Thought for the Day

Help me make a place for you
wherever you need to be.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

If the Godhead has clothed itself with its own creation, the mystery of incarnation would seem a natural part of that primal mystery.

— Morris West

We will discover that the Creation is not in any sense independent of the Creator, the result of a primal creative act long over and done with, but  is the continuous participation of all creatures in the being of God.

— Wendell Berry

Discipleship is not a question of our own doing:  it is a matter of our making room for God so that he can live in us.

— J. Heinrich Arnold

Jesus constantly relied on his friends, using their boats and homes, eating their food, enjoying their companionship. He needed them!  This was the authenticating mark of his real incarnation.

— C. Norman Kraus

The God of curved space, the dry
God, is not going to help us, but the son
whose blood spattered
the hem of his mother’s robe.

— Jane Kenyon

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself  likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.

— Hebrews 2:14-15

We submit
to Your rule
as the flowers in May
submit themselves to
Your Holy rule—

— William Carlos Williams

Holiness—an area in which practice is everything and theory is nothing.

— Donald Nicholl

The saint is not a man or woman who breaks no laws and bends no regulations, the saint is a person consumed by joy.

— Andrew Greeley

But also I say this:  that light
is an invitation
to happiness
and that happiness

when it’s done right
is a kind of holiness
palpable and redemptive.

— Mary Oliver

Nothing is more certain dogmatically than that human action can be sanctified.  ‘Whatever you do,’ says St. Paul, ‘do it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

There is only one sadness, the sadness of not being a saint.

— Leon Bloy

To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

— Romans 1:7

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for.  And the most you can do is to live inside that hope.

— Barbara Kingsolver

We shouldn’t get discouraged if the road is long.  One of the roles of community life is precisely to keep us walking in hope.

— Jean Vanier

The cause of violence in my neighborhood on 13th Street is not poverty.  It’s not even fear.  It’s despair.  It’s lack of hope.  And that’s what has to be regained.  As people of peace we have to be people of hope; people who begin to demonstrate how nonviolence can heal us.

— Jim Wallis

It is different with those who know true hope; they become active on their own. How can I hope for a new heaven and a new earth in which justice dwells, how can I hope out of the strength of the Spirit, unless I am conducting myself in such a way that something more just, something better, can be created on earth?

— Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

We might prefer our hope to flow from certain knowledge, especially that which we can footnote and prove.  It will not be that way with violence, for fear will always demand more data than is available before we risk anything.  Knowledge follows—refines—hope.

— Gary Gunderson

How can we have something better if we do not imagine it?  How can we imagine it if we do not hope for it?  How can we hope for it if we do not attempt to realize it?

— Wendell Berry

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

— Romans 5:3-5

A brother came and stayed with a certain solitary and when he was leaving he said:  Forgive me, Father, for I have broken in upon your Rule.  But the hermit replied, saying:  My rule is to receive you with hospitality and to let you go in peace.

— Thomas Merton

We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give charity, build charitable organizations, and if the compassion is really heartfelt, we also visit those who are downtrodden. But to invite them to come to home, that is something that is not so easily done. It would mean that your household and way of life would be completely changed. To invite them in this way would mean to live together in entirely the same manner. You would have to become poor, sharing completely the same conditions as those who are distressed and burdened.

— Søren Kierkegaard

We are fearful and find it hard to let the stranger enter our place and reveal to us our own fears.

— Henri Nouwen

Hospitality in the classroom requires not only that we treat our students with civility and compassion but also that we invite our students and their insights into the conversation.  The good host is not merely polite to the guest—the good host assumes that the guest has stories to tell.

— Parker Palmer

The host makes others feel their lives are interesting and remarkable, worthy of a feast.

— Gerrit S. Dawson

People do not enter our lives to be coerced or manipulated, but to enrich us by their differences, and to be graciously received in the name of Christ.

— Elizabeth Canham

Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, into the glory of God.

—Romans 15:7

When I hoped I feared
Since I hoped I dared.

— Emily Dickinson

You hate to watch another tired man lay down his hand like he was giving up the Holy Game of Poker.  And while he talks his dreams to sleep, you notice there’s a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder.

— Leonard Cohen

If you assume that there’s no hope you guarentee that there will be no hope.  If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world.
That’s your choice.

— Noam Chomsky