Mystic Musings: Lent 3/11
“Going to Walden is not so easy a thing as a green visit. It is the slow and difficult trick of living, and finding it where you are.”
Going to Walden by Mary Oliver
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/10
“The result of prayer is life. Prayer irrigates the earth and life.”
St. Francis of Assisi, 13th century Catholic saint and mystic
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/09
“Our hearts become the instruments we learn to play so well.”
Dan Fogelberg Nexus
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/07
“When He touches me I clutch the sky’s sheet, the way other lovers do, the earth’s weave of clay. Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction. Don’t let any prude tell you otherwise.”
St. Teresa of Avila, 16th century Christian mystic
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/06
“If He let go of my hand, I would weep so loudly, I would petition with all my might, I would cause so much trouble that I bet God would come to His (sic) senses and never do that again.”
Meister Eckhart, 13th-14th century Catholic mystic
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/05
“What a cruel act to be untruthful. Earthquakes happen in the heart that hears sounds that are amiss.
There are fields in the soul—lush organic meadows, though sounds and words that fall there can be, at times, a poison.
A plague is spread by one who cannot tell the truth.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/04
“A good gauge of spiritual health is to write down the three things you most want. If they in any way differ, you are in trouble.”
Jalaludin Rumi, 13th century Sufi poet
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/03
“I felt in need of a great pilgrimage so I sat still for three days and God came to me.”
Kabir, an Indian poet, artist and musician in the 15th and 16th centuries
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/08
“I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments—he got so excited and ran into a hollow in his tree and came back holding some acorns, an owl feather, and a ribbon he had found.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/02
“Since no one really knows about God, those who think they do are just troublemakers.”
Rabia of Basra, an 8th century Islamic Sufi saint and poet
Mystic Musings: Lent 3/01
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/28
“On the Sabbath try and make no noise that goes beyond the house.
Cries of passion between lovers are exempt.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/27
“There’s a place in the world for a gambler. There’s a burden only he can bear. And he sees….oh, yes, he sees.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/26
“What I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled—
To cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/25
Neil Diamond’s song “Play Me” is one of the purest examples of mystical poetry and experience I know.
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/24
“One regret that I am determined not to have when I am lying upon my death bed
Is that we did not kiss enough.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/23
“I was invited to a fancy event and when I got there one of the guests said, “Tukaram, your shirt is on backwards and so are your pants.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/22
“I and the Father are one.”
Jesus in John 10: 30 of the Christian scriptures
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/21
“You might quiet the whole world for a second if you pray.
And if you love, if you really love, our guns will wilt.”
Mystic Musings: Lent 2/20
‘Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.”
Look what happens with a love like that—it lights the whole world.’