Monday, April 30, 2007

a few quotes

from our reading -

"we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap"  -solzhenitsyn

here are a few quotes that daz shared with the students in the class on spirituality at whitley:

one from john oman, grace and personality

"what all life does say to us is that god does not conduct his rivers, like arrows, to the sea.  the ruler and compass are only for finite mortals who labour, by taking thought, to overcome their limitations, and are not...infinite... the expedition demanded by humanity's small power produces the canal, but nature, with a beneficent and picturesque cicumambulancy, the work of a more spacious and less precipitate mind, produces the river.  why should we assume that , in all the rest of his ways, he rejoices in the river, but in religion, can use no more adequate method save the canal?"

and we can't get enough of beautiful m. leunig and his prayers:

"dear god, we give thanks for places of simplicity and peace.  let us find such a place within ourselves.  we give thanks for places of refuge and beauty.  let us find such a place within ourselves.  we give thanks for places of nature's truth and freedom of joy, inspiration and renewal, places where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging.  let us search for these places:  in the world, in ourselves and in others.  let us restore them.  let us strengthen and protect them and let us create them.  may we mend this outer world according to the truth of our inner life and may our souls be shaped and nourished by nature's eternal wisdom."

1 comment:

Blue November said...

"Circumambulancy"... now there's a word for a walkabout!