LibrarySal

May
30th

Fri

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

—

Source: The Enlightened Heart, an Anthology of Sacred Poetry

Rumi

May
12th

Mon

I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea of the power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flare; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense; or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.

—

Source: Teaching a Stone to Talk

The Way It Really Is
Annie Dillard

Excellent day after Pentecost posting!

May
1st

Thu

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

This is how I feel as I wait for my placement (or not) and face the long end of the school year!

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

Apr
14th

Mon

John 14:1-14

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ^[a]; trust also in me. 2 My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know ^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

1 Peter 2:2-10

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house ^[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
       “See, I lay a stone in Zion,
       a chosen and precious cornerstone,
       and the one who trusts in him
       will never be put to shame.” ^[b]

    7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
       “The stone the builders rejected
       has become the cornerstone,” ^[c]

    8 and,
       “A stone that causes people to stumble
       and a rock that makes them fall.” ^[d]
       They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Psalm 31

Psalm 31 (Today’s New International Version)

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

   ^[a] 1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
       let me never be put to shame;
       deliver me in your righteousness.

    2 Turn your ear to me,
       come quickly to my rescue;
       be my rock of refuge,
       a strong fortress to save me.

3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.

5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, LORD, my faithful God.

    15 My times are in your hands;
       deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
       from those who pursue me.

16 Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love.

Mystify us, arouse and confuse us. Shatter our illusions and plans so that we lose our way, and see neither path nor light until we have found you, where you are to be found and in your true form—-in the peace of solitude, in prayer, in submission, in suffering, in succour given to another, and in flight from idle talk and worldly affairs. And, having tried all the known ways and means of pleasing you and not finding you any longer in any of them, we remain at a loss until, finally, the futility of all our efforts leads us at last to leave all to find you henceforth, you, yourself, everywhere and in all things without discrimination or reflection. For, how foolish it is, O Divine Love, not to see you in all that is good and in all creatures. Why, then, try to find you in what you are not?

—

Source: The Sacrament of the Present Moment

Until We Have Found You
Jean Pierre de Caussade

Apr
8th

Tue

2007 Childrens Books - 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

Apr
7th

Mon

We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Sublime grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe…. Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reverence everywhere to the mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine;…to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.

—

Source: I Asked for Wonder

Unhesitating Awe
Abraham Heschel