Volume 5 Issue 6 ~~September 26, 2000
Food for Thought
True hope is based on energy of character.
A strong mind always hopes,
and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability
of human
affairs, and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course
of
events. Such a spirit, too, rests upon itself; it is not confined
to partial
views, or to one particular object. And if at last all should
be lost, it has
saved itself - its own integrity and worth. Hope awakens courage,
while
despondency is the last of all evils; it is the abandonment of
good, - the
giving up of the battle of life with dead nothingness. -Von
Knebel.
If life is attuned to God, God's will is as near as the mouth and heart... -ZONDERVAN NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY vol 2
'You are my servant, I have chosen you, I have
not rejected you,'
Is. 41:10 (NJB) do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be
alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help
you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.
THE TREES AND THE AX
A Man came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a
handle for
his ax. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young
ash-tree.
No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his ax from it, than
he began
to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants
of the forest.
An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions,
said
to a neighboring cedar, "The first step has lost us all.
If we had not given
up the rights of the ash, we might yet have retained our own privileges
and
have stood for ages." --Aesop
My joy is the salvation of the Lord and so even though the end has come and the joy of this earth has reached it's eventide, my joy will not fade, for where this is no need of sun, or moon for light neither does the covering that is darkness come near. Though pain may strike at my body yet my joy is great because the name of my Joy, Jesus, Yawah is salvation. Praise and glory to the Lord in me through that grace that flows like the water from the throne, that flows that blood from His side. Washing me whiter than snow. AMEN. AMEN.
"Even as sometimes it is more grievous to love sin than to do it, so is it more wicked to hate justice than, not to have done it." --Hence Gregory
Now that which is natural cannot be the cause of sin, for sin is contrary to nature --Damascene
One is said to love both the good he desires
for oneself, and oneself to whom one desires it. Love, in so far
as it is
directed to the object of desire (e.g. a perrson is said to love
wine or money)
admits, as its cause, fear which pertains to avoidance of evil:
for every sin
arises either from inordinate desire for some good, or from inordinate
avoidance of some evil. But each of these is reduced to self-love,
since it is
through loving himself that man either desires good things, or
avoids evil
things. --Thomas Aquinus P(2a)-Q(77)-A(4)-RO(3)
To obtain eternal rest, should require, If it had been possible, eternal labor; to purchase a happiness without bounds, a man should be willing to suffer for a whole eternity. That indeed is impossible; but our trials might have been very long. What are a thousand years, or ten hundred thousand ages, in comparison to eternity? There can be no proportion between what is finite, and that which is infinite. Yet God in his great mercy does not bid us suffer so long. He says, not a million, or a thousand years, or even five hundred, but only labor the few years that you live; and in these the dew of my consolations shall not be wanting; and I will recompense your patience for all with a glory that has no era. Though we were to be loaded with miseries, pain, and grief our whole life, the thoughts of heaven alone ought to make us bear its sharpest trials with cheerfulness and joy. -unknown
All Christians are called, in one form or another, to give witness to God as the only Lord, among people. Even among those who claim to Christians, there are some people who sacrifice their Chrisitan dignity on the alter of money and success. -Christian Community Bible p.1049
To say that the sun cannot shine would be to insult it; to say that being a Christian is usueless is to insult God and call God a liar. -John Chrysostom
The Church must be salt and light to the world.... [Christians] must continually enkindle in the world the desire and strugle for true justice and perfection, and not allow human societies to become satisfied with mediocrity. -Christian Community Bible p.15
Nothing is colder than a Chrisitan who does not care for the salvaion of others. -John Chrysostom
Faith is great, but it is lived in the little things of daily life. -Christian Community Bible p.451
The Telephone
I have just hung up; why did he telephone?
I don't know... Oh! I get it...
I talked a lot and listened very little.Forgive me, Lord, it was a monolouge and not a dialouge.
I explained my idea and did not get his;
Since I didn't listen, I learned nothing,
Since I didn't listen, I didn't help,
Since I didn't listen, we didn't communicate.Forgive me, Lord, for we were connected,
and now we are cut off. Amen. -Michel Quoist
Christ's suffering and human suffering go on together through the ages. And the Crucified Lord Comes to us in sorrow that is ours and in suffering that is our neighbours. -Edmund Schlink, The Victor Speaks
Let us return to the Gospel; if we do not live the Gospel, Jesus does not live in us. -Charles de Foucauld
A great deal of eviil may come from the selfishness of people, but perhaps more evil may ccome from premature judgnements of people about themselvs and each other. -Reinhold Niebuhr
To control speech is to recover it's seriousness and it's sacredness, to understand that sometimes an inoccent "joke," which we proffered without even thinking about it, can have disatrouous resultscan be the last "drop" which pushes a person into ultimate despair and destruction. -Alexander Schememann
Do as perfectly as you can the tasks of your everyday life, even the most trival. It is quite simple. Follow our Lord Jesus like a litle Child. I skip after Him the best I can. I put my trust in Him and abandon all care. -Father Titus Brandsma
If love is the Soul of Christian Existance, it must be the heart of every other Christian virture. Thus for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is idealogy; hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; generousity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servaitutde. Every Virture is an expresssion of love, No virture is really a virture unless it is permeated, or informed, by love (see 1 cor 13). -Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism, p 977
My God howw gentle are You with me in spite of my great ignorance, and how merciful You are with me in spite of my ugly deeds! - Ibn 'Ata'Illah, The Book of Wisdom
[Jesus, y]ou were content to let the weeds
grow among the wheat untill harvest time;
give us the patience to live with our short comings and those
of others. -People's Companion to the Breviary: Revised and
Expanded, Vol 2, p. 111
My Vocation is Love! -Thérése
of Lisieux
Let us look at our own shortcomings and leaves other people's alone;...there is no reason why we should expect everyone else to travel by our own road. -Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle
We live in a culture of acheivement and production whihc believes that people should and do get what the deserve. As Christians we know that is not so. The infinite bounty of God begins with the gift of life itself and continues with everythign tha sustains it. Our activity is not so much earning our way as cooperating with the Creator God in transforming history into God's reign of justice and love. Building this attitude of grateful response into our lives requires a constant cultivation of faith against the seeming self-evident "way things are" around us. -Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, New Wineskins, p. 186
[Jesus, y]ou gave us the power to bind and
to loose;
free us from or need to control, and give us the grace to
free others from our expectations. -People's Companion to the
Breviary: Revised and Expanded, Vol 2, p. 158
Prayer is not thinking much, but loving much. -St. Teresa of Avila
Ge 37 (NJB) Joseph arrived at Shechem. A man found him wandering in the countryside and asked him, 'What are you looking for?' 'I am looking for my brothers,'
The Stranger once again apears, as a stranger
comes to Jacob and wrestled him as he was seeking his brother.
Jacob demands and receives blessing but Joseph merely asks where
he might find his brothers. Like Jacob who had divine blessing
on him and was reconciled to his brother Esau, so Jospeh was sent
on the path that would bring eventual reconcilation and salvation
to his brothers. The stranger directs the path that will lead
to his brothers....but not as Joseph would like...but as God has
planned.
What are you looking for, we are asked... God doesn't want to
withhold from us but longs to give us what we ask for, though
in blessing there may be the bane of being crippled as was Jacob,
in seeking something we might find it is not apearantly to our
advantage as would seem Jospeh's egyptian bondage. But our lord
is the God who cause all things to work out right... The dark
shades are needed in the painting as much as the light if a beautiful
picture is to take shape and be clear. We wonder about aimlessly
not knowing fully what to do where to go next our knowledge and
strength are exhausted and then God's providence brings one along.
Heaven sent, but I would guess Jospeh, in the pit, would consider
the man more Satan sent...thouh that painful incident lead to
salvatin for all of Egypt and his family and to truely finding
his brothers.
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(Note 3.1-5.1 are former Integrity/Calgary newsletters)
