At Every Moment we Trust

When we trust God with our whole heart,

we don't fill our prayers with "give me this" or "take this from me".  We don't even think of ourselves when we pray. 

At every moment we trust our Father in heaven,

whose love infinitely surpasses the love of all earthly fathers and who gives us more than we ourselves could ask for or even imagine.

~Isaac of Ninevah, 6th century~

Be Beautiful Within

Grant that I may become beautiful within,

and that whatever outward things I have

may be in harmony with the spirit inside me.

~Socrates~

Let them Know, Let them Love, Let them Remember

God himself, the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the sun or sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being,

is unnameable by any lawgiver, unutterable by any voice,

not to be seen by any eye.

But we, being unable to apprehend his essence, use the help of sounds and names and pictures, of beaten gold and ivory and silver, of plants and rivers, mountain peaks and torrents, yearning for the knowledge of him, and in our weakness naming all that is beautiful in this world after his nature - just as happens to earthly lovers.

To them the most beautiful sight will be the actual lineament of the beloved.  Abut for remembrance' sake they will be happy in the sight of a lyre, a little spear, a chair perhaps, or a running ground, or anything in the world that awakens the memory of the beloved.

Why should I further examine and pass judgement about images?

Let men know what is divine.  Let them know.  That is all.  If a Greek is stirred to the remembrance of God by the art of Phidias, and Egyptian by paying worship to animals, another man by a river, another by fire, I have no anger for their divergences.

Only let them know, let them love, let them remember.

Maximus of Tyre 185

The True Name of Eternity is Today

"Today" means boundless and inexhaustible eternity.

Periods of months and years and time in general

are ideas of men, who calculate by number,

but the true name of eternity is today.

When the righteous man searches for the nature of all things,

he makes his own admirable discovery:

that everything is God's grace.

Every being in the world, and the world itself,

manifests the blessings and generosity of God.

Philo 50 BCE

Heartbreak is a Sign that the Heart has Connected

Mama and Daddy, so young and in love.

Heartbreak is an important event in life, for it is a sign that the heart has connected, it has loved.  The worst thing would be never having loved and therefore not knowing heartbreak at all.

(Source unknown.)

If We Desire to Love God

Mom, age 4.

Mom and her mother.

If God is beyond our conception

and we desire to love him ~ we must begin

by loving everything we can conceive.

(Source unknown.)

What message are you sending?

You are all messengers of God. 

You are all sending a message to life about life

through your own life, lived.

The question is not, "Are you a messenger?" 

The question is, "What message are you sending?"

(Source unknown)

Mom, age 4, 1926