St. Augustine

What is this which gleams through me?
And smites my heart without wounding it?
I am both a-shudder and aglow.
A-shudder, in so far as I am unlike it,
Aglow in so far as I am like it.
- St Augustine (354 –430 AD)

Read Full Post »

Madam Guyon

Some two hundred years ago the saintly Madam Guyon, (1648 – 1717) after ten years spent in a dungeon lying far below the surface of the ground, lit only by a candle at meal-times, wrote these words:

A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air;
Yet in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who [...]

Read Full Post »

New Years Prayer

Dear Lord,
In the new year, we pray
that You will guide us each new day
in paths that are pleasing to You.
Lord, the new year gives us another chance
to rededicate our lives to You,
to study Your Word
so that we know right from wrong
and to act in accordance with Your commands.
Thank you for the sense of
direction, purpose and [...]

Read Full Post »

Blood of Christ

Blood of Christ did seep from every pore
As in Gethsemane he knelt to pray.
Who can know the suffering that he bore?
He struggled and his Father did implore;
With crimson drops for all my sins did pay.
Blood of Christ did seep from every pore.
Can any have endured this torture more?
He agonized, and on his face blood [...]

Read Full Post »

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant.
He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a [...]

Read Full Post »

I am the New Year

I am the New Year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
 
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me, waiting for you to [...]

Read Full Post »

A New Years Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by [...]

Read Full Post »

Helen Steiner Rice

BRIGHTEN YOUR CORNER
We cannot all be famous
Or be listed in “Who’s Who,”
But every person, great or small,
Has important work to do.
For seldom do we realize
The importance of small deeds,
Or to what degree of greatness
Unnoticed kindness leads.

For it’s not the big celebrity
In a world of fame and praise,
But it’s doing unpretentiously
In an undistinguished way.
The work [...]

Read Full Post »

The Paradoxical Commandments, Kent M Keith

 
People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
[...]

Read Full Post »

G. K. Chesterton in The Wild Knight

The Wild Knight
 
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a [...]

Read Full Post »