Can you tell me of a shortcut I can take to get through life
Is it any route permitted
Or is my ticket restricted
Can my route be straight and flat without any pain or strife
Must there be mountains to traverse
Can’t I just skip out the perverse
Is it possible to play the game and never get it wrong
Is there a trick or rule of thumb
To guarantee it will be won
Could I get it right the first go without needing to rehearse
Learn from mistakes of other men
And not repeat them all again
Can I learn the lesson well without doing any work
Always the winner and the best
Who scores top marks on every test
But if it’s true that nothing grows until the seed falls down to die:
Will I lose my life to find it
Can I learn to simply submit?
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Any Shortcuts?
Thistles
My garden’s the one with the thistles
I keep it immaculately wild
The trowel and the spade have rusted away-
Now I sit and smile.
The neighbours have borders and beds
To match their orderly lives;
They grow rows of delicate flowers
But nothing really thrives.
I have the butterflies, I have the birds
My thistles are teeming with life.
Yet all that I do is watch as they grow
I don’t need to be neat or precise.
Because sometimes life must be messy
And growth doesn’t look very nice.
My garden’s the one with the thistles
And thistles, for me, will suffice.
Monday 15 August 2011
Community and Growth - Jean Vanier
"He who loves community, destroys community; he who loves the brethren, builds community." - Bonhoeffer
"The major threats to our survival no longer stem from nature without but from our own human nature within. It is our carelessness, our hostilities, our selfishness and pride and willful ignorance that endanger the world. Unless we can now tame and transmute the potential for evil in the human soul, we shall be lost. And how can we do this unless we are willing to look at our own evil with the same thoroughness, detached discernment and rigorous methodology to which we subject the external world?" - Scott Peck
When someone seeks intimacy before choosing what they want in life, there is danger.
There are too many people in the world who have no hope. There are too many cries which go unheard. There are too many people dying in loneliness. It is when the members of a community realise that they are not there simply for themselves or their own sanctification, but to welcome the gift of God, to hasten his Kingdom and to quench the thirst in parched hearts through their prayer and sacrifice, love and acts of service, that they will truly live community. A community is called to be light in a world of darkness, a spring of fresh water in the Church and for all people. If a community becomes lukewarm, people will die of thirst. If it bears no fruit, people will die of hunger.
"Do not feel obliged, in order to protect your religious dignity and your intimacy with God against exterior dangers, to put up barriers between the lay world and yourself. Don't put yourself on the fringe of human society... Like Jesus, become part of that humanity. Penetrate deeply into and sanctify your environment by the conformity of your life, by your friendship; by your love, by your life totally given to the service of others, like Jesus, by a life so mixed in with everyone else's that you may be one with them, wanting only to be in their midst like yeast that loses itself in the dough in order to make it rise." - Little Sister Madelaine
It's quite easy to found a community. There are always plenty of courageous people who want to be heroes, are ready to sleep on the floor, to work hard hours each day, to live in dilapidated houses. It's not hard to camp- anyone can rough it for a time. So the problem is not in getting the community started- there's always enough energy for take-off. The problem comes when we are in orbit and going around the same circuit. The problem is in living with brothers and sisters whom we have not chosen but who have been given to us, and in working ever more truthfully towards the goals of the community.
Old age is the most precious time of life, the one nearest to eternity. There are two ways of growing old. There are people who are anxious and bitter, living in the past and illusion, who criticize everything that goes on around them. Young people are repulsed by them; they are shut away in their sadness and loneliness, shrivelled up in themselves. But there are also old people with a child's heart, who have used their freedom from function and responsibility to find a new youth. They have the wonder of a child, but the wisdom of maturity as well. They have integrated their years of activity and so can live without being attached to power. Their freedom of heart and their acceptance of their limitations and weakness makes them people whose radiance illuminates the whole community. They are gentle and merciful, symbols of passion and forgiveness. They become a community's hidden treasures, sources of unity and life.They are true contemplatives at the heart of community.
In the end, the most important thing is not to do things for people who are poor and in distress, but to enter into relationship with them, to be with them and help them find confidence in themselves and discover their own gifts.
Prayer is no more than a child resting in his father's arms and saying "Yes".
We need constant challenge if we are not to become dependent on security and comfort, if we are to continue to progress from the slavery of sin and egoism towards the promised land of liberation.
We are all called to do, not extraordinary things, but very ordinary things with an extraordinary love that flows from the heart of God.
It seems to me that some Christians are in danger of talking too much about things they do not live: they have their theories on what makes for the 'good life' but they have not really experienced it. They speak from ideas rather than from the heart. The hidden life of Jesus is the model for all community life.
The spirituality of Nazareth, or the spirituality of the circle which implies littleness, love of little things and humility, is not easy in our world. We are schooled from an early age to go up the ladder of human promotion, to be outstanding, to succeed and to win prizes; we are taught to fend for ourselves and to be independent. We are taught how important it is to possess knowledge, success, power and reputation. We are taught to put external values over and above internal ones. However the gospels call us to love and live the Beatitudes; to die to ourselves. This implies a huge change of attitude, a conversion. And it can only come about if we are truly grafted onto Jesus and receive His Holy Spirit. We will never be able to live the littleness of love unless we are truly determined to respond to the call of Jesus to follow him. And that means we have to be rooted in prayer.
We are more earthy and more heavenly than we have cared to admit.
We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible.
Very often these days we have joy without God, or God without joy. That is the result of a certain tradition of God as all powerful and severe, a tradition which separated joy from the divine. But celebration is joy with God.
These days, when there are so many people depressed and frightened for the future, it is important to announce and celebrate our hope in God. There may be wars and revolutions; there may be sickness and natural catastrophes, but God is watching over humanity with love. Death is not the end of all. Love has conquered hate and death.
"The major threats to our survival no longer stem from nature without but from our own human nature within. It is our carelessness, our hostilities, our selfishness and pride and willful ignorance that endanger the world. Unless we can now tame and transmute the potential for evil in the human soul, we shall be lost. And how can we do this unless we are willing to look at our own evil with the same thoroughness, detached discernment and rigorous methodology to which we subject the external world?" - Scott Peck
When someone seeks intimacy before choosing what they want in life, there is danger.
There are too many people in the world who have no hope. There are too many cries which go unheard. There are too many people dying in loneliness. It is when the members of a community realise that they are not there simply for themselves or their own sanctification, but to welcome the gift of God, to hasten his Kingdom and to quench the thirst in parched hearts through their prayer and sacrifice, love and acts of service, that they will truly live community. A community is called to be light in a world of darkness, a spring of fresh water in the Church and for all people. If a community becomes lukewarm, people will die of thirst. If it bears no fruit, people will die of hunger.
"Do not feel obliged, in order to protect your religious dignity and your intimacy with God against exterior dangers, to put up barriers between the lay world and yourself. Don't put yourself on the fringe of human society... Like Jesus, become part of that humanity. Penetrate deeply into and sanctify your environment by the conformity of your life, by your friendship; by your love, by your life totally given to the service of others, like Jesus, by a life so mixed in with everyone else's that you may be one with them, wanting only to be in their midst like yeast that loses itself in the dough in order to make it rise." - Little Sister Madelaine
It's quite easy to found a community. There are always plenty of courageous people who want to be heroes, are ready to sleep on the floor, to work hard hours each day, to live in dilapidated houses. It's not hard to camp- anyone can rough it for a time. So the problem is not in getting the community started- there's always enough energy for take-off. The problem comes when we are in orbit and going around the same circuit. The problem is in living with brothers and sisters whom we have not chosen but who have been given to us, and in working ever more truthfully towards the goals of the community.
Old age is the most precious time of life, the one nearest to eternity. There are two ways of growing old. There are people who are anxious and bitter, living in the past and illusion, who criticize everything that goes on around them. Young people are repulsed by them; they are shut away in their sadness and loneliness, shrivelled up in themselves. But there are also old people with a child's heart, who have used their freedom from function and responsibility to find a new youth. They have the wonder of a child, but the wisdom of maturity as well. They have integrated their years of activity and so can live without being attached to power. Their freedom of heart and their acceptance of their limitations and weakness makes them people whose radiance illuminates the whole community. They are gentle and merciful, symbols of passion and forgiveness. They become a community's hidden treasures, sources of unity and life.They are true contemplatives at the heart of community.
In the end, the most important thing is not to do things for people who are poor and in distress, but to enter into relationship with them, to be with them and help them find confidence in themselves and discover their own gifts.
Prayer is no more than a child resting in his father's arms and saying "Yes".
We need constant challenge if we are not to become dependent on security and comfort, if we are to continue to progress from the slavery of sin and egoism towards the promised land of liberation.
We are all called to do, not extraordinary things, but very ordinary things with an extraordinary love that flows from the heart of God.
It seems to me that some Christians are in danger of talking too much about things they do not live: they have their theories on what makes for the 'good life' but they have not really experienced it. They speak from ideas rather than from the heart. The hidden life of Jesus is the model for all community life.
The spirituality of Nazareth, or the spirituality of the circle which implies littleness, love of little things and humility, is not easy in our world. We are schooled from an early age to go up the ladder of human promotion, to be outstanding, to succeed and to win prizes; we are taught to fend for ourselves and to be independent. We are taught how important it is to possess knowledge, success, power and reputation. We are taught to put external values over and above internal ones. However the gospels call us to love and live the Beatitudes; to die to ourselves. This implies a huge change of attitude, a conversion. And it can only come about if we are truly grafted onto Jesus and receive His Holy Spirit. We will never be able to live the littleness of love unless we are truly determined to respond to the call of Jesus to follow him. And that means we have to be rooted in prayer.
We are more earthy and more heavenly than we have cared to admit.
We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible.
Very often these days we have joy without God, or God without joy. That is the result of a certain tradition of God as all powerful and severe, a tradition which separated joy from the divine. But celebration is joy with God.
These days, when there are so many people depressed and frightened for the future, it is important to announce and celebrate our hope in God. There may be wars and revolutions; there may be sickness and natural catastrophes, but God is watching over humanity with love. Death is not the end of all. Love has conquered hate and death.
Sunday 14 August 2011
Falling in love is like owning a dog - Taylor Mali
First of all, it's a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you're walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?
On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn't like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.
Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don't you ever do that again!
Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.
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