Contemplative Haven

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.
[Norman Vincent Peale]

“The way of loving him is so very simple: the diapers, the baking, the laundry; sitting quietly, telling stories to the children, holding the hand of one’s spouse. All are little acts of love, directed not only to one’s family but to God. This is what he wants.
The farmer plowing his field, the plumber doing [...]

Volume 10 (Jesus Speaks to His Apostles) Message Dated October 8, 2004

 [From:  The Call, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer]
“…I see and am with the fears that hook me into wanting things to be different from the way they are, fears that pull me into the belief that a different location or situation – a more creative job, a home in a more natural setting, more money or time [...]

“Give freely of thy spirit and judge not; be longsuffering and patient, for when you are kind with the kindness of the spirit to those who are unregenerate, the act frees your own unregeneracy as well.  Blessed is he that sees and understands and forgives.”
* * * * * * * * * * * [...]

[By: Leonard Cohen]
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will.
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If [...]

[Excerpt from "Heart of the World", by Hans Urs von Balthasar]
Or I can postpone guilt until tomorrow.  The eye that looks at me fixedly always says “today.”  “It is now that I want to be loved.”  But I lower my eyes and say:  “I will love you tomorrow.  Tomorrow you’ll see what I’m capable of [...]

It is difficult when the outside is hard pressed by the trouble in the world to keep the inside serene, but it is only difficult when you think that you can make it serene. The serenity will be given you; that is the benediction and the reward for those who sought and knocked and found.

If [...]

We’ll be heading out in a couple of days for our summer vacation (we left it a tad late, didn’t we) and then it will be right back into the school year and those glorious autumn days. So this post will wind things up at the Haven until sometime in early September. Your intentions [...]

Excerpt from:  Abandonment to Divine Providence (Jean-Pierre de Caussade)
“It is true that a canvas simply and blindly offered to the brush feels at each moment only the stroke of the brush.  It is the same with a lump of stone.  Each blow from the hammering of the sculptor’s chisel makes it feel – if it [...]