Dear Community,
This past week was a rough one.
Using the word ‘terrible’ might also be justified.
The face I saw on my mother when she lost a son
I saw again this week on a friend.
It pierced my heart deeply.
Words come hard for me in times of personal tragedy.
I feel them forming in my heart
Beginning to grow and looking for a way out
Wanting to fly to the bereaved making their unbearable pain vanish as though I had the touch of Christ.
To see the griever smile again!
Only some of the words find their way to my lips
And they come out grossly inadequate.
So I stutter and mumble.
Some of the words flow through to my arms
To shape a hug of partial understanding laced with lots of care;
Other words emerge from my eyes in the form of teardrops
But they don’t match the ones from his eyes.
To see the griever smile again!
He probably couldn’t see me there in the crowd of supporters and grievers
But I was there, hoping he knew I would take all the pain from him if I could.
But, I don’t have that power,
So when he cries, I will cry too.
And when he mourns, I will mourn, too.
For in sharing the grief, maybe we can diminsh the pain just a bit.
“Vulnerable we are, like an infant. We need each other’s care or we will suffer.” - St. Catherine of Siena
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
You Owe Me
Greetings, Sisters, Brothers and Friends of the Community,
I pray you are all well and peaceful.
Watching bits and pieces of the Olympics this past week, I am reminded of all the score-keeping that is necessary to make it all work. In some cases a hundredth of a second separates a winner from a loser. The winner expects a gold medal in return.
Fortunately, in the spiritual world (the real world), scores like this are not kept, and everyone can win. Love is the key characteristic in God’s world. It is given freely, without expectation of something in return.
Sufi master Hafiz writes in one of his poems:
“Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’
Look what happens with a love like that;
It lights up the whole sky.”
Even after all this time, the SON never says to us, ‘You owe me.’ He just continues to love because that is his nature. Jesus asks us to love others as he has loved us – freely, without the encumberance of a dysfunctional ego. Throw away your score cards (held tightly by your ego) and shine from the heart in the way that he has made you, without expectation in return from others.
Please share your reflections as you are moved to do so.
Your partly-cloudy-but-slowly-clearing-up brother,
Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian
I pray you are all well and peaceful.
Watching bits and pieces of the Olympics this past week, I am reminded of all the score-keeping that is necessary to make it all work. In some cases a hundredth of a second separates a winner from a loser. The winner expects a gold medal in return.
Fortunately, in the spiritual world (the real world), scores like this are not kept, and everyone can win. Love is the key characteristic in God’s world. It is given freely, without expectation of something in return.
Sufi master Hafiz writes in one of his poems:
“Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’
Look what happens with a love like that;
It lights up the whole sky.”
Even after all this time, the SON never says to us, ‘You owe me.’ He just continues to love because that is his nature. Jesus asks us to love others as he has loved us – freely, without the encumberance of a dysfunctional ego. Throw away your score cards (held tightly by your ego) and shine from the heart in the way that he has made you, without expectation in return from others.
Please share your reflections as you are moved to do so.
Your partly-cloudy-but-slowly-clearing-up brother,
Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Just Another Jesus Image?
Greetings, Sisters, Brothers, and Friends of the Community!
I pray that this note finds you all well and wrapped in the arms of Christ!
Speaking of Christ, a South Bend, Indiana, couple recently reported that they saw an image of Jesus on the fur of their cat.
Seeing the image of Jesus is not a new phenomenon. Here is a small sampling of sightings over recent years:
12-21-01 Jesus image appears on a car windshield. (England)
10-27-05 Couple says fish bone bears Jesus image. (Chicago)
11-7-06 Jesus image appears in the fur of a dog’s bottom. (England)
1-3-07 Residents see Jesus image in tree. (Florida)
8-14-07 Jesus image appears on kitchen cabinets. (Connecticut)
2-11-08 Jesus image found in a tree log. (Pennsylvania)
3-21-08 Man finds Jesus image in a cheesy snack (calls it “Chessus”). (Georgia)
4-17-08 Girl finds sweet Jesus image in a piece of candy. (Florida)
4-30-08 Pregnant woman sees Jesus image in ultrasound. (Ohio)
6-27-08 Jesus image seen in granite slab in Dallas. (Texas)
He has also been seen on a shower wall, on a turtle, and in a split potato.
70,000 hits when I Google “Jesus Image” and I couldn’t find one report of a person seeing the image of Jesus in another person. Once, just once, it would be uplifting to see a story that went something like this: “AP – A man in the small town of Belleville recently reported seeing the image of Jesus in another person. When asked about the incident, he said, “You know, I decided to look past the other fellow’s ego and into his heart, and there it was – the likeness of our Lord and Savior. I realized that this person was truly a good, loving person!”
Maybe this will happen one day. It seems that the incidents of seeing the image of Jesus in all sorts of things are getting more frequent. Perhaps this is just practice for the real thing.
Well, I have to go brush my cats now. Maybe, just maybe…
Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian
I pray that this note finds you all well and wrapped in the arms of Christ!
Speaking of Christ, a South Bend, Indiana, couple recently reported that they saw an image of Jesus on the fur of their cat.
Seeing the image of Jesus is not a new phenomenon. Here is a small sampling of sightings over recent years:
12-21-01 Jesus image appears on a car windshield. (England)
10-27-05 Couple says fish bone bears Jesus image. (Chicago)
11-7-06 Jesus image appears in the fur of a dog’s bottom. (England)
1-3-07 Residents see Jesus image in tree. (Florida)
8-14-07 Jesus image appears on kitchen cabinets. (Connecticut)
2-11-08 Jesus image found in a tree log. (Pennsylvania)
3-21-08 Man finds Jesus image in a cheesy snack (calls it “Chessus”). (Georgia)
4-17-08 Girl finds sweet Jesus image in a piece of candy. (Florida)
4-30-08 Pregnant woman sees Jesus image in ultrasound. (Ohio)
6-27-08 Jesus image seen in granite slab in Dallas. (Texas)
He has also been seen on a shower wall, on a turtle, and in a split potato.
70,000 hits when I Google “Jesus Image” and I couldn’t find one report of a person seeing the image of Jesus in another person. Once, just once, it would be uplifting to see a story that went something like this: “AP – A man in the small town of Belleville recently reported seeing the image of Jesus in another person. When asked about the incident, he said, “You know, I decided to look past the other fellow’s ego and into his heart, and there it was – the likeness of our Lord and Savior. I realized that this person was truly a good, loving person!”
Maybe this will happen one day. It seems that the incidents of seeing the image of Jesus in all sorts of things are getting more frequent. Perhaps this is just practice for the real thing.
Well, I have to go brush my cats now. Maybe, just maybe…
Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian
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