In memory of Tom Holstein: Friendship, Service and Faith

Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. - James Fenimore Cooper

The best things in life are never rationed. Friendship, loyalty, love do not require coupons. - George T. Hewitt

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. - Douglas Adams

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. - Albert Einstein

“The word "Eucharist" means literally "act of thanksgiving." To celebrate the Eucharist and to live a Eucharistic life has everything to do with gratitude. Living Eucharistically is living life as a gift, a gift for which one is grateful. But gratitude is not the most obvious response to life, certainly not when we experience life as a series of losses! Still, the great mystery we celebrate in the Eucharist and live in a Eucharistic life is precisely that through mourning our losses we come to know life as a gift.” - Henri J.M. Nouwen

“I held the Host with two fingers and thought: How small Jesus made Himself, in order to show us that He doesn't expect great things of us, but rather little things with great love.”  -  Mother Teresa

Two handles

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. We should live for the future, and yet should find our life in the fidelities of the present; the last is only the method of the first. - Henry Ward Beecher

Until the heavens grow dark

Morality without religion is a tree without roots; a stream without any spring to feed it; a house built on the sand; a pleasant place to live in till the heavens grow dark, and the storm begins to beat. -  James B. Shaw

Born of Enthusiasm

Indifference never wrote great works, nor thought out striking inventions, nor reared the solemn architecture that awes the soul, nor breathed sublime music, nor painted glorious pictures, nor undertook heroic philanthropies. All these grandeurs are born of enthusiasm, and are done heartily. - Anonymous

What is faith?

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. - Helen Keller
Of course faith is more than that, but I do like many of her quotes. I find Helen Keller to be one of the more fascinating people in history. I hope to read some books on her someday.

The Mysterious

The most beautiful thing to experience is the mysterious. It is the true source of life, art and science. -Michael Talbot

Truer words were never said

He must increase, I must decrease. - St. John the Baptist

Bonus quote: 100th Birthday of Mother Teresa

When I am hungry give me someone that I can feed, and when I am thirsty show me someone who needs a drink.  And when I am cold give me someone to keep warm. And when I grieve give me someone to console. And when my cross grows too heavy and its weight I cannot bear,  when I need someone to hold me and it seems that no one’s there lighten up my heavy load, give me someone who deserves  to be loved, just as I do, give me someone that I can serve.  When I need some time, let me sit with someone for a while.And when my heart is heavy let me find someone to make smile. And when I’m humble give me someone that I can praise. And when I need to be looked after, show me someone that I can raise. And when I need some understanding, show me someone who needs mine. When I think of myself only, draw my thoughts to those who are kind. When I’m so poor give me someone who’s in need  and when my eyes are blind to what is holy,  let me see the Christ in the eyes of each one whom I feed.  -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Feast of St. Louis

       If the Lord has permitted you to bear some trial, bear it willingly and with gratitude, considering that it has happened for your good and that perhaps you well deserved it. If the Lord bestows upon you any kind of prosperity, thank Him humbly and see that you become no worse for it, either through vain pride or anything else, because you ought not to oppose or offend Him in the matter of His gifts.
 - St. Louis King of France

Bonus quote

"We cannot fight credibly against other social and moral evils, including poverty and violence, while we tolerate mass killings by abortion."  - Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Make ready

Make ready for the Christ whose smile like lightning sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps in your paper flesh like dynamite!
- Thomas Merton
    I received that little message on a Christmas card a number of years ago and liked it so much it has remained on my bedroom mirror ever since. I like Thomas Merton, but have always been a bit hesitant because so many on the liberal side of the Church went gaga over him in the 70's and 80's. His earlier writing are rock solid, but I am not so certain about his later writings. My hunch is that he was swept along with the false enthusiasms that so dominated the western world in the 1960's. In all fairness, had I grown up in the 50's there is a fair chance that I may have been swept along in that societal adolescence that typifies the 1960's and and early 70's. When we are young I think many of us long for a life without consequence because of a misunderstanding of personal freedom, as we get older I think we realize that a life without consequence is hardly worthy living and incapable of any measure of achievement or contributing to the greater good of humanity.

More Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. - G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton #1

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - On Running After Ones Hat, All Things Considered, 1908 G. K. Chesterton
       Chesterton is a wealth of great quotes on faith, culture and the human condition.  I am sure I will be putting more of his quotes up with the passing of time.
Bonus quote from Orthodoxy:
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around." - Orthodoxy, 1908

The Truth will set you free

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. -Clive Staples Lewis

Yesterday's missed quote - Memorial of St. Claire

       Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,  Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy;        O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;  to be understood as to understand;  to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive;  it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;  and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. - The prayer of St. Francis
       This is one of the prayers I say on pretty much a daily basis, I wish I did a better job living it.

Feast of St. Lawrence

"This side’s done, turn me over and have a bite."  "Assum est, inquit, versa et manduca." - I knew the first part of the quote, had not heard the have a bite ending.  The Church with Her odd sense of humor and perspective made St. Lawrence the  patron saint of comedians, butchers and roasters.  Here is a link with some interesting facts on St. Lawrence:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/deaconsbench/2010/08/st-lawrence-guardian-of-the-churchs-treasures.html

Rekindling the flame

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. -Albert Schweitzer

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.