Tag: contemplative

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No communion for you..

The Archbishop of St. Louis has stooped to a new low in threatening Rudy Giuliani with “no communion,” because of his stance on abortion. That really doesn’t strike me as something Jesus would do. Communion for most Christians even nominal ones is a sacramental rite and it was never meant as a reward and or punishment. I guess this just goes to show that even bishops can do dumb things. I’m not a supporter of Mr. Giuliani either but I think it shows some real shortsighted thinking on the part of the church and the archbishop. If communion really is the body of Christ and I believe it is, doesn’t that hold some hope as a change agent in Mr. Giuliani’s life? I think it does. In the first Eucharist even Judas receives communion and I think that’s the standard that Jesus set.

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Happy Birthday Jelaluddin Rumi

Today while visiting Brother David’s website that this is the birthday of Jelaluddin Rumi. Rumi was a mystic and I first learned of him a few years ago watching Dr. Wayne Dyer on Public Television.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jelaluddin Rumi,

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Merton and morality

It sometimes happens that the men who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconcious haters of other men. They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even.–Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation.

This quote struck me once again tonight as I pondered the ramifications of the U.S. Senate’s recent vote to pass the Kyl-Lieberman amendment Continue reading “Merton and morality”

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Trapped in the nest?

I think that all of us are like eagles who have forgotten that we know how to fly. The teachings are reminding us who we are and what we can do. They help us notice that we’re in a nest with a lot of old food and old diaries, excrement and stale air. From when we were very young we’ve had this longing to see those mountains in the distance and experience that big sky and the vast ocean, but somehow we got trapped in that nest, just because we forgot that we know how to fly. We are like eagles, but we have on underwear and pants and shirt and socks and shoes and a hat and coat and boots and mittens and a Walkman and dark glasses, and it occurs to us that we could experience that vast sky, but we’d better start taking off some of this stuff.–Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are (Shambhala, 1994), 141