Sabbath-Day
morning tea
so hot I have to whisp it
through pursed lips
as I sit
as I pray
for the well-being
of my heart
of every heart
in the enduring rumble
of our daily lives
evening tea
black with oil of bergamot
and bread dark
and warm as the psalms
as I sit with only candlelight
and pray for the grace
I need to always care
and never to forget
which is more than enough
for another sabbath-day
morning tea
so hot I have to whisp it
through pursed lips
as I sit
as I pray
for the well-being
of my heart
of every heart
in the enduring rumble
of our daily lives
evening tea
black with oil of bergamot
and bread dark
and warm as the psalms
as I sit with only candlelight
and pray for the grace
I need to always care
and never to forget
which is more than enough
for another sabbath-day
Falling in love is a desire to merge with, to be completely immersed in love for, and be loved by the beloved... you are in it for the love, not for the attainment, not for the object... You can't attain it; you have to become it. In the process subject and object, lover and Beloved, become one. You lose yourself and gain your Self.
-- Ram Dass (from Be Love Now)
The function of image, symbol, poetry, music, chant, and ritual (remotely related to sacred dance) is to open up the inner self of the contemplative, to incorporate the senses and the body in the totality of the self-orientation to God that is necessary for worship and for meditation... The greatest mystical literature speaks not only of "darkness" and "unknowing" but also, and almost in the same breath, of an extraordinary flowering of "spiritual senses" and aesthetic awareness underlying and interpreting the higher and more direct union with God "beyond experience"... Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy.
-- Thomas Merton (from Contemplative Prayer)
For years, my greatest joy was to be found in telling stories to the youth who would meet in our Community gathering room for conversation and prayer. I knew that the chance to speak of the love and beauty -- of the Divine Beloved -- I had found on the Chinatown streets was important, so very important, for each one of us. But, more than stories, I was able to explore a "breaking" faith, an expansive purpose, and a dream of justice with the young people coming to us. For an hour or so, to feel the renewal of hope, courage, and vision in my own heart.
-- Robert Daniel Smith (from Resplendent In Rags)
-- Robert Daniel Smith (from Resplendent In Rags)
Consciousness is latent in every particle of matter and the mathematical order which science discovers in the universe is due to the working of this universal consciousness within it.
Contemplation is to see and to hear from the heart. It takes us beyond sense perception. It is to relate to things as they are.
The further we go vertically towards God the further we can go horizontally towards men.
The ultimate reality includes all the differences in the world.
-- Fr. Bede Griffiths (from Arranged for Daily Reading)
The most significant thing about The Catholic Worker is poverty, some say. The most significant thing is community, others say. We are not alone any more. But the final word is love... We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other.
We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
-- Dorothy Day (from The Long Loneliness)
The Way is kindness as a daily practice. The Way is attuning one's mind and body to the deep rhythms of the Earth and Universe. The Way is accepting personal responsibility for the health and well-being of one's neighbors and all beings -- no excuses and no exceptions. The Way is poetry, play, and love-making until we become, like Yeshua and Mary, Francis and Clare, Rumi and Shams, love-beings: In the Name of the Divine Beloved, Boundlessly Compassionate, Boundlessly Merciful, Beauty within Beauty within Beauty.
-- Robert Daniel Smith (from Resplendent In Rags)
-- Robert Daniel Smith (from Resplendent In Rags)
The mystic is the one who consciously lets the Breath of God breathe in him... The mystic realizes that at the basis of reality is the drive toward that communion or love which exists between persons in mutual self-surrender... Now everything is impregnated by His holy presence... The mind plunges into the inner, intimate depths of things and finds God always as the immanent principle that sustains all creatures in being... In the Byzantine Christian East, the Christian learned to synchronize his breathing with the invocation of the sacred name of Jesus... The world is not to be annihilated; it is destined to be transfigured into Christ... Synchronizing this Name with our breath, we know by experience that He is our breath, our very life. Our "magnificent obsession" becomes the consciousness of His increasing and our proportionate decreasing before His allness... God became man that man might become God... The process of moving from image to likeness in divinization is the end therefore of every human being. -- Fr. George A. Maloney, S. J. (from The Breath of the Mystic)
Make an effort to let your mind be filled with God's name at all times. Be it at home or anywhere else, remembering that nothing exists outside God.
-- Sri Anandamayi Ma
Saints of all religions have attained God-realization through the simple concept of the Cosmic Beloved.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda
Whatever the way, this ecstasy of love leads to the supreme wisdom, to the discovery of the depth of the self, no longer in isolation, but in the communion of love, for which it was created.
-- Fr. Bede Griffiths
(from The Marriage of East and West)
... meditation, prayer, and spiritual groups can all be wonderful things, if they're what resonates with you. But now we can also recognize that something as simple as hugging a friend, spending time with your family, going to a concert, jogging, or any number of various interests are all spiritual activities that will facilitate growth when done with even a hint of mindfulness. As we continue to cultivate mindfulness, and deepen our awareness of the Divine within, through both formal and informal practices, everything becomes a spiritual practice -- everything.
-- Chris Grosso (from Indie Spiritualist -- a no bullshit exploration of spirituality)
Do everything as worship... The key to right relationship with everyone is respect based on oneness -- the conscious realization that there is only one Reality. Our relationships provide a precious opportunity for spiritual awakening. Behold the Divine in all people and in all situations.
-- Rev. Ellen Grace O'Brian
(from Living for the Sake of the Soul)
The wise seek refuge in me, seeing me everywhere and in everything...
-- Bhagavad Gita 7:19
Split a piece of wood -- I am there. Lift a stone, and you will find me there.
-- Gospel of Thomas 77: 2 - 3
