Lenten Quote of the Week: Desiderius Erasmus
March 11, 2017 Comments Off on Lenten Quote of the Week: Desiderius Erasmus
“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”
– Desiderius Erasmus
Lenten Quote of the Week: Ephrem of Edessa
February 20, 2016 Comments Off on Lenten Quote of the Week: Ephrem of Edessa
“We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death.”
– St. Ephrem of Edessa
Lenten Quote of the Week: Martin Luther
February 13, 2016 Comments Off on Lenten Quote of the Week: Martin Luther
“God is ready to give more quickly, and to give more than you ask; yea, he offers his treasures if we only take them. It is truly a great shame and a severe chastisement for us Christians that God should still upbraid us for our slothfulness in prayer, and that we fail to let such a rich and excellent promise incite us to pray.”
– Martin Luther
Lenten Quote of the Week: St. Bonaventure
March 28, 2015 Comments Off on Lenten Quote of the Week: St. Bonaventure
[Editor’s Note: St. Bonaventure offers what he calls the “pathway to salvation” in his homily Six Days Before the Passover. Jesus Went to Bethany, which reflects on John 12:1. He offers three considerations: (1) the directness of the journey, the “six days before”, (2) the benefit of achieving the goal, “Passover”, and (3) the good sense of the guide, “Jesus”. ]
“[R]eflect that the “six days” are to be understood as that spiritual training…which the spiritual sun shining in through the presence of grace, accomplishes in our spirit.”
– St. Bonaventure, Six Days Before the Passover. Jesus Went to Bethany, translated by Marigiwen Schumachaer in Rooted in Faith: Homilies to a Contemporary World (Franciscan Herald Press, 1974)
Lenten Quote of the Week: Pema Chödrön
March 21, 2015 § 1 Comment
“We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who’s right and who’s wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don’t like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.”
– Pema Chödrön
Quote of the Week: Neil Douglas-Klotz
March 14, 2015 Comments Off on Quote of the Week: Neil Douglas-Klotz
Translation from the Aramaic, Matthew 7:7 by Neil Douglas-Klotz:
Ask intensely–
like a straight line engraved toward
the object you want;
pray with desire–
as though you interrogated your own soul about
its deepest, most hidden longings;
and you will
receive expansively–
not only what your desire asked,
but where the elemental breath led you–
love’s doorstep, the place where you
bear fruit
and become part of the universe’s
power of generation and sympathy.
Search anxiously–
from the interior of your desire
to its outer embodiment–
let the inner gnawing and boiling lead you to
act passionately–
no matter how material or gross
your goal seems at first;
then you will
find fulfillment
of the drive of the flesh
to accomplish its purpose
and see its destiny.
Like a spring unbound, you will
gain the force
of profound stillness after an effort–
the earth’s power to grow new each season.
Knock innocently–
as if you were driving a tent stake or
striking one clear note, never heard before.
Create enough space within
to receive the force you release;
hollow yourself–
purified of hidden hopes and fears,
and it shall be
opened easily–
a natural response to space created,
part of the contraction-expansion
of the universe;
and penetrated smoothly–
as the cosmos opens and closes
around your words of satisfied desire.
Quote of the Week: Abba Evagrius of Ponticus
March 7, 2015 Comments Off on Quote of the Week: Abba Evagrius of Ponticus
“If you know how to practice patience, you shall always pray with joy.”
– Abba Evagrius of Ponticus
Lenten Quote of the Week: St. John Chrysostom
February 28, 2015 Comments Off on Lenten Quote of the Week: St. John Chrysostom
“Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him.
Do not let only your mouth fast,
but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands and all the members of our bodies.
Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice.
Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is
sinful.
Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes, but bite and
devour our brothers?”
– St. John Chrysostom
Lenten Quote of the Week: St. Teresa of Avila
February 21, 2015 § 1 Comment
“To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that.”
– St. Teresa of Avila
Easter Quote of the Week: Martin Luther
May 2, 2014 Comments Off on Easter Quote of the Week: Martin Luther
“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
– Martin Luther (attributed)
