Heartfelt Dolls
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Fides

30/6/2012

0 Comments

 
There is a video clip and song by Wendy Francisco called 'God and Dog'.
The last verse goes ...

'I look up and I see God.
I look down and see my dog.
And in my human frailty
I can't match their love for me.'

Faith. Fidelity. Trust. Reliance. 
These are cornerstones in any relationship,
be it with ourselves,
our family,
our workplace,
our community,
our environment,
our pets,
our faith community.

May we recognise and treasure those who have faith in us.
May we nurture the gift of faith in ourselves and in others.

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FIDES
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Examen

29/6/2012

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Where do I sense hope, encouragement and growth areas in my life?
Pause.
Look back over the past few months.
Remember. Reflect.
Which activities and occasions have produced rich fruit?
Remember. Rejoice.
When I notice such areas,
I determine to give these areas both time and space in the future.

May we nurture and encourage another today.

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EXAMEN: areas of growth, areas of decay
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Efficacy

28/6/2012

2 Comments

 
I am wondering about the point of making 'a prayer flag a day for a year'. Such a commitment, such a discipline, is far more demanding and pervasive than I had ever anticipated. More importantly, do these prayer flags really bless all those who pass?
Then I read this story, of which there are several versions. (I found this one on Sacred Space www.sacredspace.ie)

In a time of plague hundreds of years ago, oxen are dragging wagons full of
fresh corpses to the lime-pits outside the village. There is no one to bless
their burial because the parish priest has already died from his risky
sick-calls. The little village juggler begins to fear for his life. How will
his wife and his small child manage if he catches the plague? He decides to
pray.


So he steals into the parish church that he only visits at Easter because
the Church law obliges him. He kneels in front of the altar; but he hasn’t a
prayer. What can he say to God Almighty, that stern magistrate? Instead, he
stands in front of a statue of Our Lady, and he tries to recite the Hail Mary,
but it’s been too long since the last time he blessed himself. The words of
that small prayer are beyond him, let alone the litanies he learned as a
child.


'I shall pray in my own words’ says the little juggler. ‘I shall speak from
the heart to the Virgin Mother. She was a villager too.’ But the little
juggler has no knack for the smooth sentences he wants. Whistling at women and
cursing the world are his usual way. He is dumb.


And then he thinks: ‘I shall do what I do best. I shall juggle for her!’ He
takes the balls from his pouch and begins to throw them, there and then, in
the empty Lady-chapel. First slowly, now swiftly, one, two, three, higher and
higher the little juggler spins them until there are four, five, seven in the
air, dancing like planets in the dust-clouds, the Galilean satellites of
Jupiter.


Suddenly, out of nowhere, the sacristan appears, rude and red-faced. He
punches the little juggler in the belly with his broomstick and he says: ‘Do
you not know where you are, you ignoramus? Do you not know?’ But the statue of
Our Lady softens and smiles and laughs aloud. She leans down to the little
juggler from her tilting plinth and she wipes his sweaty forehead with the
palm of her hand.

I considered, then, that I cannot know how my actions affect others, God and myself. A seed planted lives and grows in the darkness, but bears its fruit in its time. I must trust that this endeavour is also a viable seed, pregnant with potential, possibilitiy and promise - and that it will, in its time, bring pleasure and blessings.

May we live fully and consciously today, hoping each moment to be the person we are invited to be.



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EFFICACY
2 Comments

Recreate

27/6/2012

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"Each of us possesses an exquisite, extraordinary gift:
the opportunity to give expression to Divinity
on earth through our everyday lives.
When we choose to honour this priceless gift,
we participate in the recreation of the world."
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Let us know that our everyday actions,
ordinary,
repetitive,
seemingly insignificant,
are an integral part of the Divine love story.
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RECREATE A batik bird patch, cut and reformed.
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See

26/6/2012

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Saint-Exupery in 'The Little Prince' says,

"The mind doesn't see the essence;
only the heart sees the essence."

A contemplative mind,
a grateful heart,
a willing disposition,
an attentive outlook,
a reflective soul,
a compassionate response.

These are what we need to see the essence
of life;
of living;
of the alive.

Often the essence is obscured, buried, set aside, ignored.
Sometimes intentionally. Most times not.
All moments contain the essence.
Listen to it. Smell it. Taste it. Speak to it. Touch it.

May our day be blessed as we encounter the essence: love.

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SEE
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Acknowledge

25/6/2012

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I acknowledge and honour
the teacher that is my life.

May I be wise enough
to recognise the teachers and lessons
I encounter today

and may I be open to receiving their wisdom.

With hearts filled with gratitude,
let us be receptive to our teachers today.
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ACKNOWLEDGE
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Track

24/6/2012

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"And when old words die on the tongue,
New melodies break out in the heart;
And where old tracks are lost,
New country is revealed with its wonders."
Rabindranath Tagore

Change of circumstance,
new routes or paths,
a step into mystery or the unknown,
are all new country.

Today let us stand in wonder at the threshold of new country.
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TRACK
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Live

23/6/2012

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"Live to the point of tears."
Albert Camus

Today may we participate in our daily chores
consciously, fully, creatively, wholeheartedly.
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LIVE
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Discover

22/6/2012

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How many trees or shrubs or faces or skylines do we pass by and hardly notice?
How many things do we dismiss as 'boring'? Things like a concrete block wall or a lamp post or a weed flourishing in a crack on the footpath? We deny ourselves a real gift, a treausre.

Try this activity, suggested by John Cage. He asks us to look at something ... simply look.
"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four.
If it is still boring, then eight.
Then sixteen.
Then thirty-two.
Eventually one discovers it is not boring at all."

Today may we discover something beautiful in something mundane.
May its story be revealed to us.
Picture
Prayer flag made from a remnant of my mother's coat. She died 19 years ago.
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Mandala

21/6/2012

0 Comments

 
Carl Jung wrote,

"I saw that everything, all paths I had been  following,
all steps I had taken,
were leading back to a single point —
namely, to the mid-point.

It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre.

It is the exponent of all paths."

May we take delight in the knowledge that each of us is on a unique life-journey,
and that each of those paths lead to the centre ... LOVE.


Picture
MANDALA detail
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