Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Monday, November 30, 2015

the broken heart

The best way to grow empathy for those who are lost
is to know what it means to be lost yourself
                             Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
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Love and service
compassion and healing
are not born out of
strength and skill

the counselor who makes a difference
the pastor who touches the heart
the friend to whom you turn

is the one
who
like you
has a broken heart

from which the love of God
has flowed

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Feast away

When you diminish another person, you diminish yourself
When you diminish yourself, you diminish others
                                           John O’Donohue,  Eternal Echoes, p. 76
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when we feel it necessary
in order to build ourselves up
in order to create a sense of power and importance

when we feel it necessary
in order to “defend” our ideology
(or faith as the case may be)
to cut others down

We diminish ourselves
we become smaller
as our souls shrivel

when we find it impossible
to love ourselves
to build ourselves up
and when we thus, feel small

we find it even more necessary
to make others smaller than ourselves

the smaller we are
the smaller we must make them

the only solution to any of this
is a “fat soul
a soul stuffed with God

feast away
on Sacred love
gorge yourselves
 and don't forget
to pass the plate

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Why do we love the stranger?

Why should we love the stranger?  Because God does….
The assignment is to get over your elf.  The assignment is to love the God you did not make up
With all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and the second is like it: to love the neighbor you also did not make up a if that person were your own strange and particular self….
                                                                        Barbara Brown Taylor
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another day
another person hating
and killing in the name of ideology
(in the name of God?)

more people creating God in their own image
more people creating others in an image shaped by fear, or anger, or greed

but according to the Sacred it is pretty simple
(although not easy)
just love

love the refugee
love those who are not "like us"

not so bad!

but also
love the haters
love the fearful
love those who do horrible things in the name of God
love those who create a horrible God

I am not sure I am up to it Lord
try as I might I cannot dredge up even a hint of love
for certain politicians
for angry people with guns
for people who almost delight
in most of humanity being tortured eternally
while affirming “God is Love”

and yet that is the call
that is what Jesus did when he went to the cross

Help me Lord
for I cannot do this on my own
I cannot do it at all

let your love flow through me
help me not to block it

and forgive me
when I do