Scrapbook
I thought it would be nice to have a place for us to store up poems, stories, quotations, photographs, paintings, or anything else that seems to strike a chord. Just post a comment or a link if you find something.
posted by Jamie at Thursday, March 09, 2006
13 Comments:
This life is therefore,
not righteousness,
but growth in righteousness,
not health, but healing,
not being, but becoming,
not rest, but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it,
the process is not yet finished
but it is going on,
this is not the end,
but it is the road.
All does not yet gleam in glory,
but all is being purified.
(Martin Luther, Defense of All the Articles, 1521)
We like things boxed. Cereal,
Candy, soap, gifts, and corpses.
They seem safe when boxed, as are
We. As is God and other
Potential dangers. So we
Sleep in a box, awake in
A box, shower in a box,
Refrigerate food, store knives,
Drive to work, work for hours, where
We stare each day at boxes,
In boxed lives. Boxed-in we live.
Through boxed windows we look out, in.
God, once boxed, broke out, broke free.
But we keep pushing God back,
Our Jack, popping out on cue,
To music, though it's not fair.
Nests have birds. Dens have foxes.
God will have none of our small
Boxes. God is free, and we
Are too.
('Pat' in Brian McLaren, The Last Word and the Word After That, 2005)
Undulations
Straining – struggling to breathe
Amidst the toil of wave and tempest.
Nothing to help or salve
Machinations and disturbance
No-one who can stand by.
Buffeted this way, that way,
No rest – Justice but a far off country.
At a loss as to where to turn
Blinded by angst-ridden sun.
“Wits’ End” passed a while back
Energy sapped, marrow bludgeoned
Survival and resolution fade
From tantalising hope to shipwreck.
Then movement; Resolution’s possibility
Finds resurrection as She approaches.
Beauty arrives in Her carriage of splendour
Followed by Grace and Mercy in her train,
And do their work of unburdening.
Heals the wounds of words against the soul,
Untangles the mess of feeling and thought,
Giving life to the dry bones of the heart,
Refreshing the arid valley of the mind.
Something better gained than
Peace and Resolution –
Beauty.
Concepts create idols. Only wonder understands.
(Gregory of Nyssa)
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not touched by the frost.
(JRR Tolkein)
Loss
Pools of still red wax
Rest undisturbed around the necks
Of the candlestick holder
From which
Brittle rivulets flow.
The time of burning passion
Frozen in silent
Memory.
Chesterton, In response to an Op Ed piece in the Times entitled, 'What is wrong with the World?'
Dear Sirs:
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K.Chesterton
Volf, on the role of theologians in relation to society...
"When not acting as helpmates of economists, political scientists, social philosophers, etc. - and it is part of their responsibility to act as this way - theologians should concentrate less on social arrangements and more on fostering the kind of social agents capable of envisioning and creating just, truthful, and peaceful societies, and on shaping a cultural climate in which such agents will thrive."
(Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, p. 21)
saw this gallery on the Beatitudes and thought I'd share it. Each of them seems to show a transition from the pre-blessing to blessed state, with an abstract image between (prayer? God?). I particularly like the final one.
leaving the shore into the tide row winding never apprehending but satisfied with the chase into each breaker mind full but room for more every movement kinetic energy for the mind why must there be more thought even though my soul would collapse at such a notion that it would cease to gain expression and even pause its voyage in the ocean of thought
There was nothing extraordinary about the words of her prayer. But there was a kind of power there that I had rarely experienced. "Where did you learn to pray like that?" I asked.
"That wasn't me praying, Dan. It was us, praying together. It's just as Jesus said: 'when two or three agree'... This is something we've been learning: when we don't just say our prayers, and when we don't simply pray as individuals, but when we learn to pray as one, we experience things. It's the Kingdom of God, the dream of God coming true when people harmonize their wills with God's will. That was your prayer as much as mine; I was just finding words for both of us.""
(Brian McLaren, The Last Word and The Word After That p. 143)
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
(Albert Einstein)
There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge - that is curiosity.
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others - that is vanity.
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve - that is love.
(Bernard of Clairvaux)
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