To Risk Loving

The sense that we are cared for makes caring easier.  That we might be loved lets us risk loving.

The Saved

I am never sure which thought delights him more:  that he is saved, or that others are not.

A True Master

We go from master to master to hear such obvious things, and sometimes what is too obscure to be real.  True masters will show us ourselves.  They are more a mirror reflecting our essence.  The others will show only who they wish us to be, or who they would have us become.

What Is There

See what is there.  If you want to pretend it is different, make that a separate activity and call it pretense.

Better to Trust

It makes more sense to trust than to pretend we can manage or control.

Responses Not Required

Don't be afraid to ask but require no response, either of yourself or anyone else.  Notice, wonder, and be grateful.  No more is needed, other than the celebration of yourself.

The Dilemma of Prayer

He was trying to say prayer is both efficacious and sometimes answered in ways other than what was intended.  It proved a dilemma.  It was all right if left as meditation, reflection, or conversation, but once it got into the asking prayer seemed a lost cause.

Overpromising

Had Moses not said he would stand above the battle with the staff in his hands, there would have been no need for him to do so.

A New Guide

In this process -- whatever we might call it -- there are junctures where what had seemed so accurate and compelling are of no further use.  They were important guides and do not now become false.  Rather, they cease to be as essential as once they seemed and a new model, guide, or formulation becomes necessary.  Just what it will be in its final form remains to be seen.

On The Way

The lepers were not cured when Jesus said the words.  Nor were they better for arriving at the priests.  They were healed "on the way."  The tribes did not become a people when leaving Egypt.  Nor had they to wait until they reached the promised land.  It happened "on the way."  The disciples did not believe when they left Jerusalem and arriving at Emmaus was not the key.  It was "on the way" that they met him.

Wandering Jesus

It speaks well of Jesus and of his parents that when he was lost they did not assume he would be at the temple.  He range of interests was presumed wider and perhaps it was only in desperation that they went there.

A Reluctant Decision

I don't know to what extent I oppose abortion, but it does seem a right about which people should be less jubilant.  It should be a decision reluctantly reached and it should be undertaken, or contemplated, with more sadness than relief.

The Next All-Explaining Truth

I have discovered that one final, all-explaining truth so many times that I should not be surprised to find there is just one more, and like most of the others it is a contradiction of what went before.

My Gifts

I am best at sadness and at denial -- two of the less highly prized gifts.

Instead of Seeking

Seeking may not be the best approach to finding, not if it is that driven sort that forges through so much in such a frenzied way.  Instead of seeking, noticing might be the better approach.

Having ignorant disciples is no compliment

Stimulus, Response

When you hear the Gospel, you have a fair idea what the homily will be.  Same stimulus, same response.

Trapping God in Symbols

It is not that they believed their statue was God.  They knew no statue had brought them out of Egypt and into the desert.  No statue had fed them or brought them water from the rock.  They knew God, but they could not see him; and because they needed to see they wanted a representation, something that might remind them of his strength.  That they used their most precious material and fashioned it into something that was a symbol of power made it easier for them.  It was not God.  It could not be since they had made it.  They had no illusions about what they had made, and maybe even thought it would be all right to have -- but it was not what God wanted.  No matter that it was only a symbol.  Any attempt to contain him, to limit him to limited images, would get in the way.  He wanted it understood that no image, no statue, no representation of any sort could suffice.

The signs, even in gold, did not serve as even the bleakest suggestion of his being.  Nor was there ever anything to mirror in even the most remote manner the power of God.  I wonder do we risk the same error, thinking that what we do or make might be our attempts to contain God, losing his grandeur in our symbols or our words, thoughts and so very inadequate ideas.  Like the genie trapped in a bottle, God contained in our theology would make sense only in a story.  A realer God is really beyond all that, so far beyond that our attempts to think of him are to spend our time poorly.

God is, and he is beyond whatever might emerge from however much time or energy we could give to efforts as pointless as the fashioning of a golden bull.  Like the people in the desert, we may only do it for ourselves but it is hardly a sufficient reason.

An Old Question, Revisited

Back around came the question of C.C.D. and I am again inclined to say it is unnecessary.  It seems more an obligation and if it is more it is hard to say what that might be.

Helping Less, Seeing More

As I feel less responsible for others, I can more clearly recognize their strength.  As I feel less need to help, they appear to need less help as well.  So, whose need was being met?  Maybe I am not my brother's keeper.  Maybe being his brother would have been the better gift all along.

Overlooking Ourselves

While life is very simple there are points in it which can appear complex.  It is at those points that contradictions appear and perhaps they arise as we try to be more responsive to others, to what we see as their needs -- even though they may only seem to be so -- and in the process overlook our own.

A Heavy Moment

There is no enthusiasm in our celebration and so it weighs upon us, an oppressive moment refusing to end.

Use Fewer Words

There are not very many things to be said.  There are not so many ways to say these few things.  The harder we try, the more do we disperse rather than consolidate the truth.

At The End

We pretend we begin at the beginning when in fact we find ourselves at the end, wondering however did we get there.

Hearts Never Hear

I tell things to my heart, those things my mind could hear and so readily acknowledge, but hearts never hear.  Instead they feel and so all the words and reasons go sliding right by.

Why People Get Better

In addition to wondering why people develop the problems they do, we might ask why they get better.  What are the factors making now the time for change.

Recurring Thoughts

Here I am with recurrent thoughts pretending it is not something I should attend to.  Not even I am this dense, no matter how hard I try.

Where We Are, Who We Are

Where we are often determines who we will be and so we can truly blend into places, becoming part of that environment despite its inconsistency with where we were or where we might go next; and it is not adopting but becoming -- being as home in each place and with each group we find there.  All call us by one of our true names.

A Sure Sign

He's far too sure of what he says to have had experiences of his own.

Healing The Clients We Like

That we work best with clients we like indicates it is not the method but the relationship and this is probably confirmed in their having a more significant degree of progress.