Saturday, September 15, 2012

THOUGHTS ON BELIEFS

                           

All human beings are believers, not ‘knowers’ who know with certitude.  Everything we know is grounded on presupposed beliefs that cannot be verified with more fundamental proof or certainty that provides us with assurance they are true.  That is just as true for atheists as for religious adherents.  The quest for foundationalist certainty . . . is a distinctly modern project, one launched as a response to the instabilities and uncertainties of early modern Europe.  But that modern project has failed.  There is no universal, rational foundation upon which indubitably certain knowledge can be built.  All human knowing is built on believing.  That is the human condition."

Christian Smith

Friday, September 14, 2012

A CONTEMPLATIVE THOUGHT


Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering, because it always demands an element of self-sacrifice, because, given temperamental differences and the drama of situations, it will always bring with it renunciation and pain.

When we know that the way of love–this exodus, this going out of oneself–is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others, becomes more human. Anyone who has consistently avoided suffering does not understand other people; he becomes hard and selfish.

Yet on the other hand, I am taken out of my comfortable tranquility and have to let myself be reshaped. If we say that suffering is the inner side of love, we then also understand it is so important to learn how to suffer–and why, conversely, the avoidance of suffering renders someone unfit to cope with life. He would be left with an existential emptiness, which could then only be combined with bitterness, with rejection and no longer with any inner acceptance or progress toward maturity.

Pope Benedict

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Advice from Mother Teresa


People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered
... forgive them anyway!


If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives
... be kind anyway!


If you are successful, you will win some false friends and make some true enemies
... succeed anyway!


If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you
... be honest and frank anyway!


What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight
... go ahead and build anyway!


If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous
... be happy anyway!


The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow
... do good anyway!


Give the world the best you have, and even that may never be enough
... give it anyway!


You see in the final analysis, its all between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway!

Bruno

Friday, September 7, 2012

A CONTEMPLATIVE THOUGHT


Wherever you run you cannot escape it, because wherever you go you take yourself with you, and will always find yourself. Run away above or below, outside or inside, and at every point you will find the cross, and everywhere you must be patient if you want to have spiritual peace and be worthy of an everlasting crown. For it is through many torments that we have to enter the kingdom of God. Amen.

Thomas à Kempis

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A CONTEMPLATIVE THOUGHT


And here is another important element: constant prayer awakens in us a sense of the presence of the Lord in our lives and in history, and His is a presence that sustains us, guides us and gives us great hope also in the darkness of certain human events, in addition, every prayer, even in the most radical solitude, is never isolated and is never sterile, but it is the lifeblood to nourish an ever more committed and consistent Christian life. "

Wednesday's Audience; Pope Benedict on Prayer