Generosity

Blue Christmas at KRU 5, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Don't live through life,

give through life.

Michael Powell,

A Thousand Paths to Generosity

Service

Candle (12.14,'12), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     You will truly serve only what you love
     because service is love made visible.

        Stephen Colbert

Growth

RIC_9796, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Change is inevitable,

Growth is optional.

John C. Maxwell

Science

Star (12.12, '12), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Science cannot take away the ultimate mystery of life,

nor can it detract from the spiritual component of healing. 

James Oschman

The Universe Story

RCC_9953, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Everything tells the story of the universe.
The winds tell the story, literally, not just imaginatively. The story has its imprint everywhere, and that is why it is so important to know the story. 
If you do not know the story, in a sense you do not know yourself; you do not know anything. 

Thomas Berry, The Universe Story

The Book to read

Books, office, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The book to read is not the one that thinks for you
     but the one which makes you think.

        Harper Lee

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

Radical Welcome

Linus 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Radical welcome is a process. It is a process by
     which isolated parts of a whole community are
     brought together in creative and compassionate
     way to generate a more integrated, balanced and
     dynamic mixture.

        Steven Charleston

Science & Spirituality

RC1_9613, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Science explores the world as it is offered to the five senses
and the brain, while spirituality considers the universe to be purposeful and imbued with meaning.

Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow, War of the Worldviews

Peace

Fallen, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Our capacity to make peace with another person
     and with the world depends very much on our
     capacity to make peace with ourselves.

        Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Heaven

RC1_7854, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To eat is heaven.

Confucius

Growing Edge

Flowers (Oct. 24, '12), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Look well to the growing edge.
     It's the basis of hope in moments of despair.

        Howard Thurman

Knowing

Lamp (2012, 12.2), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We can learn about others by studying ourselves.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Choose Hope

RIC_8644-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Between hope and despair
     choose hope:
     it will be harder to bear.
        Boris Novak, Decisions (tr. Dintinjana)

Real Dialogue

Masjid 2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


When we have peace within,
real dialogue with others is possible.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Decisions

View 1a, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Between two words
     choose the quieter one.

        Boris Novak, Decisions (tr. Dintinjana)

Watchful

Candle and Stones 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


       We all live for the Light
             that the lowly born, a glimmer, lead
     the way

     and you wake up, still in the dark
     but watchful and ready now.

        Sandra M. Tully, When You Are a Child

The Way of Love

Sick Kids 1, Toronto, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The way of love is indistinguishable,
     moreover, from the way of freedom.

        Wendell Berry, Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Abundant Life

Night 16(2012, 11.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


To be free of indifference would be
to have life more abundantly.

Wendell Berry, Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Quarrels

Created with ToonCamera, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric;
     out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.

        W. B. Yeats

About God

Night 4 (2012, 11.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Our idea of God tells us
more about ourselves than about God.

Thomas Merton

Truth

Museum Station #12 (2012,11,7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The truth is more important than the facts.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Love

Toon Iona Cross, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James Baldwin

Integrity

Bloor & Avenue #8, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you don't become the ocean,

you'll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

Giving

RIC_5382-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

She gives most who gives with joy.

Mother Teresa

Mirrors we use

Bloor & Avenue #5, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What we don't see is that

the mirrors we use are distorted.

Mark Labberton,

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

The Enemy of the Moment

Crown of Thorns by Tune, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


War had been literally continuous, thought strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. ... 
The enemy of the moment always represented 
absolute evil.

George Orwell, 1984

The Myth of War

RCC_9693, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The myth of war is essential to justify the horrible sacrifices
     required in war, the destruction and the death of innocents.
     It can be formed only by denying the reality of war, by turning
     the lies, the manipulation, the inhumanness of war into heroic
     ideal. 

        Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

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

Action

East Plains United Church 3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     All that is necessary for evil to triumph is
     for good men (and women) to do nothing.

         Edmund Burke

Reflection Questions

La Cage Aux Folles 2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


What words capture your social and spiritual location
in the world? Which aspects of your social or spiritual location do you think are the most influential in your life? 

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

Faith

Iona Cross 3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Faith is an indispensable component or dimension
     of every human life and has to do with the absolute source
     of meaning and values. 

        Juan Luis Segundo, Faith and Ideologies

Political Theology

DSC_8765, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Political Theology.
This does not mean reducing theology to politics;
it does mean making theology more conscious of
and intentional about its political function,
bringing out the political meaning and implications of every aspect of faith.

Harold Wells, A Future for Socialism?

Journey

Rosetta McClain Gardens 6, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     If you only walk on sunny days,
     you will never reach your destination.

        Paulo Coehlo, Aleph

Love of Neighbour

Face 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Love of neighbour is especially love for those who are most oppressed and most in need.

Harold Wells, A Future for Socialism?

Songs

Rosetta McClain Gardens 13, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I teach my sighs to lengthen into songs.

Theodore Roethke

Grateful

Lamp (2012,11.7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


There is always something to be grateful for.

Rhonda Byrne

Path to Reconciliation

Cenotaph, Paris, Ontario, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     It is when you can feel your opponent's pain that you begin
     the path to reconciliations.

        Jonathan Sacks

Silence

Rosetta McClain Gardens 11, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Silence is the home of the word. 
Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the world.
We can even say that words are meant to disclose
the mystery of the silence from which they come.

Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

Generosity

Stained Glass Window (2012, 11.6), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

All people give in the same language.

 

Michael Powell,

A Thousands Paths to Generosity

Hope

Play Ground, Christian Island, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody poor,
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.

William Blake, The Human Abstract

Mutuality

Reflection (Oct. 24, '12), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We mutually belong to one another.

Alan Ryan

Courage

Bethesda Cross, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The cave you fear to enter
holds the treasure you seek.

Joseph Campbell

Truth about Myself

Beauty by a window 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     O God
     help me
     to believe
     the truth about myself
     no matter
     how beautiful it is!

     Macrina Wiederkehr

Dance for Joy

Heading South 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


May all things move and be moved in me
     and know and be known in me.
May all creation
     dance for joy within me.

       Chinook Psalter

Freedom

Applewood UC 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

In that tiny space between all the givens is freedom.

Sue Bender

Loving Circles

Purple in Autumn, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Open your fists

into embraces

Open your arms' length

into loving circles.

James Broughton

All in One

Light, AUC, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Great knowledge sees all in one.

Small knowledge breaks down into the many.

Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu