Look to this Day

Ancient Sanskrit poem

Look Up

THE BUZZARD: If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

THE BAT: The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

THE BUMBLEBEE: A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

PEOPLE: In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations never realizing that all we have to do is look up!

Love Is

Love is all there is, and love is enough:

Justice is love holding the balance
Mercy is love being gracious
Faith is love believing
Charity is love giving
Patience is love waiting
Endurance is love abiding
Hope is love expecting
Prayer is love communing
Sympathy is love tenderly touching
Comfort is love soothing
Enthusiasm is love burning
Work is love laboring
Peace is love resting
Understanding is love accepting
Listening is love receiving
Forgiving is love cleansing
Teaching is love reaching
Giving is love circulating
Receiving is love blessing
Love is enough because
Love cannot fail.

Gerry Comstock

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Today we celebrate the fact of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubrious at Lourdes, France, on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Mary appeared to fourteen year old Bernadette at the grotto of Massabielle, eighteen times. The young girl was instructed by the apparition to bathe and drink from a spring that began to flow the following day. Since then the bath at Lourdes has been associated with miraculous healings. The site of the apparitions attracts over three million pilgrims a year. Of some five thousand reported cures at least fifty-eight have been declared miraculous by church officials. In 1907 Pope Pius X made the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes a feast of the universal Church.

Faith

Faith is not something we have or can keep, for it is not something". As St. Declan once said, "When I say I have attained enlightenment, please do not think there is anything that I have attained." A seeker's faith is not attained, contained, or maintained. It is not a body of beliefs held to unswervingly. It is, rather, a response to and embrace of what is unbelievable; it is a willingness to live in relationship to the Mystery that is beyond our comprehension but which comprehends us. As we move forward along a spiritual path becoming more and more taken with the Presence that stirs within all life, we become transformed, focused, smitten, and committed to continued transformation. Our lives become faith-filled, and we become faithful to the living, dynamic Presence that summons us to live dynamically.

Seeking God

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him.

Enter into your mind's inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him; and when you have shut the door, look for him. Speak now to God and say with your whole heart: I seek your face; your face, Lord, I desire.

Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are everywhere, why do I not see you when you are present? But surely you dwell in "light inaccessible." And where is light inaccessible? How shall I approach light inaccessible? Or who will lead me and bring me into it that I may see you there? I have never seen you, Lord my God; I do not know your face.

Lord most high, what shall this exile do, so far from you? What shall your servant do, tormented by love of you and cast so far from your face? He yearns to see you, and your face is too far from him. He desires to approach you, and your dwelling is unapproachable. He longs to find you, and does not know your dwelling place. He strives to look for you, and does not know your face.

~ St Anselm (1033-1109ad)​