Living with hope

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. -Hellen Keller

More than just math

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please. -Pythagorus
       I think I first heard of Pythagorus in 7th grade when we started learning more advanced math.

Free Speech

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
-Benjamin Franklin
       There is a lot to say on this one, but one of the most disturbing trends in the last twenty years is the ever growing right not to be offended.  If you are involved in public discourse, there is no way to avoid disagreement or attacks on your beliefs. Some of those attacks may even become personal.  I'll have to write more on this later, but the ever growing percentage of us who are thin-skinned and seemingly fragile will not make for a happy nation when there is a surplus of lawyers and an abundance of media mongers.

Too easy

If your attack is going too well, you have walked into an ambush. - Infantry Journal
       I laughed to first time I read this, but really do believe in it's essential truth. No combat against a competent enemy should ever be easy.

The real me

There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed. -Peter Sellers

Office Quote #4 (On the back of my door)

Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't mind your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
 -Sam Gamgee, Lord of the Rings
    Just watched the movie again last night and enjoyed this familiar quote. The books and the movies by Peter Jackson have remained among my favorites for years.  I was so pumped about the movie when it was released I couldn't get to sleep the evening I first saw LOTR- Fellowship of the Ring.

The Adventure

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.
- Hellen Keller
        At some point in my life, I want to do some more reading and understanding of Hellen Keller's life. Her process of enlightenment when understanding took place is always fascinating. Maybe some day. . .

Learning

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. - Albert Einstien
       If we really want others to understand, the burden lies upon us to communicate what we want to share.

Ancient Oxymoronica

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it. - Tacitus, in Annals
       I should remember this next time I am too easily offended by the words of another when they are voicing their criticism or disapproval. One of the greatest offenses to the Ancients is pride, and Christianity agreed with those sentiments in the ancient world. While we are too easily snagged by sins of the body like gluttony, sloth and lust, it is pride that drives the most profound wedge between God and man. While pride may be the worst and proverbial mother of all sins, any sin we commit and fail to repent of is one we get to keep forever. That's bad news, the Good News is the mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ who has been offered for our sins and is risen for our Redemption.

The quote that sparked burnings

Christianity will go. It will go. It will vanish and shrink. We are more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary.- John Lennon
       Back in the "good old days" when Americans would riot like Muslims without killing people and burning down their homes or destroying their places of worship that quote sparked an outrage.  It did however highlight a growing disconnect that entertainers have with our country.  Their imagined importance and exaggerated sense of self is so common these days that I can barely tolerate listening to any interviews or watch any award ceremonies without feeling ill.  Yes, I am a curmudgeon.
       However, John Lennon was correct about the disciples of Jesus being thick and ordinary. It is one of the best things about our faith. Jesus is the Lord of all, no elitism should exist among His disciples.

It's not about convenience

Once you have entered completely into the depths of Jesus, and have a taste of His powerful love, then you will not care about your own convenience or inconvenience. Rather you will rejoice all the more in insults and injuries, for the love of Jesus makes a man scorn his own needs. -Imitation of Christ
I still have a long way to go before I will even come close to living in this manner. I pray each day that such powerful words and realities will take root in my life and bear fruit in my actions.

Winning the lottery

Fortune does not change men; it unmasks them. 
-Suzanne Necker
Perhaps it is really a blessing that God does not answer all those prayers to win the lottery so that we can do so much good with it. Few things create greater illusions and distortions in our life than wealth, especially wealth that we did not really earn.  Nothing wrong with wealth, in fact a real humanitarian can do untold good like Bill Gates, but wealth's aura of independence will more often than not reveal one's real attitude about God, neighbor and self.

Military quotes #1

Those who turn their swords into ploughshares will be governed by those who don't. -Benjamin Franklin
       This has been a hard one to verify. It is more often than not attributed to Franklin, but it is not certain. The quote I found that is similar by Franklin is "Those who beat their swords into ploughshares will till the soil for those who don't."  Either way it is a quote that will strike a note with anyone familiar with the Bible.  The common passage of scripture is the desire for peace, turning swords into ploughshares when the presence, desire or threat of war is no longer.  As a Christian, I know that day is not going to happen in this world. It will only happen in the Kingdom. Until then, I am a firm believer in peace through power.  No I am  not a warmonger, but the world is full of people who are, and people who will use their power or strength to victimize the weak. The charge of the strong is to protect the weak, to stop the aggressor and to prevent any future threats. Ponder this:  God is the only true and just pacifist because His power is absolute.

The back of my office door

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him. - Unknown
I found this quote during a very difficult time in ministry and it was a constant reminder to keep my focus. While I cannot always be gushing with gratitude, I do try to keep things in perspective.

Office Quote #3

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. - Dr. Seuss
While there are many things to miss in not being married and having children as a priest, reading Dr. Seuss to any of my potential children is a big one. So many of my favorite childhood books were Dr. Seuss and it was only later in life that I realized what a genius he was in making reading and language so much fun.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Some of my favorite quotes are from this wonderful woman of faith. Mother Teresa & Pope John Paul II did so much to re-evangelize the Church and proclaim Christ to the world.

More on self-awareness

I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies for the hardest victory is the victory over self. -Aristotle
       Conquering or converting, most of us recognize that our starting desires are rarely virtuous. I suppose there are some who nature and grace made wonderful human being from the beginning, but most of us have to form our lives through a process of discipline, self-discipline and continued personal and integrated formation. The wonderful thing about being Catholic is that we have a whole sacrament given to us by Christ which recognizes just how difficult it is to conquer our desires. If anyone believes and hopes for our conversion, it is Jesus Christ.

Office quote #2

Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves. - Sydney J. Harris
       The promise of Christ is to come to know ourselves through Him.  It is a challenging act of forgetting self and then discovering self as we commit our lives to Him and to His Gospel. I think one of the challanges in following Christ is not to follow Him so that we can know ourselves better.  While that reality and result are true, we don't follow Christ because of what we hope to gain in self-discovery or actualization, we follow Him because we profess Him as Lord.

On reading

There's no thief like a bad book. - Italian Proverb
       Who hasn't found this proverb to be true.  At least as I get older I tend to recognize bad books before I have wasted too much time on them.

Scripture Quotes #1

Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all.  The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  - St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians
       One of my favorite passages from the New Testament, it is on the flip side of my ordination card. My prayer is that I can live up to the desires and intentions expressed by St. Paul.

Quotes from my Office: #1

No Day is wasted on which you laugh.
       For the longest time I did not know who said this, but it seems to be a variation on a quote by Nicolas de Chamfort. His quote reads as follows: The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed.  Either way, I like to laugh and it has been in my office since my appointment to Epiphany.