MattAndJojang's Blog

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Every breath we draw is a gift of God’s love; every moment of existence is a grace.

~ Thomas Merton

Matt, With Fellow Pilgrims, Praying The Stations Of The Cross At The Via Dolorosa In The Old City Of Jerusalem.

As I recognize a temptation… for what it is, as I haul it out of the depths into the light of day, I weaken it and allow for the possibility of transformation, or what Saint Benedict termed ‘conversion of life.’ This, it seems to me, is the basic work of the Christian: to admit to my most basic temptations to do evil, and resist them. And as I do so, I free the virtues to act on me… This is the discipline–and the joy–of Lent.

~ Kathleen Norris

Photo: http://www.ileifa.org

Even empty space has a kind of structure, and we don’t understand that at all. In fact, most of us would guess that empty space does have a structure but on a tiny, tiny scale. There’s fascinating ideas and one of the fascinating ideas is that if you could chop up space on a very tiny scale, you would find that what we think of as just a little point in space is actually a tightly wrapped origami of extra dimensions over and above the three that we are familiar with.

~ Lord Martin Rees, Astrophysicist

Photo: David Shield/Flickr

Riven means broken, it means shattered or wounded or unhealed, and I think that notion is very important to me and my notion of God and of religion: that we are broken creatures, very broken creatures. And I don’t think of God as necessarily healing that brokenness as much as participating in it.

~ Christian Wiman

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[Man] sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.

~ The Dalai Lama

Photo: selvin/flickr

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Photo: Streufund/Flickr

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

~ Proverbs 11:2

Photo: Heather Stockett/Flickr

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

~ Groucho Marx

photo: thesoulfulparent.blogspot.com

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow…

~ Melody Beattie

Photo: avalonblues/Flickr

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either in water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~ Thich Nhat Hahn