form of vanity. The parable of the rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest but who dies before being able to enjoy his wealth is ample illustration of this essential truth. He believes he has found meaning in life, but that life will be cut short. As Paul tells the Colossians, if you were raised with Christ, seek what is above. All that is earthly will pass away; our focus must be on what is above. If we consider in every instance how what we are about to do relates first to Christ, we might find new meaning in our every action. For true meaning comes from the knowledge that Christ is all and in all. 

    What if we lived all of our life in Christ, for the sake of Christ? What if all we gained in life became gift for other for the sake of the Lord, rather than for our own sense of achievement, our own sense of meaning? What if we found true meaning in what God was accomplishing in and through us, rather than in our own vainglorious achievements? Then we would have identified that which is truly valuable, a meaning both timeless and intangible, a meaning found only in Christ. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

To see the will of God (Ven. Aloysius Schwartz)

 

   When you pray, you only have to ask for two things: You should ask for the light to see the will of God, and you have to ask for the courage to be able to do the will of God. 

--Ven. Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz 

Image source: Egino Weinert, God loved his creation, and he expects a response, but on top of it all, he gave us a choice, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egino_Weinert
Quotation source

Persistent prayer (William McGill)

   The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will finally hear him. 

--William McGill 

Image source: Jean-François Millet, The Angelus (1857-1859), https://www.catholicstop.com/archives/category/prayer/ 

Quotation source

An uninterrupted dialogue with You (Etty Hillesum)

Sometimes the most important thing 

in a whole day is the rest we take 

between two deep breaths, 

or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. 

--Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life

    You have made me so rich, oh God, please let me share out Your beauty with open hands. 

    My life has become an uninterrupted dialogue with You, oh God, one great dialogue. Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your Heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. 

     At night, too, when I lie in bed and rest in You, oh God, tears of gratitude run down my face, and that is my prayer. 

--Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), Prayer from Auschwitz 

Image source: https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/a-prayer-for-holocaust-memorial-day/