Courage

Stained Glass 4 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Life shrinks or expands 
in proportion to one's courage.

Anais Nin

Worship

St. James United Church, Toronto 5 (2014, 2.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I believe how I live my life everyday
is my act of worship.

Jack Layton

Opposites

Stained Glass 1 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     You cannot know a thing
     unless you know its opposite.
     You cannot become sincere
     unless you have experienced
     hypocrisy and decided
     to fight against it.

        Abu Uthman Maghrebi

Resemblance

Good Friday 2013, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


My confidence comes from the belief that all human beings
resemble each other, that others carry wounds like mine – that 
they will therefore understand. 

Orhan Pamuk, My Father's Suitcase

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

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

We

Humber Valley United Church 55, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The word we names our sight-lines.
We refers to the boundaries of a way of seeing.
It's true, each of us can only live life in the first person.
But we is not neutral. We share with some other a lens
that may be built into every frame of reference.
Experience, categories, personality, gender, language, 
race, culture combine to form why and how we see.

Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus