December 2009
46 posts
Without stirring abroad One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way to heaven. The further one goes The less one knows.Therefore the sage knows without having to stir, Identifies without having to see, Accomplishes without have to act.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching Book Two XLVII; 106-107 Permalink | Leave a comment »
To be a sage in 2010
*Without stirring abroad One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way to heaven. The further one goes The less one knows. Therefore the sage knows without having to stir, Identifies without having to see, Accomplishes without have to act.* Lao Tzu, *Tao Te Ching* Book Two XLVII; 106-107
….As some to church repair
not for the doctrine
but the music there.” Alexander Pope, 1711, shared by a church musician research assistant.I think she is trying to tell me something about my profession? Permalink | Leave a comment »
It's about the...
*….As some to church repair* * not for the doctrine* * but the music there.” * Alexander Pope, 1711, shared by a church musician research assistant. I think she is trying to tell me something about my profession?
“How can one remain indifferent in the face of problems such as climate change, desertification, the degradation and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase in extreme weather, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical areas?”
Pope Benedict XVI on environmental ethics in his World Day of Peace message....
indifference
*“How can one remain indifferent in the face of problems such as climate change, desertification, the degradation and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase in extreme weather, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical areas?”* Pope Benedict XVI on environmental ethics in his World Day of Peace message....
Self-esteem: “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” Life’s choices: “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can...
Some of the things I learned from Mr Rogers
*Self-esteem: “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”* *Life’s choices: “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices...
Kindness in words creates confidence, Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tse Permalink | Leave a comment »
Kindness
*Kindness in words creates confidence, Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love.* Lao-Tse
To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously.
Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) Permalink | Leave a...
To welcome...
*To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously.* Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
It was on Christmas eve in 1914 that the last known Christmas truce occurred, during World War I. German troops fighting in Belgium began decorating their trenches and singing Christmas carols. Their enemy, the British, soon joined in the caroling. The war was put on hold, and these soldiers greeted each other in “No Man’s Land,” exchanging gifts of whiskey and cigars. In many...
Christmas truce
*It was on Christmas eve in 1914 that the last known Christmas truce occurred, during World War I. German troops fighting in Belgium began decorating their trenches and singing Christmas carols. Their enemy, the British, soon joined in the caroling. The war was put on hold, and these soldiers greeted each other in “No Man’s Land,” exchanging gifts of whiskey and cigars. In many...
the real Christmas
* **”It’s good to remember that Jesus grew up as a poor Jew in a poor town. His life was not about having great material possessions, but about living for God in this humble and modest way.” Stephen Chapman, associate professor of the Old Testament at Duke Divinity School, on the discovery of the first dwelling in Nazareth that dates to Jesus’ era. *
I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Permalink | Leave a comment »
Maya Angelou
*I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.* Maya Angelou, *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings *
Christmas Gift Suggestions:To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. Oren Arnold American editor and free-lance writer (1900-1980) found in Sojourners Permalink | Leave a comment »
Christmas shopping list
*Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. * Oren Arnold American editor and free-lance writer (1900-1980) found in Sojourners
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Goethe (1749-1832)
From a research assistant
Permalink | Leave a comment »
Goethe
*”Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.* *Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”* Goethe (1749-1832) From a research assistant
To say “peace” is really to speak of much more than the simple absence of war. It is to postulate a condition of authentic respect for the dignity and rights of every human being, a condition enabling him to achieve complete fulfilment. The exploitation of the weak and the existence of distressing pockets of poverty and social inequality constitute so many delays and obstacles to the...
IF YOU WANT PEACE...
*To say “peace” is really to speak of much more than the simple absence of war. It is to postulate a condition of authentic respect for the dignity and rights of every human being, a condition enabling him to achieve complete fulfilment. The exploitation of the weak and the existence of distressing pockets of poverty and social inequality constitute so many delays and obstacles to the...
Here’s 21st century business strategy, summarized in four words:
minimize evil, maximize good.
So the central, pressing question is this: How do we design better institutions that do minimize the production of bads, and maximize the production of goods? That is, of course, what Copenhagen is really about — not carbon. It’s about redesigning the fabric of the global economy, so bads...
If I kill a dog, I will get in trouble. If I kill you, I won’t get in any trouble. No one knows you are here. You don’t exist.
Threats made by a human trafficker to Flor, a 37-year-old survivor of modern American slavery, who came to the U.S. to earn money after losing a child to starvation in Mexico. She was forced to work 17 to 19 hours a day for no pay in a sewing sweatshop....
When it comes down to being a provider of God’s love,
there is really only one provider, who sends us out with nothing at all and with everything we need:
healing, forgiveness, restoration, resurrection. Those are the only things we really have to share with the world,
which is just as well, since they are the only things the world really needs.
The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, from her book...
The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment. Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark Permalink | Leave a comment »
“Have Yourself a Peace and Justice Christmas.” (from the folks a Sojourners)
Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas, Set your heart a-right.Flee the malls and focus on Christ’s guiding light. Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas, Give your time a way.Share God’s love, And serve “the least of these” today. Here we are, as we pray for peace, We’ll live simply and give more.We...
My New Favorite Christmas Carol
*“Have Yourself a Peace and Justice Christmas.” *(from the folks a Sojourners) *Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas, Set your heart a-right. Flee the malls and focus on Christ’s guiding light.* *Have yourself a peace and justice Christmas, Give your time a way. Share God’s love, And serve “the least of these” today.* *Here we are, as we pray for peace, We’ll live simply and give more. We...
G-d acts within every moment
and creates the world with each breath. G-d speaks from the center of the universe,
in the silence beyond all thought. Mightier than the crash of a thunderstorm,
mightier than the roar of the sea, is G-d’s voice silently speaking
in the depths of the listening heart.
Psalm 93; Translation by Stephen Mitchell Permalink | Leave a comment »
Everywhere I go — from villages outside Kandy, Sri Lanka, to community centers in Amman, Jordan, to offices at the State Department in Washington, D.C. — I find people with a similar story. When thousands of people discover that their story is also someone else’s story, they have the chance to write a new story together. Eboo Patel,
author of Acts of Faith and founder of the...
What is your story?
*Everywhere I go — from villages outside Kandy, Sri Lanka, to community centers in Amman, Jordan, to offices at the State Department in Washington, D.C. — I find people with a similar story. When thousands of people discover that their story is also someone else’s story, they have the chance to write a new story together.* *Eboo Patel,* *author of* Acts of Faith *and founder of...
Before sorrow, anger,
longing, or fear have arisen,
you are in the center.
When these emotions appear
and you know how to see through them,
you are in harmony.
That center is the root of the universe;
that harmony is the Tao,
which reaches out to all things.
Once you find the center
and achieve harmony,
heaven and earth take their proper places
and all things are fully nourished.
Stephen...
The center
Before sorrow, anger,
longing, or fear have arisen,
you are in the center.
When these emotions appear
and you know how to see through them,
you are in harmony.
That center is the root of the universe;
that harmony is the Tao,
which reaches out to all things.
Once you find the center
and achieve harmony,
heaven and earth take their proper places
and all things are fully nourished.
...
The Truth About Health Care
*Regina Benjamin was nominated by President Obama to be our next surgeon general.. and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius Grant.’ But more important, she’s a country doctor, a family physician along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, serving the poor and uninsured. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed her clinic a second time, she mortgaged her own home to rebuild it. The day it...
The most effective lobbyists
*The most effective lobbyists are constituents “who are personally involved in something important to them…. They are a lot more central and crucial to a lot that you’re doing than someone paid in Washington.”* Senator Jack Reed (RI) quoted in the Christian Science Monitor ** >
Atheism
*Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas, more daring than the vision of a palpable day of judgment. For it is the assertion of a universal negative; for a man to say that there is no God in the universe is like saying that there are no insects in any of the stars.* G. K. Chesterton, Five Types, p59
In a world marked by the coexistence of multiple faiths … the horizontal relations between faiths require as much attention as the vertical dimension of each.
William Connolly, from the book Pluralism
Permalink | Leave a comment »
“You need a little of this, a dash of that, a sprinkle of salt or whatever, to make a recipe come together and be really good … The same thing with peace … You need justice, you need equality, you need human rights and more.”1997 Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, who won for her work to ban land mines, describing Ingredients for Peace, a new cookbook that offers recipes...
Most sins are committed by acts of immoderation, of excess, but there is one and only one quality that can never be sufficiently immoderate, and that is the love of God…
Flannery O’Connor, Southern writer Permalink | Leave a comment »
One of the great gifts of ecumenical work is discovering new facets on the old jewels of our faith…
To a class of seminarians of the Moravian Seminary in PA The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, previously Bishop of Nevada, is the twenty-sixth Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. She is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church
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The Most Rev. Katherine Schori
*One of the great gifts of ecumenical work is discovering new facets on the old jewels of our faith…* To a class of seminarians of the Moravian Seminary in PA The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, previously Bishop of Nevada, is the twenty-sixth Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. She is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church
The religions of the world all stem from the fact that we human beings don’t understand our situation. We don’t know why we came into being. We don’t know where we are going after death. We’re not sure what we ought to live for, what ought to be our greatest treasure. So we look to people who claim to have gone below the surface of life or to have received a revelation...
Why Religion?
*The religions of the world all stem from the fact that we human beings don’t understand our situation. We don’t know why we came into being. We don’t know where we are going after death. We’re not sure what we ought to live for, what ought to be our greatest treasure. So we look to people who claim to have gone below the surface of life or to have received a revelation...
I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
Stephen Jay Gould, American evolutionary biologist (1941-2002)
Found in Sojourners online Permalink | Leave a comment »
Stephen Jay Gould
*I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. * Stephen Jay Gould, American evolutionary biologist (1941-2002) Found in Sojourners online