father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
Draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us - make it useful:
Create your reign of unity now -
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold
of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Truley - power to these statements -
may they be the ground from which all
my actions grow: Amen. ”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“At some thoughts a man stands perplexed,
above all at the sight of human sin,
and he wonders whether to combat it
by force or by humble love. Always decide: I
will combat it by humble love.
If you resolve on that once and for all,
you can conquer the whole world.
Loving humility is a terrible force:
it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing else like it.”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“The hope is certainly
and paradoxically,
both in the inner
sanctoms of our hearts
and in the broad magnitude
of the divine mystery
we call God.”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“In the legend of the Grail, the keeper of this
miraculous vessel is a king paralyzed
by a most painful wound.
And there it is said that the Grail shall belong to the
first who asks this king the question,
”What are you going through?”
The love of our neighbour, in all its fullness,
simply means being able to say to him,
”What are you going through?”
It is a recognition that the sufferer exists,
not only as a unit in a collection or a specimen
from the social category labeled “unfortunate”
but also as a man, exactly like us, who was one day
stamped with a special mark of affliction.
For this recognition to occur, it is enough,
but it is indispensable, to know how
to look at him in a certain way.
This way of looking is, first of all, attentive.
The soul empties itself of all its own contents
in order to receive into itself
the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth.”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“Gracious God,
grant me humility in which alone is rest,
and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest
of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul
with the simplicity of love for which one thing alone
is necessary. Occupy my whole life with the
one thought and the one desire of love,
that I may love not for the sake of merit,
not for the sake of perfection,
not for the sake of virtue,
not for the sake of sanctity,
but for love alone.
For there is only on thing that can
satisfy love and reward it,
and that is love alone.
”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“Regard’ is such a rich little word. It lives in the French word regarder, ‘to look.’ But it means more than to point your eyes this way or that. To regard someone – to have regard, or pay regard – is to look in a certain way, with reverence and care, even esteem. In Christian terms, to have regard for someone is to see with eyes tutored by faith, to perceive the magnificence of God’s work in a fellow human creature – not in spite of life’s degradation, but strangely, in and through it.”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“God travels wonderful paths with human beings;
God does not arrange matters to suit our opinions and views,
does not follow the path that humans would like to prescribe for God.
God’s path is free and original,
beyond all our ability to understand or to prove.
”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“Perseverance means more than endurance - more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.” Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He let’s the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands.”
father, mother, sister, brother, earth and moon and sky,
draw these words of wisdom inward,
to heart, and soul, and mind.
“O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us - make it useful:
Create your reign of unity now -
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold
of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Truly - power to these statements -
may they be the ground from which all
my actions grow: Amen. ”