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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, February 29, 2016

Pain and meaning

When religion cannot find a meaning for human suffering, human beings far too often become cynical, bitter, negative, and blaming. Healthy religion, almost without realizing it, shows us what to do with our pain, with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust. If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it. If we cannot find a way to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably give up on life and humanity.
                                                                                      Richard Rohr, Daily Blog
_____________________________________________________________________________

faith is not about
avoiding pain

very few poets and saints
had easy lives

faith may, instead,
engage us more deeply with pain

we may participate in it
more profoundly

as, aware of the deep places within ourselves,
and awake to the precious souls around us,
we touch not only our own hurt
but that of others

in faith we see all the
misery and travail in this world
through the wounded heart
of that One
who dwells in us
who is love

Sacred Presence does not remove pain
or even lessen it
but
it does
transform it

and us

turning us from those who radiate bitterness and hate
into healers
wounded healers
but healers , nonetheless
____________________________________

As we look at auditoriums full of people transmitting hate
and feeding on pain and fear
as we deal each day with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust

we know how desperate our world is for people,
and especially for leaders,
who know how to find a meaning for human suffering,
and who do not slide into the pattern
of being cynical, bitter, negative, and blaming

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