Darkness

St. James United Church, Toronto 3 (2014,,2.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

For darkness restores what light cannot repair.

Joseph Brodsky

Creating Change

St. James United Church, Toronto 4 (2014,,2.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The only way we really create change is 

to enter any situation with the humility to listen

and to recognize the world as it is,

and then the audacity to dream what it could be.

Jacqueline Novogratz

Unsayable

Kingston Road United Church 1 (2013, 2.25), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

This has always been the driving mystery

of all sacred wisdom:

The only thing worth saying are

those things that are unsayable.

Mark Nepo,

The Book of Awakening

As it is

RIC_1854-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We cannot change the world as it is,

but by opening ourselves to the world as it is,

we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery are available – 

not only to us but to all human beings.

Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred path of the Warrior

Cry of my heart

RIC_1837-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     My Lord,
     You have heard the cry of my heart
     because it was
     You Who cried out within my heart.

        Thomas Merton, Dialogue with Silence

Hope

RIC_1847-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well,
     but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of
     how it turns out. 

        Václav Havel

Freedom

Applewood UC 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

In that tiny space between all the givens is freedom.

Sue Bender

Belief

RIC_1930-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

People are not interested in what to believe;

they're interested in how to believe. 

 Diana Butler Bass,
The United Church Observer (March 2012)

Icon

RC1_0088, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

An icon is designed to be not a beautiful

work of art, but a window into divine

mysteries. It points beyond itself.

M. Craig Barnes, The Pastor As Minor Poet: Texts and

Subtexts in the Ministerial Life

Imperfection

RIC_9404-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

   To deny imperfection is to disown
     oneself, for to be human is to be
     imperfect.

    Ernest Kurtz and  Katherine Ketcham,

    The Spirituality of Imperfection

In a room alone

RCC_5991
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

On a path

RC1_5170
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

We are not going to sainthood here, we are just on a path.

Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion

Sanctuary

RCC_5990
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

To find love I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God.


Thomas Merton