January 2012
1 post
May I become at all times, Both now and for ever, A protector for the helpless, A guide for the lost ones, A ship for those to cross oceans, And a bridge to cross rivers, A sanctuary for those in danger, A lamp for those in darkness, A refuge for those who need shelter, A servant to all in need. His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama Permalink | Leave a comment »
December 2011
12 posts
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In the original Hebrew, the 10th Commandment prohibits taking, not coveting. The biblical Jubilee year is named for an animal’s horn and has nothing to do with jubilation. The pregnant woman in Isaiah 7:14 is never called a virgin. Psalm 23 opens with an image of God’s might and power, not shepherding. And the romantic Song of Solomon offers a surprisingly modern message.
But most...
All four gospels tell us that the message of the Resurrection was given to women to proclaim to men. That leads some of us to believe that is evidence that God just might call a woman to be pastor.
Roger Gilbert, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Airy, N.C., explaining why he thinks a Baptist association’s vote to remove a church for calling a woman pastor isn’t what Jesus would do....
…whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate. And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.
OP-ED COLUMNIST Send in the Clueless PAUL...
“People ask me if I believe in global warming. I tell them, ‘No, I don’t,’ because belief is faith; faith is the evidence of things not seen. Science is evidence of things seen. To have an open mind, we have to use the brains that God gave us to look at the science,” Katharine Hayhoe is a climatologist who teaches at Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX. A rising star among...
This book would say to the modern layman “Don’t exclude yourself from the fellowship of Christ’s followers because of mental difficulties. If you love Christ and are seeking to follow him, take an attitude of Christian Agnosticism to intellectual problems at least for the present…In the meantime, join in with us in trying g to show and spread Christ’s spirit, for...
Unless we can break out of the prison of old-fashioned expressions, creeds and formularies, we shall never be free to find the far more glorious truths which are inherent in the Christian religion.
Leslie Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic. Permalink | Leave a comment »
Frankly, I often wonder why so many people do go to church. Christianity must have a marvelous inherent power, or the churches would have killed it long ago.
Leslie Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic
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I am writing for the Christian Agnostic by which I mean a person who is immensely attracted by Christ and who seeks to show his spirit, to meet the challenges, hardships and sorrows of life in the light of that spirit, but who, though he is sure of many Christian truths, feels that he cannot honestly and conscientiously ‘sign on the dotted line’ that he believes certain theological...
Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.
John of Salisbury in the 12th century, from the Minnesotastan Permalink | Leave a comment »...
REAL EYES
REALIZE
REAL LIES
painted on the side of a garage in Seattle. Permalink | Leave a comment »
November 2011
10 posts
Spending 13 minutes a year thinking about economics means wasting 10 minutes.
Peter Lynch, former fund manager at Fidelity Magellan, quoted in Morningstar reflecting on the Macroeconomic issues surrounding the European debt crises. Permalink | Leave a comment »
To love means loving the unlovable.To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
G.K. Chesterton Permalink | Leave a comment »
A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.
Found by a research associate on an email trailer.
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Fortune means having a lot of material wealth and also having a lot of luck. But that doesn’t mean the word FORTUNE has two definitions.
Lemony Snichet, The Occupy Movement Shared by a research associate. Permalink | Leave a comment »
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed, “the bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities of a decent America.”
Once again, poverty in America is growing at precisely the same time that our resources are being spent in foreign ventures with little justification. Rep Barbara Lee, 9th district of California Permalink | Leave a comment »...
If religious leaders and commentators in the U.K. and elsewhere could agree on these three proposals, not as a fixed agenda but as a common ground on which to start serious discussion, the struggles and questionings alike of protesters and clergy at St. Paul’s will not have been wasted.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, endorsing a Vatican statement supporting a “Robin Hood” tax on...
Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
G.K. Chesterton
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To put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.
President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1907, explaining the logic behind leaving “In God We Trust” off a $10 gold coin. On Tuesday the House passed a resolution reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the nation’s official...
Liberal because militant fundamentalist corporate oligarchy just wasn’t working for me.
From a Facebook post of a friend Permalink | Leave a comment »
The God whom Christianity worships reveals his majesty and holiness not in eternal disinterestedness but in suffering love.
Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892 – 1971, American Theologian and social critic.
The nature and destiny of man, Vol. 1 Permalink | Leave a comment »
October 2011
24 posts
Let everyone understand that real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us, but in serving God in justice, fortitude of the soul and humility.
Teresa of Avila 1515-1582 Permalink | Leave a comment »
I often ask myself, “How can you possibly commit your life to such a corrupt institution, with ministers so degraded as to sexually abuse innocent children and leaders so deluded as to tolerate this evil?” I can only reply in faith that the Church is not an idealized human organization or perfect society, but the risen body of Christ. Our allegiance is not merely to a human...
Love God and you will be humble;
love God and you will throw off the love of self;
love God and you will love all that God gives you to love for love the of God. Francois Fenelon, 1651-1715 Permalink | Leave a comment »
Why Companies Can't Find the Employees They Need -... →
Idol Chatter, Public Discourse →
A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.
Joseph Pilates Permalink | Leave a comment »
Its not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.
Lena Horne Permalink | Leave a comment »
Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow- for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good,...
Loving as He loves, Helping as He helps, Giving as He gives, Serving as He serves, Rescuing as He rescues, Being with Him twenty-four hours, Touching Him in his distressing disguise.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta 1910-1997 Permalink | Leave a comment »
(15) Rene Minshew →
We should never adjust to one percent of the people controlling 40 percent of the wealth. I hear my father say, ‘We must have a radical revolution of values and reordering of priorities of this nation.
Bernice King, at the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington D.C. (Source: New York Times) Permalink | Leave a comment »
Sometimes the cliches about the rich and famous really are true.
The Guardian reported a delightfully juicy story this morning about Patrizia Reggiani, ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, heir to the Gucci fortune. Reggiani, who is famous for once uttering, “”I would rather weep in a Rolls-Royce than be happy on a bicycle,” has refused parole because it would require her to get a job...
Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I love; I love in order that I may love…. Of all the motions and affections of the soul, love is the only one by means of which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to treat with the Creator and to give back something resembling what has been given to it. What God loves, he...
I once asked the Bishop of Geneva what one must do to attain perfection. “You must love god with all your heart,” he answered, “and your neighbor as yourself.” “I did not ask wherein perfection lies,” I rejoined, “but how to attain it.” “Charity,” he said again, “that is both the means and the end, the only way by which we can...
The day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. When that day comes, we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation.”
James Madison
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the Catholic League today reminds us that Jeffress, is getting a lot of press lately for condemning Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, last year had this to say about Catholicism: “Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like pagan religion. Isn’t that the genius of Satan?” Permalink | Leave a...
Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons. Gretel Ehrlich
From a friend Permalink | Leave a comment »
Autumn
*Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons.*
*Gretel Ehrlich*
From a friend
Work hard, pray hard: On Dorothy Day and Thomas... →
Steve Jobs commencement speech 05
.*..Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m
convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I
did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as
it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life,
and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great...
this is real war →
From the Dept. of That Doesn’t Happen Every Day, an *Ohio* sheriff says a feud
between rival Amish
clans
has
resulted in a spat of skirmishes involving (of course) one group trying to
cut off the other group’s beards.
The Washington Post
new faces of poverty
*A record 46 million of us — and 18percent of families — are now considered poor, as job losses hit the suburbs and the middle class.* (*USA Today* )>
Trial and error
*The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.* Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991) writer, novelist and translator; won 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature; wrote works in Yiddish.
Sometimes the church stands up for the right...
*Even as congressional Republicans prepared to slash funding for federal safety-net programs for the poor in the name of fiscal responsibility, U.S. Catholic leaders said the alarming number of Americans living in poverty demands a response that gives priority to the needs of the poor.* (*National Catholic Reporter* )>
September 2011
5 posts
What is your life about, anyway?
Nothing but a struggle to be someone.
Nothing but a running from your own silence.
Rumi
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I will be off line until October 1
*What is your life about, anyway?* *Nothing but a struggle to be someone.* *Nothing but a running from your own silence.* Rumi
Two Muslim congressmen and other prominent Muslims have urged Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid five years ago and has been held ever since in the Gaza Strip. (Religion News Service) Permalink | Leave a comment »