The care of another--even material, bodily care--is spiritual in essence. Bread for myself is a material question; bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. - Jacques Maritain

the cross brings us to an equality that politics and force never could...........let us exalt every valley and bring low every mountain

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love. - Amy Carmichael

Stop the cycle of self and other abuse

Say 'No' to Suffering

What we most frequently see when the mind is focused and clear are the habits of mind that create unnecessary suffering, habits fueled by greed and hatred and delusion. Over and over we struggle with our lives, resenting our experiences, blaming ourselves for not being other than who we are. We are unable to see past the immediate, overwhelming drama of our personal story to find relief—indeed, liberation—in the consoling realization of an astonishingly lawful cosmos. Paying attention to current experience stops the stories that create and recreate suffering.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice 

A worthy goal for any pilgrim

Move Toward Kindness

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, seeing the endless rounds of meaningless suffering over lusts and aversions (which, although seemingly urgent, are essentially empty), we feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, we feel compassion for everyone else. We know as we have never known before that we are stuck, all of us, with bodies and minds and instincts and impulses, all in a tug-of-war with our basic heart nature that yearns to relax into love. Then we surrender. We love. We laugh. We appreciate.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice 

The Art of Connecting Robin Hood to Rosebud

Become Clear

Like the archer straightening his arrow and perfecting his aim, the practitioner of meditation straightens out the mind while aiming his or her attentional energy at its object. Learning to drop what we're doing, however momentarily, and to genuinely pay attention in the present moment, without attachment or bias, helps us become clear, just as a snow globe becomes clear when we stop shaking it and its flakes settle.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice 

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

- St. Augustine

Hey 'Kid' be a mensch and just shake and make up like a good boy?

It is the acid test of nonviolence that ... there is no rancor left behind, and in the end, the enemies are converted into friends.

- Mohandas Gandhi

speared in the groin

The agony of defeat took on new meaning when I learned that the captain and the heart soul and (testicles) of my team, Nicholas Lidstom, required surgery in the previous round to repair damage caused by a stick to the groin.  I thought he wasn't quite up to his best game in the finals. Now we know why.

May God Bless all the wounded warriors but especially our incredible Captain Nik and his nicked knackers.

it certainly is a good deal for the half-hearted and the corrupt

It was for this world that Christ had died; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.

- Graham Greene,
The Power and the Glory

we are your bad conscience

Everywhere and at all times of greatest trial [people] have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who with [God's] help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil.... We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.

- Sophie Scholl,
and her co-resisters in The White Rose, a nonviolent student movement against the Nazis.

we must never forget that our choices have consequences

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, knew of Dr Bruner's remarkable 
Surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt Uni v Med Ctr in Nashville , he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed Hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. 

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity 

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. 

She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person. 'Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. 

Now see the actual picture........ 

We used to call it 'Being Saved to Serve".

God has obviously saved some people to open medical clinics, run homeless shelters, and write books.  All these constitute "good works."  But for most, God has saved us to wipe the nose, prepare the dinner, run an errand for a sick neighbor, hold the Bible for, or even play chess with a lonely friend.  It's all about meeting the basic needs of others, and you can be a passionate person who does that.  from Joni and Friends Newsletter  May 2009 edition. It may be old fashioned but its still seems to me to be the best way to live a happy and meaningfull life.