beauty

SACRIFICE: The Raven’s Fate

March 2, 2017

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole Earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the [...]

WISDOM: Beauty by Joan Chittister

November 30, 2015

From Illuminated Life: Monastic Wisdom for Seekers of Light One night bandits came to the hermitage of an old monastic and said: “We have come to take away everything in your cell.” And the monastic said, “Take whatever you see, my sons.” The bandits gathered up everything they found and went away. But they left behind a little bag with silver candlesticks. When the monastic saw it, he picked it up and ran after them, shouting, “Take these, take these. You forgot them and they are the most beautiful of all.” W hat may be most missing in this highly technological world of ours is beauty. We value efficiency instead. We want functionalism over art. We create trash. We bask in [...]

SIMPLICITY: A Second Simplicity by Richard Rohr

April 22, 2014

From Falling Upward Beyond rational and critical thinking, we need to be called again. This can lead to the discovery of a “second naiveté,” which is a return to the joy of our first naiveté, but now totally new, inclusive, and mature thinking. (Paul Ricoeur) People are so afraid of being considered pre-rational that they avoid and deny the very possibility of the transrational. Others substitute mere pre-rational emotions for authentic religious experience, which is always transrational. (Ken Wilber) These quick summaries (not precise quotations) are from two great thinkers who more or less describe for me what happened on my own spiritual and intellectual journey. I began as a very conservative pre-Vatican II Roman [...]

PRAYER: Thanksgiving For Beauty by Satyavati Chitambar Jordan

December 7, 2011

We thank you, our Father, for the beauty that lies about us: this Earth, lovely in springtime, with its bursting buds and the riot of color in flowering gardens; the cool relief of the first heavy shower after a parched summer; the golden fruitfulness of autumn; and the bracing cold of the winter months. We thank you for the symphony of sight and sound in nature – deep blue skies and green, grassy lawns; moonlit nights and the first flush of dawn; the chirp of the cricket, the sweet note of the robin; the droning hum of the bees, the excited welcoming bark of a loved pet dog. We thank you for home and friends and family and the deep content of the fireside in beloved human companionship – with the crisp, sharp cold outside. You have [...]