Lectio Divina, or daily readings

Reading 205, from Willa Cather

rhapsodysinger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:07:47 +0000

Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have

given man the only happiness he has ever had.

Willa Cather

The Professor’s House

My notes:

This is a very simple fact but over the centuries we have debated and negated this: artists, both writers and visual creators, are deeply religious people. St. Thomas Aquinas says the same thing about the interchangeability of art and religion. The Catholic Liturgy, for example, is High Drama…Cather is a very sensitive writer. Read her!

Reading 204, from Larry Winget

rhapsodysinger — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:10:22 +0000

“Remember: Money
comes to you exactly as it goes from you. If it is hard for
you to open your hand to let go of your money, then it will
be equally hard for you to open your hand to accept more money.”

“But things cost
so much!”

“The problem is
not that things cost too much, the problem is that you can not afford
them. Do not gripe about what things cost. You can
not do one thing about it. You can, however, do something
about how much money you have. That is your real gripe
anyway, right? You are not happy with how much money you have
and you are blaming prices? Does that make any sense to you?
How much money you have is your fault. Fix that and
you will not care what things cost.”

Larry Winget

Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life

Thanks for the Image!

Reading 203, from Oprah Winfrey

rhapsodysinger — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:20:56 +0000

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.

OPRAH WINFREY

Reading 202, from Che Guevara

rhapsodysinger — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:51:25 +0000

Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only
one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his
platitudes.

At
the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a
great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this
quality.

Che Guevara

My notes:

Though I do not subscribe to the violence and the atheism of Che, yet I cannot help think him to be more with God than so many of us who profess Faith in God. Long live Che, & the revolutions of the heart.

Thanks for the Image!

Reading 201, from Benjamin Franklin

rhapsodysinger — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:10:27 +0000

If you would know the VALUE of money, go and try to borrow some.

Benjamin Franklin

My notes:
Wake up, you need dough to read what you are reading right now. Often our distrust of wealth springs from our distrust in our own abilities to earn and live independently. Stop being a leech on society, your parents or even social security. Sheesh!

Thanks for the Image

Reading 200, from God

rhapsodysinger — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:07:15 +0000

The Lord raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.

The Old Testament

My notes:

Time and again the religious Scriptures of the world tell us of social injustices, how the poor are pulverized by the march of the rich and famous:

When you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourself, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed, give justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow.

& unfortunately for us the recalcitrants, there is no short-cut. the message is clear: unless we help our fellows, we are doomed.

Thanks for the Image.

At 3am, I ramble

rhapsodysinger — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:17:41 +0000

It is 3 am and I can’t sleep. The ticking of the fan overhead and the sorry spectacle of my life before me!
The mysteries of life become clearer to me; at the end of the day I have only myself and a silent, cooling world indifferent to my sorrow. God does not speak; only physical discomforts and the need to take sleeping pills are real. Where are all the great philosophies consoling us? Where indeed are human touches? Only, the over-awing sense that all is vanity and this blogging, a vanity of vanities…do I touch anyone and even if I do, what then? No matter, the struggle does not availeth.
Amen.

Thanks for the Image!

Reading 199, from Anonymous

rhapsodysinger — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:24:53 +0000

One day a man was sitting in his office on the 19th floor of a building. A man came running into his office and shouted, “John, your daughter, Anna just died in an accident right opposite this building”
The gentleman was in panic. Not knowing what to do, he jumped out through his office window.

While coming down, when he was near the 14th floor he remembered he didn’t have a daughter named Anna. When he was near the 7th floor, he remembered he was not married yet.
When he was about to hit the ground he remembered he was not John.

Thanks for the Image!

Some Musings

rhapsodysinger — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:50:05 +0000

I got drenched in the rains yesterday … the skies are overcast still and my Forecast Fox in the web browser shows more rains . Thank God for the small blessings.

After some routine professional work I sat down with a book dealing with the Problem of Evil: the hackneyed questions come to haunt us still. If God is so good, why then does he allow us to suffer? If God allows us to suffer evil, then is He an impotent God? Is He a tyrant etc.etc.

After reading this tome through yesterday and today, this is what I feel:

Evil is a mystery and there is no answer, simple or complex, at all to this mind-numbing puzzle. I am not talking of high Stephen King stuff, but the more ordinary daily banal evil that confronts us. This personal understanding of evil which I think I had momentarily grasped today at noon, is what makes me now pause and wonder…

How beautiful is everything where even Evil fits in!

Deo gratias!

Thanks for the Image

Reading 198, from Rajneesh Osho

rhapsodysinger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:52:04 +0000

[Someone wants to be closer to Osho. She says: Sometimes I feel very distant from you...]
Two things to be understood. One: you only feel distant sometimes because you are coming very close. People who are distant never feel they are distant – they have nothing to compare with. Because sometimes you come very close, that’s why you can feel that sometimes you go very far. It is a good sign, a happy indication, and it happens only to those who come very close, otherwise not.
You cannot remain close continuously, that’s true, because that will become unbearable; one can contain only so much joy. Slowly slowly you will contain more; then you will remain more and more close. But naturally, there is a rhythm: you come close and then you go away, you come close then you go away. Going away helps you to absorb me; otherwise when will you digest? One cannot sit at the dining table continuously and go on eating and eating and eating. One needs a few hours’ break – at least a six to eight hour gap between two meals, mm? Otherwise you will go mad and you will become spiritually fat… which is more dangerous than physical fatness! Don’t be worried!

The Madman’s Guide to Enlightenment

Rajneesh Osho

My notes:
Rajneesh Osho has his followers and his scorners. Last year I had visited his Ashram at Pune and was instantly repulsed by the way money speaking the loudest there. Everything seemed so artificial and gaudy to me. The poor are unwelcome here. As if the worst of the Hippies combined with a mockery of the East lives here. It seemed to me that the high ideals of Tantra have given way to mere debauchery here. But then I confess to possibly having a low level of intuitive spirituality. Believers need only to discard my opinion as so much drivel from someone innately blind.
I’d read Osho anytime rather than setting foot in that Ashram every again! God forgive me for judging, but I can’t help but be human.
Oops, they call the Ashram, a Meditation Resort!