All Are Friends

The moral consequence of faith in God is . . . universal love. . . . This is the requirement: that all beings, not only our friends but also our enemies, not only humans but also animals and the inanimate be met with reverence, for all are friends in the friendship of the one to whom we are reconciled in faith. ~H. Richard Niebuhr

Permanent Revolution

Faith in God involves us in a permanent revolution of the mind and of the heart, a continuous life which opens out infinitely into ever new possibilities. ~H. Richard Niebuhr

Which Way Is It With Me?

He who when he has the world is as one who does not have it, then he has the world, otherwise the world has him. ~Kierkegaard

Our Vocation

That's what I mean by divine love. That's all Jesus did. He opened the future, made new the past, and filled the present full of meaning. And that is our vocation. ~Joseph W. Mathews

We are sitting here in Tampa, Fl, mailing out Bending History: Selected Talks of Joseph W. Mathews. If you haven't already ordered a copy and want one, e-mail me right back. ~jpc

Being Thankful

I am learning that 'Being Thankful' is about opening my awareness to the ever-present miraculous in the ever-present ordinary. ~Alan Kantor a la Randy Williams

Good News Indeed

In the immense story of the universe, that so many of these dangerous moments [over the billions of years] have been navigated successfully is some indication that the universe is for us rather than against us. We need only summon these forces to our support in order to succeed. It is difficult to believe that the purposes of the universe or of the planet Earth will ultimately be thwarted, although the human challenge to these purposes must never be underestimated. ~Thomas Berry

Go to http://www.thegreatstory.org/tb-audio.html to hear Thomas read this and other pieces from The Great Work. See also a recent drawing of Thomas. Thank you, Connie B. ~jpc

Whose Pictures Do You Have at Your Desk?

I learned a long time ago that I am part of a communion of saints and that they surely help motivate me. So I have surrounded myself with pictures of some of them: Dali's Jesus (who knows what he really looked like?), Joseph Mathews, Thomas Berry, Gandhi, Merton, Dalai Lama, Hogan, Iron Man, and a gnarled tree. Wouldn't you like to eavesdrop on our communing conversations? ~jpc

How Would You Like to Work Here?

An Evolving Work Ethic

[We] desire . . . continual growth and [have] a constitutional aversion to complacency. . . . Upstream the water's deeper. Rather than flowing down river, we prefer to labour against the current, to resist the simple solution, because that's where we find the real opportunity within a project. . . . Our projects, and the intensive research we favour, provoke us to learn about the world, and we are enriched and changed by that level of engagement. But this rigorous process has also proven to be the way to produce the best people with the highest capacity for tackling the most difficult projects. . . . Our capacity is constantly evolving in response to projects undertaken and as a defense against unhappiness. . . . If we feel we are contributing something of value, our ambition has no boundaries. ~from "Philosophy" of Bruce Mau Inc.

New-Time Spirituality

It is easy to assume that a more religious world means a more fractious world, where violent conflict is fueled by violent fundamentalist movements. ~Laurie Goodstein, "More Religion, but Not the Old-Time Kind," NYTimes, January 9, 2005

I would say it this way: A more spiritual world means a more united world, where evolution is enhanced not by old-time religion but new-time spirituality, where the highest moral value is unity. That which divides is of the "devil." That which unites is of the spirit. ~jpc

Heaven & Hell

There is a profound contrast between the enlightened perspective, which is the absolute, universal, and impersonal view of the Authentic Self, and the unenlightened perspective, which is the relative, separate, and personal view of the narcissistic ego. It's literally the difference between heaven and hell. ~Andrew Cohen

Dreaming and Awakening

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens. ~Carl Jung

"I'm In That, Too"

At the end of the Book of Job, if I read it correctly, in the whirlwind speech — I think it's chapter 38, 39 — God sort of shows Job the ultimate Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom video with lions ripping apart gazelles and vultures tearing carrion and hailstorms and earthquakes and all. And then God says to Job, "What do you think of that, Job? Hope you like it because I'm in that, too. Goodbye." ~Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Job's Lessons For Today:

(1) Victims of this cataclysm in no way "deserved" a fate inflicted by the Leviathanic force of nature.

(2) Questioning God's inscrutable ways has its exemplar in the Bible and need not undermine faith.

(3) Humanity's obligation to ameliorate injustice on earth is being expressed in a surge of generosity. . . .

~William Safire, "Where Was God?"

The Attitude We Bring to Life

What life means to us is determined not so much by what life brings to us as by the attitude we bring to life. Not so much by what happens to us as our reaction to what happens ~Lewis Dunning a la George & Ruthe Yost

MLK Day

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But . . . the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Stuff of Real Covenant

As we were thrust into the cause, it was my cause, too. I married the man and the cause. I realized I, too, could be killed. . . . I would tell him, "You're the only one who's making any sense right now." I tried to think of positive, uplifting and true things to say. . . . When he died, I knew I didn't have his abilities and skills, but I have my own. . . . If Martin's philosophy had been lived out in Iraq. . . . Nonviolence would work today, it would work 2,000 years from now. ~Coretta Scott King, recent interview

The True Axis of Evil

[P]overty, disease and environmental decline [are] the "true axis of evil". . . [that] cannot be resolved by raising military expenditures or dispatching troops. Nor can they be contained by sealing borders or maintaining the status quo in a highly unequal world. . . . Global military spending is now approaching one trillion dollars a year. . . . Preventive strategies to deal with social and environment problems generally cost so much less. . . . http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0113-06.htm a la Herman Greene

Death of 10,000-year-tradition of God, Not God

[T]he primary way we have thought about God for almost 10,000 years is dying or is dead. Since most people do not or cannot separate God from our traditional definition of God, it feels to many like there is no God or that God has died. God and the human definition of God are, however, not identical. . . . ~Bishop Spong, a la Dick Kroeger

His New Role

The energy and insight, the passion and vision my father was able to transmit so well to others -- these are what we can continue to call on him for, in his new role as our beloved ancestor. He reminds us that the brilliant fire we felt through him didn't belong to him, and it doesn't die with him. It's always here. ~Carol Poole at Mark Poole's memorial service

What Would a Happy Ending Look Like?

Three years ago we learned that the Milky Way galaxy, in which we reside, contains a black hole weighing as much as 2 million suns. "Thus," says [Michio] Kaku, "our moon revolves around the earth, the earth revolves around the sun, and the sun revolves around a black hole." Can this story have a happy ending? ~George Will

Renaissance of the Human Spirit?

So what I'm saying is that these questions -- what is reality? what is intelligence and consciousness? what is humanness, what is life? -- are . . . being answered by a bunch of people who are trying out things, who are doing things sort of experimentally. . . . [Y]ou have the online people who are trying to make democracy online and they start saying: What is democracy? What are the ingredients of democracy? It's very evident this is not electronic voting and so they say: How do we do this? And they have these great big discussions about democracy . . . and if it doesn't work, they try again. And this is the great renaissance of the human spirit. ~Kevin Kelly, exec. editor of Wired magazine

Loving the Distance Between

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see each other whole against the sky. ~Rainer Rilke

Practicing External and Internal Nonviolence

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Secular Realm, Godless?

Never consider the secular realm Godless just because it does not speak of God. To speak of a realm of divine creation and providence as Godless is Godless. It denies God's power over the world. It would force God to confine Godself to religion and church. ~Tillich

Everything Is Sacramental

If we had a different feeling toward nature, we would have different feelings for the wholeness and holiness of life. Not having this contributes to our loss of everything sacramental -- because if the whole universe is not seen sacramentally, the partial sacraments die off. And in all cultural creations too we must show the presence of the holy. We need an understanding of culture not only measured by productivity but in terms of the ultimate meaning that shines through -- through the most seemingly atheistic novels and the most radically anti-human visual art of our time. The ultimate meaning shines as well through the different political experiments all over the world, shines through social systems, even through one of the worst forms of objectifying persons -- modern advertising. In their unholiness all these things nevertheless have a point that, however small, is inexpressibly strong: the divine ground that shines through every creative human act. ~Tillich

Epiphany

In all great religious experiences, the divine appears and disappears. . . . For this we have the word "epiphany," which means the appearing of an ungraspable divine power -- being there and not being there. This "yes and no" is the foundation of all speaking about the divine. Thus may the vertical line of the divine enter the horizontal dynamics of human history . . . [and may] the vertical depth [be] in everything encountered. ~Tillich

Denying the Divinity of the Divine

When we try to explain [the vertical dimension] to people today, let us not start with the "question of God." For people of our objectified world take "God" as an object whose existence or nonexistence is debated like that of another galaxy. This denies the divinity of the divine. ~Tillich

All We Need To Know?

Tillich talks about "the eternal now." Plotinus and Heisenberg talk about the "translucent splendor of the eternal shining through the material phenomena." Niebuhr talks about "the other world in this world." Teilhard talks about "the eyes to see." Swedenborg talks about the spiritual as one's "deep loves" related to what is. Probably all we need to know. ~jpc

Beyond Explanation and Teaching

No matter what path you follow to reach the place of truth, the place you arrive at is the same. When people are totally committed to their religious practice, they no longer need to be chauvinistic about it. All that is necessary is to dig into that basic question, to reach that deepest essence, and humbly accept Grace. . . . This state of mind is beyond explanation and teaching with words and phrases. It cannot be spoken about; it can only be realized through each person's individual experience. ~Shodo Harada Roshi

planted at death of his grandmother 

Plant the Apple Tree

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. ~Martin Luther King, Jr, quoting Martin Luther

New life always comes in the midst of dying life, especially through such faith in the future to birth new life. ~jpc

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Reflections: Past, Present, and Future

Look at the "Year in Pictures" http://www.nytimes.com (or some other news source). Then take some time and list your reflections in your journal or pc file (whatever you can review next year):

 

 

5 Planetary events of 2004

15 Events I participated in (maybe by months)

5 People I remember (beyond family/friends)

5 Places I visited, near and far

5 Books/poems/articles I read

5 Movies/TV shows/plays/sport events I saw

Key family event of 2004

Key personal event of 2004

Key community event of 2004

Key struggle of 2004

Key creation of 2004

What I learned about myself during 2004

What I learned about life in 2004

2004: The Great Year of ___________________________

 

Who am I, going into 2005

5 things I'm focused on in 2005 beyond self

5 things I anticipate participating in during 2005

 

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

What is that for me in 2005?

 

Give thanks for last year and the new year