Month: March 2017

“Great souls pay much attention to little things” Escriva.

“How you do anything is how you do everything” Rohr

“The little things are the big things” unknown

If these maxims are supposed to hold for all types of temperaments and personalities then it must be about more than being a detail oriented person. I think the underlying virtue here is having the humility to surrender oneself fully to the present moment and not skip over the details. It is also a kind of reverence before the Divine presence that leads one to truly care for the little things and not to try and control the whole agenda, or to be the judge. It comes down to 1Cor13 and what is love.

Love is patient, kind, ….and does not cut corners!

This seems to be a root question when confronted with the gospel command to give to the poor. How much do I really need to live?

If I am too busy chasing wealth and building my nest egg, then I have no time for the needy, and in some cases I can’t even see the needs. Wealth can separate us from exposure to the poor. And the pursuit of wealth can separate us from ourselves and the real pursuit of happiness.
How do I break free of the fear that what I have will run out? When am I just being prudent and when have I crossed over into building bigger barns and false prudence?
The parable of the rich man and Poor Lazarus is perhaps the most challenging of the whole gospel. What is the hell that this rich man cannot return from?

The isolation he created by his life choices and his use of wealth was not reversible. By stepping over the poor man each day, he effectively declined his invitation to heaven, and locked himself out through this habit of not seeing, not being aware.
The poor are Gods gift to the rich. They are an invitation to step through our isolation, our fear, and our desire to protect ourselves.  To just donate money from a distance may not be enough, we must embrace and engage with the poor or how else can we discern that question: How much do I really need?

As M. Teresa used to say,  poor are all around us. But can we see them? Can we see our own spiritual poverty? This may be the first is the first step to solidarity with the poor.

As long as we want to decide for ourselves where we will find God…we will only find a touched up version of ourselves. Genuine spirituality begins when we are prepared to die. Could there be a quicker way to die than to let God form our lives from moment to moment as we continually consent to his actions?”
(Into Your Hands Father, by Wilfred Stinissen)

The Crosses we embrace, even the little ones that arise out of the banality and ordinary service we perform, keep us from creating a God in our own image, or a spirituality of self absorption. God will decide the place of encounter, and we just need to surrender to that moment.

On the clear blue days we need to just let our souls run out ahead of our minds and expand, absorbing the infinite, and tasting the one we love.

Vastness and beauty allows us, if we are present to it, to see  that we are so much more than the thoughts in our minds.

For the contemplative, the external world is a kind of mirror of our interior world. Landscape reflecting “Inscape” (Hopkins) with both pointing to the same truth and beauty. The sky above is as expansive, vast, and eternal as the spirit within (Hillesum).

Do we allow the external and material things in our life to become icons, sacraments, and inter-faces to open us to the divine unseen depths within us ? And does this inter-face lead us into communion with our creator,  into a loving presence, and a merciful embrace?

“The very attention that gazes into this vastness is itself this vastness, luminous depth gazing into luminous depth. You are the vastness into which you gaze”
M. Laird

The ache in the soul is God calling from the deep. And we must call back. We can never give up seeking the one we love, the one that roars within. Our hearts are restless until they rest in him.

The author of the Cloud of Unknowing defines humility as true self knowledge. But goes on to make a distinction between perfect and imperfect humility. To to see clearly our wounds, faults, and imperfections is a key step toward humility, but it’s imperfect humility. The author states: ” perfect humility is meeting the unfathomable love of God, who is the ground of our being”. Self-knowledge is not complete until it becomes grounded in God. Perfect humility is the realization that I am hidden in Christ, that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I think this great mystic and author of the cloud is saying that Perfect humility does not separate oneself from God no matter how deficient one feels. It sees Christ’s wounds and self wounds as one and he same. Perfect Humility raises the dignity of the soul to its proper place.

What is it about a dogs face that makes us laugh and loosen up?

Is it our own minds that project human personalities into them?

The other day I was taking a walk, and lost in thought, and here comes a fat little dog trying to keep up with it master. Its Tongue hanging out, breathing heavily, it wanted to stop and relate to me, but it’s owner just tugged him along. The fat face and bright eyes kept looking back at me. The dumb excited stare drew me in and lifted me right out of my thoughts and into the present moment. I laughed and I felt a joy that was so simple and yet so real