The great day of THURSDAY

Having..........my HH delicious coffee in my favorite mug.

Feeling.......kind of  bombed out about not being able to retrieve my new photos as well as I would like too.

Thinking........while sitting on the deck with the morning sun working it's magic on my spirit how silly it is to let something so inconsequential invade my feelings of well being.

I have old photos I can get to immediately so go for it silly girl.

Thanks to Thursday when I know I will  visit Ruth and share with Meri and get off to a better start.


"There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever."


Mahatma Gandhi

Joy

I would like to share an opportunity that has just come my way that is filling me with my joy.


I was asked if I would be interested, as a nurse, to be part of a spiritual retreat for terminal patients at the beautiful Abby of Gethsemani at the end of May. 
All week-end at this beautiful place with folks who are sharing their stories with others.
Stories of struggle, faith and joy.

Several acres of sacred ground.
The Abby of Our Lady of Gethsemani.

 Just a few miles from my home.

The addition on the left was built many years ago for retreatants when it was decided to allow women to attend.


At one time only men were allowed to go to Gethsemani for retreats.

Of course no woman is ever allowed to go into the areas on the right side of the buildings.

I was permitted to  visit the inside of the Abby, however, as a visiting nurse. 

The nurses had the combination to the locked gate and went around to the back to visit our patients in the infirmary there.

 One day when I was there to visit a patient you would never guess who was spending a few days there.

The Dalai Lama
in 2008 with his entourage and the Abbot


I only got a glimpse of him from the window but just knowing he was there was exciting for me.
I have much respect for this man.
He and Thomas Merton were good friends.


The name of the retreat is called

Gennesaret  

after a small region near the Jordon River where folks are brought for healing.


May I share my favorite prayer, after The Lord's prayer, that was written by Thomas Merton and read by the late Rev. Matthew Kelly of Gethsemani.

 Go here for Tea Talk with Ruth

 

Go here for Share The Joy Thursday 

Nameste

32nd Sunday In Ordinary Time

Today's Gospel reading at Mass is one that has always given me a lot to chew on when it comes to reflecting on scripture.

Matthew 25: 1 - 13
1	"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
2	Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3	For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
4	but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
5	As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6	But at midnight there was a cry, `Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
7	Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.
8	And the foolish said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
9	But the wise replied, `Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.'
10	And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.
11	Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, `Lord, lord, open to us.'
12	But he replied, `Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
13	Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.  To use a modern day phrase "Keep your eyes on the Prize."  Unable to find where this orginated. Maybe from an old African American hymn. The decision to take the extra oil along to be prepared is a wise decision. It indicates we have a choice. We do indeed  have a choice to follow the life of Christ and to prepare to enter the kingdom of Heaven. For we do not know when that will be. Would we be turned away for not being ready? Would we be turned away at the gates of heaven? I do not choose to take that chance. I choose to live my life as Jesus taught us. Hell is the absence of being in eternity with God. That is not a chance I am willing to take. Now I am not perfect by any means, but I think if I am sincerely trying and that in itself is pleasing to God. That is from Thomas Merton's writings and I think he got it right. Today I am grateful for models in my life that help me understand and live the Christian life. Thanks be to God. Giving thanks challenge day number 6.

This is the Lord's day will you share it with me?

By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Thomas Merton 

Amazing TV, once in a while

I turned to Kentucky Educational Television and ran across a documentary about 

John Howard Griffin.

He wrote "Black Like Me" a book I read years ago that moved me deeply.

I enjoyed the doc.

Griffin was an amazing man.

He lost his eyesight as a result of the war.

Was a pianist.

Regained his sight and became an activist.

I had forgotten he was a friend of my other hero Thomas Merton and spent some

time at Gethsemani not far from where I live.

Great story.

 Finally learned how to shoot a macro shot. whoopee

 Found a site on-line that explained where to find the
macro lens on a digital camera.

Learning from all world philosophy

Because I am such a devotee of Thomas Merton I am always impressed with Indian philosophy.

On Meditation for this week.

The practice that destroys ignorance is constant meditation.

Because of ignorance the ever-present Awareness is not recognized.

The seeker who has realized the Self sees the entire universe as the Self.”

Shankara (788-821)


Shankara (Sankara) is probably the best known and most influential philosopher and theologian of India. Born in Kerala in southern India he became an ascetic very early in life. Shankara reformed Hinduism with a monistic interpretation of the Vedanta, which ascribed all reality to a single unitary source, which he identified as "Brahma". He declared all plurality and differentiation as nothing but an illusion.


Vedanta is the philosophy that developed out of Vedic oral traditions and scriptures. These writings are even older than the Bible. The Yogi Ramana Maharshi once said that the whole Vedanta is contained in the two Biblical statements: "I am that I AM" and "Be still and know that I am God."

Mosaic Monday- All about mystics

Mosaic Monday

The Mystics

Bear with me as I share some of my week-end retreat in this way.

"Mystics on the Move"
Art by Sr Marie Becker
I will tell you more about this marvelous piece of art at a later date.

There is quite a marvelous spiritual movement in the world today.

"Mystics on the Move"

What does Mysticism Mean, and who cares?

Mystic was a scary word to me, until this weekend.

My idea of a mystic was someone who was way over there in an unattainable place I could never reach, maybe even a little 'looney'.
Boy was I ever wrong.

The definition our presenter used.

Mysticism is

The desire of the human soul to have union with the Devine.
According to Merton the desire itself is pleasing to God, as long as we are trying.

Thomas Merton, my favorite, wrote.

Click on to enlarge


My mosaic for today is
some of the most well known mystics.

 Center, Thomas Merton, he is more real to me.
1st. on the left to the right -Soren Kierkegaard, I remember a little from college.
2)Hildegard of Bengin
3) Augustine of Hippo
4) Catherine of Sienna
5) Down the right side, Theresa of Calcutta
6) Theresa of Avila
7) Bonaventure, sorry bad selection for a pic.
8) John of the Cross, to the left
9) Julian of Norwich
10) Thomas Aquinas, up the left. Gotta know him, I was educated by the Dominicans.
11) Teilhard de Chardin
12) Beloved, St. Francis of Assisi 

"Christians of the future will either be a mystic or he/she will not be a Christian at all."
Karl Rahner, S.J.


This make sense to me when I look around at politicians and others who profess to be Christian.
There is so much hypocrisy.

Being mystical does not mean being perfect.
It means living each day with the understanding that you always walk with God and you act as if you know it and therefore treat others and nature as such.


From scripture we learn

We will be known as Christians, because of our love for each other.
Forgive me for being judgementel, but I hear some call themselves Christian yet I cannot see it in their treatment towards others.




Go here for more Mosaic Mondays.