What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if he is not born now in your heart?
~ Meister Eckhart
A novice master once responded when asked about a life lived in Christian authenticity, said that to be a Christian was not to know the answers but to begin to live in the part of the self where the question is born.…He was speaking of an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery.
~ Wendy M. Wright
Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
~Mary Ellen Chase
The star shines on for those with eyes to see,
A finite gleam toward all eternity.
~ Eleanor Chaffee
The manner in which it is given is worth more than the gift.
~ Pierre Corneille
For somehow, not only at Christmas,
but all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
is the joy that comes back to you.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier
Christmas, like a hearth fire remembered on a winter's night,
draws the wanderers by heartstrings back home.
~ Virginia Moore
When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace comes only when we turn and face the darkness? Only then will we be able to see the Light of the World.
~ Ann Weems
We should employ our passions in the service of life,
not spend life in the service of our passions.
~ Sir Richard Steele
If you want peace, live your faith.
And the very peace of God will dwell with you,
for that is where peace comes from.
~ John Taylor [adapted]
Right judgment means that we stretch out our hands to the poor and oppressed, that we seek and support good causes, that we work hard to keep the weak from being unjustly hurt.
~ John Calvin
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
~ Annie Dillard
The sane know contentment, for beauty is their lover, and beauty is never absent from this world.
~ St. Teresa of Avila
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it
is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
~ William Arthur Ward
Money can buy happiness only when you spend it on someone else.
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it,
and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
~ Samuel Johnson
We cannot abandon life because of its storms.
The strongest trees are not found sheltered in the safety of the forest,
rather they are in the open spaces --
bent and twisted by the winds of all seasons.
~ Tammy Felton
In the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ's birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary, yet is wondrously present.
~ Edward Hays
So once in every year we throng
Upon a day apart,
To praise the Lord with feast and song
In thankfulness of heart.
~ Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving
Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.
~ George Herbert
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
If you don't believe in ghosts, you've never been to a family reunion. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
No one is really happy merely because he has what he wants;
but only if he wants things he ought to want.
~Augustine
When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.
~ Catherine Ponder
No one can estimate what is really happening at the present. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labors with vast power and perpetual success — in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Forgive your enemies.
But if you have no enemies, forgive a few of your friends.
~ Bob Edwards
The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us.
~ Marianne Williamson
It is not our hold on Christ that saves us,
but God's hold on us!
~ Charles Spurgeon
One day a certain old, rich man of a miserable disposition visited a rabbi, who took the rich man by the hand and led him to a window. "Look out there," he said. The rich man looked into the street. "What do you see?" asked the rabbi.
"I see men, women and children," answered the rich man.
Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror. "Now what do you see?"
"Now I see myself," the rich man replied.
Then the rabbi said, "Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver. No sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others but see only yourself."
~ Source unknown.
Without God we cannot, without us God will not.
You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.
~ Zig Ziglar
A young man squandered all his inherited wealth. As generally happens in such cases, the moment he was penniless he found that he was friendless too. At his wit's end, he sought the Master out and said, "What is to become of me? I have no money and no friends." "Don't worry, son. Mark my words: All will be well with you again." Hope shone in the young man's eyes. "Will I be rich again?" "No. You will get used to being penniless and lonely."
We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.
~ Sir. Francis Bacon
"How does one seek union with God?"
"The harder you seek, the more distance you create between Him and you."
"So what does one do about the distance?"
"Understand that it isn't there."
"Does that mean that God and I are one?"
"Not one. Not two."
"How is that possible?"
"The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and his song -- not one. Not two."
~ Anthony de Mello
The Master gave his teaching in parables and stories, which his disciples listened to with pleasure -- and occasional frustration, for they longed for something deeper. The Master was unmoved. To all their objections he would say, "you have yet to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story." Another time he said, "Do not despise the story. A lost gold coin is found by means of a penny candle; the deepest truth is found by means of a simple story."
~ Anthony DeMello
Love beauty;
it is the shadow of God on the universe.
~ Gabriela Mistral
Sticks and stones will break our bones,
but words will break our hearts.
~ Robert Fulghum
Just do the right thing now; don't worry about the future.
To be at one with God is to be at peace.
Peace is to be found only within, and unless one finds it there, one will never find it at all.
Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one's own soul.
~ Ralph Trine
In this world there are two tragedies.
One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
The last is much worse.
~ Oscar Wilde
The hatred we bear for our enemies injures their happiness less than our own.
~ J. Petit-Senn
What we usually pray to God is not that God's will be done,
but that God approve ours.
~ Helga Gross
No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
-Phillips Brooks
When you read God's word, you must constantly be saying to yourself,
'It is talking to me, and about me.'
~ Søren Kierkegaard
I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
~ Helen Keller
I wept because I had no shoes,
until I met a man who had no feet.
~ Persian proverb
Life is about letting God use you for his purposes,
not using God for your own purpose.
~ Richard Warren
Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds you plant.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
There are two ways of spreading light:
To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
~ Edith Wharton
Dare to love and to be a real friend.
The love you give and receive is a reality that will
lead you closer and closer to God,
as well as those whom God has given you to love.
~Henri Nouwen
Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, whole heartedly, without regret or reservation.
~ William Sheldon
The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness meets the world's needs.
~ Frederick Buechner
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
~ Cicero
When I was young I was sure of everything;
in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times,
I was not half so sure of most things as I was before;
at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me.
~ John Wesley
Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a person on their feet. Blessed is the one who speaks such a word.
~ William Barclay
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
~ Douglas Adams
Our background and circumstances have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we become.
If someone you know needs help, don't annoy them by asking if there's anything you can do. Think of something appropriate and do it.
~ Edgar Howe
Joy is not in things;
it is in us.
~Richard Wagner
The Way of Prayer is a 10-week group designed to help you expand your understanding of the nature and practice of prayer. Pastor Steve will lead this group that will meet Monday evenings starting in October from 7-9 p.m..
Many Christians grow up with a limited vision of what prayer is and how to pray. The Way of Prayer offers many forms to explore and practice, both individually and as a group. People with different temperaments, spiritual types, and learning styles will each find expressions of prayer that draw them closer to God. We will also learn to integrate body, mind, and spirit in prayer, and to live a more creative rhythm between the inner life and the outward journey of service.
In this 10-week study, you will explore the nature of prayer and a number of prayer forms. Topics and dates are:
Said a traveler to one of the disciples, "I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master,but I find his words quite ordinary."
"Don't listen to his words. Listen to his message."
"How does one do that?"
"Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life.
That word is love.
~ Sophocles
Silence is the language of God;
It is also the language of the heart.
~ Dag Hammarskjöld
"Don't wait for a sign from God. Be one."
~ seen in the Jesuit residence at Red Cloud Indian School
"Are there ways for gauging one's spiritual strength?"
"Many."
"Give us one."
"Find out how often you become disturbed in the course of a single day."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
