Julian of Norwich - Materialism

I finished Terryl Givens "Crucible of Doubt."  The main impact of the book was to arouse an interest in Julian of Norwich and Edward Beecher.  There's not a lot of time right now to pursue either one in depth, but I ran onto a collection of 30 short passages from Julian's work.

"This is the reason why those who deliberately occupy themselves with earthly business, seeking worldly well-being, have no God's rest in their hearts; for they love and seek their rest in this thing which is so little and in which there is no rest, and do not know God who is almighty, all wise and all good.  God wishes to be known, and it pleases him that we should rest in him; for all things which are beneath him are not sufficient for us."

Pope John Paul II - Spiritual discipline

Karol Wojtyla's spiritual apprenticeship to an unassuming Polish Tailor -

"Tyranowski, at the request of some Salesian fathers, had become involved in a program called the "Living Rosary" that would help young Poles, under wartime conditions, walk a disciplined, spiritual, Catholic life and sharpen their overall spiritual appetite....He would meet with them in his cramped, second-story apartment in groups to share his insights into living the spiritual life at a far deeper level than they were familiar with.  He gave them assignments to fortify their self-discipline: daily prayer times, Bible readings, periods of meditation; and he asked them to keep a close spiritual diary of their efforts in these areas. 'Every moment must be put to use,' he would say, and Karol used this wisdom to fuel his own phenomenal energy throughout the rest of his life."

Wojtyla's own description of Tyranowski -

"one of those unknown saints, hidden like a marvelous light at the bottom of life, at a depth where night usually reigns....In his words, in his spirituality, and in the example of a life given entirely to God alone, he represented a new world that I did not yet know.  I saw the beauty of a soul opened up by grace."

Dies diem docet

Dies diem docet.

(One) day teaches (another) day.

The experience we gain today, will be available to us tomorrow.  Today can be illuminated by yesterday's experience. 

Mother Theresa - Something Beautiful for God

"I have not begged from the time we started the work.  But we go to the people - the Hindus, the Mohammedans, and the Christians - and I tell them: 'I have come to give you a chance to do something beautiful for God.'  And the people, they want to do something beautiful for God, and they come forward."

Mother Theresa - Vocation

"While I was going by train from Calcutta to Darjeeling to participate in spiritual exercises, I was quietly praying when I clearly felt a call within my calling.  The message was very clear.  I had to leave the convent and consecrate myself to helping the poor by living among them.  It was a command."

------

"I understood what I needed to do, but I did not yet know how to go about it."

Mother Theresa and Vocation

A conversation between young Agnes Bojaxhiu and her priest

"How can you know when the Lord is calling you into some vocation," she asked Father Jambrenkovic. 

"You can know by the happiness you feel," he told her.  "If you are glad at the thought that God may be calling you to serve Him and your neighbor, this may well be the best proof of your vocation.  A deep joy is like the compass which points out the proper direction for your life.  One should follow this, even when one is venturing upon a difficult path."

Mother Theresa on Faith

"You need double grace for faith.  First, for the grace itself, and then for the courage to act upon it."

More Solzhenitsyn

"Everybody has a purpose and the main purpose of each of us is how to understand it.  Given the everyday preoccupations of ordinary life, people don't spend enough time thinking about this.  They have their daily troubles.  Only self-deepening, reflection, prayer, only reflection can discover that purpose."

Solzhenitsyn

An insight that came to Solzhenitsyn in the gulag during the first stages of his conversion from Marxism while he lay "on rotting prison straw" -

"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts.  This line shifts.  Inside us it oscillates with the years.  And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good remains.  And even in the best of hearts, there remains....an unuprooted small corner of evil."

Tao Te Ching - Verse 25

一      yī     one

"In the country there are four greats and the king is one among them."
                                        Robert G. Henricks

My paraphrase of the last half of verse 25, like Starr's translation, takes the word for king as a symbol for the potential of any man who touches greatness.

There are four things
     that can be called great-
          the Way,
          the cosmos,
          the world,
          a great man.
There are four great things in the universe,
     and a great man is one of them.
Men are enlightened through the world,
     the world gets its law from the cosmos,
          the cosmos is an expression of the Way,
               and the Way unfolds itself.

Tao Te Ching - Verse 22

一      yī     one

In Verse 22 the text speaks of the sage "embracing the one" --

"So the sage embraces the One
     and becomes a model for the world"
                              Jonathan Starr

Personal Paraphrase

Broken,
     then whole.
Bent,
     then straight.
Empty,
     then filled.
Worn out,
     then renewed.
Need,
     then supply.
Excess,
     then confusion.

Thus the wise man holds to the One,
     and becomes a light to the whole world.
Not displaying himself,
     he shines.
Not justifying himself,
     he is manifest.
Not boasting,
     he is effective.
Taking no pride in himself,
     he leads.
Because he does not compete,
     he has no competitors.

The old saying
     "Broken, then whole"
          is surely true.

Become whole.
     Turn.

Tao Te Ching - Verse 14

一      yī     one

One or unity appears in the opening lines of verse 14 -

Eyes look but cannot see it
Ears listen but cannot hear it
Hands grasp but cannot touch it
Beyond the senses lies the great Unity-
     invisible, inaudible, intangible
                              Jonathan Starr

As with Verse 11, my personal paraphrase does not pick up the word "one" -

You can't see it,
     it's invisible.
You can't hear it,
     it's inaudible.
you can't touch it,
     it's intangible.
No physical test can reveal
     its presence or absence,
     its structure or qualities.
Boundless and eternal,
     it is beyond our names and explanations.

But if you hold fast to the timeless Way
     you can master the present moment,
     and grasp its historical context.
The Way provides an unbroken link
     to all that is vital and living
     from every age

Great Souls - Nelson Mandela quote

"All men have a core of decency, and...if their heart is touched they are capable of changing."

Amazing the power that this one insight had in transforming the path of an entire nation.

Socrates' Nobility

I'd like to take leave of Socrates (at least for this year), though, with a look at him as he appears in his best light.

A)   In addition to his single-minded pursuit of his calling, he possessed an uncommon dedication to the right.

1)    "Through all my life, I shall prove to have been just the same, both in public life, if I have done anything there, and in private life; I have never given way to anyone in anything contrary to right."

                                    Apology

2)    His two recorded political stands, reveal integrity and courage in the face of very real personal danger.

                        "All my anxiety was to do nothing unjust or wrong."

                                    Apology

3)    The argument that convinced him to stay and face his execution was based on a principle straight out of the Sermon on the Mount”

                        "We must not do wrong at all....Not even, when wronged, wrong in return."

                                    Crito

B)   He was conscious of how much this single-mindedness and dedication put him out of step with his society and its institutions, and that this involved some danger.

1)    "Some one of you then might put in and ask...'all this talk about you, and such a reputation, has not arisen, I presume, when you were working at nothing more       unusual than others."

                                    Apology

2)    "So I went to one after another after that, and saw that I was disliked, and I sorrowed and feared; but still it seemed necessary to hold the god's business of highest importance."

                                    Apology

3)    "No man in the world will come off safe who honestly opposes either you or any other multitude, and tries to hinder the many unjust and illegal doings in a state.  It is necessary that one who really and truly fights for the right, if he is to survive even for a short time, shall act as a private man, not as a public man."

                                    Apology

4)    "Do you think I should have survived all these years, if I had engaged in public business, and if then I had acted as a good man should, and defended the just, and made that, as is one's duty, my chief concern?  Far from it gentlemen."

                                    Apology

5)    "What is proper for me to suffer or to pay, for not having the sense to be idle in my life, and for neglecting what most people care about, moneymaking and housekeeping and military appointments and oratory, and besides, all the posts and plots and parties which arise in this city - for believing myself to be really too honest to go after these things and survive?"

                                    Apology

6)    "Then we must not do wrong in return, or do evil to anyone in the world, however we may be treated by them.  Take care, my dear Criton, when you agree to this, that you don't agree against your real opinion; for I know that only a few do believe it, or ever will.  Then those who believe it and those who do not have not common principle, but necessarily they must despise each other when they see their different principles."

Crito