A Pueblo Indian Prayer

Hold On...



Hold on to what is good,
even if it's a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe,
even if it's a tree that stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do,
even if it's a long way from here.

Hold on to your life,
even if it's easier to let go.

Hold on to my hand,
even if I've gone away from you.

I came across this Franciscan blessing/benediction, and the words just spoke to my heart as an encouragement of what I want and should be praying for, seeking, and desiring in my own life. I so much want to follow God’s heart for justice, live for Him, and live out what this blessing speaks about. I hope you too will be encouraged by the words of this blessing…



May God bless you with a restless discomfort

about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,

so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.



May God bless you with holy anger

at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,

so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.



May God bless you with the gift of tears

to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish,

so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.



May God bless you with enough foolishness

to believe that you really can make a difference in this world,

so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.



Here is a slightly different version of the blessing…



May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor

The sea is everything.

It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe.

Its breath is pure and healthy.

It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely,
for he feels life stirring on all sides.

The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and
wonderful existence.

It is nothing but love and emotion;
it is the Living Infinite.


~ Jules Verne

Faith exists only where it is possible to doubt.

Merton's Epiphany

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut,
in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly
overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people,
that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien
to one another even though we were total strangers.

It was like waking from a dream of separateness,
of spurious self-isolation in a special world,
the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was
such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.

I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which
God Himself became incarnate.

As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could
overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are.
And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained.

There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around
shining like the sun.

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched
by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs
entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes
of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind
or the brutalities of our own will.

This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is
the pure glory of God in us.

It is so to speak his name written in us … like a pure diamond,
blazing with the invisible light of heaven.

It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions
of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that
would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.

I have no program for this seeing. It is only given.
But the gate of heaven is everywhere.


~ Thomas Merton
Shining Like The Sun

. . . when you die, you are grieved by all the atoms
of which you were composed.

They hung together for years,
whether in sheets of skin or communities of spleen.

With your death they do not die.

Instead, they part ways, moving off in their separate directions,
mourning the loss of a special time they shared together,

haunted by the feeling that they were once playing parts in
something larger than themselves, something that had its own life,

something they can hardly put a finger on.


~ David Eagleman

Say What?

"For me it is the Virgin birth, the Incarnation, the Resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws."

-----Flannery O'Connor
(Cited in "Things Seen and Unseen" by Lawrence S. Cunningham)

Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.

~~Eskimo Proverb~~

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

~~ C.S. Lewis ~~

A Hymn for Atheists