The Still Point

THERE IS AN OLD SAYING – “LIVE EACH DAY AS THOUGH IT IS YOUR LAST DAY” – WHICH HAS A CERTAIN VALIDITY TO IT.  HOWEVER, IT CAN BE SEEN AS BEING SOMEWHAT PESSIMISTIC, PARTICULARLY FOR SOMEONE MY AGE.

FOR MY PART, WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE FACT THAT EACH DAY IS A NEW, FRESH BEGINNING, IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO SAY -

“LIVE EACH DAY AS THOUGH IT IS YOUR FIRST DAY”

AFTER ALL, EACH NEW DAY BRINGS A NEW REBIRTH,  A NEW SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES, A NEW SENSE OF LIFE.  GO FORTH AND MEET IT HEAD-ON.

People.  People important to you, people unimportant to you cross your life, touch it with love and carelessness and move on. There are people who leave you and you breathe a sigh of relief and wonder why you ever came in contact with them.  There are people who leave you and you breathe a sigh of remorse and wonder why they had to go away and leave such a gaping hole.  Acquaintances move on.  People change homes.  People grow apart. Enemies hate and move on.  Friends love and move on.  You think of the many who have moved, in your hazy memory.  You look on the present and wonder.  I believe in God’s master plan in lives.  He moves people in and out of each other’s lives and each leaves his mark on the other.  You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who ever touched your life, and you are more because of it, and you would be less if they had not touched you.  Pray God that you accept the bits and pieces in humility and wonder, and never question, and never regret.

Anonymous

As the year 2011 ends, we find that we, and the rest of the world, experience the reincarnation of the death of an old year, and the birth of a new year - 2012.  This sort of death/rebirth happens constantly throughout our lives, such as the end of one day and the beginning of the next.

Each year brings about a review of the past year for most people, and a set of expectations for the new one, often expressed as the dreaded “New Year’s Resolutions” which is a useful exercise regardless of the outcome, because it involves a personal assessment of our past year and a preparation  for the new year.

When we do this assessment, people make a mistake to concentrate on our shortcomings; in reality, most  people will find that they come off quite well as people when looking at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful-all parts of everyone’s life.

Let’s not mourn the passing of 2011, but wish it well, and look forward to our rebirth in 2012 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Behold God beholding you…and smiling.

You do not have to change for God to love you.

Both what you run away from-and yearn for-is within you.

Say goodbye to golden yesterdays-or your heart will never learn to love the present.

Peace is only found in yes.

You sanctify whatever you are grateful for.

On the day you cease to change you cease to live.

Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come.

Athony di Mello was a Jesuit priest from India, noted for his “one liners” on spiritual life.

St. Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226)

St. Francis is reputed to be the most important saint in the Christian Church.  He left a life of ease to help the poor and founded the Order of Friars Minor (“little friars”), the Franciscans.  He delighted  in God’s creation, particularly birds, animals and the earth itself.

He composed his famous prayer, reputed to be said more often by Christians than any other, with the
exception of the Our Father.

Prayer of St.Francis

“Oh God, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hate, let me sow love; where there is injury – pardon; where there is doubt – faith; where
there is despair – hope; where there is darkness – light; and where there is sadness – joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as
to understand, to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive,
pardoning that we are pardoned, and dying that we are born to eternal life.”

He led a simple life, but was not a simple man.                                     11/2/2011

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, get together to visit an old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said,   “If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and your stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was the coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups, and then began eyeing each other’s cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money, and position in society are the cups… They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided for us..”

God brews the coffee, not the cups…enjoy your coffee!

Source – Unknown

Although unknown, the author certainly had life in perspective!  Do we give our lives that which reflects the difference between the container and the coffee – for better or worse? 

SPIRITUALITY WEBSITES

Following are a number of websites which represent different viewpoints on spirituality and religion (they are not the same). Visiting them might be of interest, as they contain much info as well as links to other websites.

1.                www.Sojo.net

Jim Wallis is President of Sojourners Magazine; he is an Evangelical minister, and widely-known for his stands on social justice, ecumenism, among others.

2.                www.cacradicalgrace.org

The website of the Center For Action And Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM, founded be Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk, speaker and author worldwide about spirituality, justice, ecumenism, and related subjects.

3.                www.benetvision.org

The website for Sr. Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, known worldwide for her thoughtfulness and forthrighteousness on theological matters.

4.                www.crcc.org

Brian Mclaren’s website; he is an evangelical minister who invented the term emergent church.  A widely read author with a most worthwhile viewpoint regarding emumenism.

5.                www.tikkun.org

A Jewish magazine, founded by Rabbi Michael Lerner, containing reflections on healing in our society.

6.                www.NCRonline.org

National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, featuring many prominent contributors and news on a worldwide basis, from a predominantly catholic viewpoint.

Innumberable websites exist for other groups (Vatican, etc.), people (Deepak Chopra, etc.), even a website for Atheists.  These can be easily found by searching the web, and provide much info.

Murphy’s Lesser Laws: (unknown source)

1. Light travels faster than sound.  That’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
3. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
4. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

The Four Stages of Life: (unknown source)

1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.

Drink Tea and Nourish Life: (unknown source)

1. With the first sip….Joy.
2. With the second….Satisfaction.
3. With the third….Peace.
4. With the fourth….A Danish.

Quote from Thomas Jefferson:  I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

From Albert Einstein:  People like us, who believe in Physics, know that the distinction between Past, Present, and Future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

From LouVon, a teenage Native American young lady:  When life hands you a lemon, make grape juice and sit back and watch the world try to figure out how you did that. (A refreshing new slant on the old lemon/lemonade idea.)

Finally, an anonymous source:  Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day, saying, I will try again tomorrow.

Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador, in 1977.

At that time, El Salvador was a typical Latin American dictatorship, in that practically all of the wealth in that country was held by just a few very rich people, usually families, who exercised almost complete control over the government, the military, and to a large degree, the Catholic Church. Consequently, among all of these groups was the need to keep the status quo. The poor of El Salvador (everyone else) were completely ignored and reduced to barbaric living conditions.

When Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop, these powerful interests were pleased, as he had a reputation as a conservative “don’t rock the boat” person who would be expected to hew the line; however, within a month of his appointment, a close personal friend, a Jesuit priest named Fr. Grande, was assassinated. This priest had been an activist on behalf of the poor and afflicted, and this struck a spark in Romero, who suddenly became an outspoken advocate for social justice and against poverty, torture and assassinations.

As his efforts began to become recognized internationally, the vested interests in El Salvador pushed back violently, culminating in his assassination while conducting church service in a hospital chapel.  It was later proven that this was the work of a “death squad”, ordered by a Major D’Aubuisson, a man who had attended and graduated from the notorious “School of the Americas” at Fort Benning, Ga.  This school, funded by the US government (read “US taxpayers”), has trained military personnel for most Latin American dictatorships for many years.  (It is now known as the “Western Hemisphere Institute For Security Cooperation”).

A prayer was read at his funeral,  portions excerpted below. It has become attributed to Romero, but was actually written as a reflection by Bishop K. Untener of Saginaw, Michigan shortly before the assassination, for a different purpose, but was so pertinent to the situation that it has become forever associated with Romero’s name.

It is a beautiful reflection that applies to all of us as a way to view our lives and our individual roles.

A PRAYER

“It helps now and then to sit back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is the Lord’s work.

Nothing we do is complete which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us…………………

This is what we are about…

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest……………

We are prophets of a future that is not our own.