Gratitude: November 11, 2007

11/11/07

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 sadness, joy;

Where there is darkness, light.

O Divine Master, grant that I may

not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

not so much to be understood, but to understand;

not so much to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi

Veterans Day - I want to give thanks to veterans by praying for peace today.

I want to give thanks especially for the very strong and courageous soldiers who are able to step out of their training to kill, which maims them, at least emotionally and spiritually. Both from Mylai in Vietnam:

As a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, Thompson was hovering his craft low over Mylai, trying to draw enemy fire. But there wasn’t any. Surveying the hamlet he saw not a battle but a massacre. “This wasn’t war.” He later recalled. Thompson landed his chopper between the marauding GIs and cowering Vietnamese villagers confronted the GIs and ordered them to stand off. Then he and his crew rescued 4 adults and six children, including one badly wounded boy, and flew them to safety.

The other in his own words reading from War and the Soul by Ed Tick

Oh Lord, once I was smart enough to know a just war when I saw it, the kind of war you would approve of. I am not so smart anymore. Every war looks evil to me now. And even the war well begun becomes evil before it is over. So let us have no more just wars; they are the worst kind. Now, at last, give us a just peace.

Time for Shalom. Shalom for our breaking hearts. It’s time. Past time.

Lewis Smedes

To confront evil successfully, we as a nation must confront our own darkness; we must act not as a messiah, filled with undue majesty and certainty, but rather as a healer, filled with compassion, empathy and humility.

David Spangler

READING:

Assailed by afflictions, we discover Dharma
And find the way to liberation.

Thank-you, evil forces!

When sorrows invade the mind, we discover Dharma
And find lasting happiness.

Thank-you, sorrows!

Through harm caused by spirits we discover Dharma
And find fearlessness.

Thank-you, ghosts and demons!

Through people's hate we discover Dharma
And find benefits and happiness.

Thank-you, those who hate us!

Through cruel adversity, we discover Dharma
And find the unchanging way.

Thank-you, adversity!

Through being impelled to by others, we discover Dharma
And find the essential meaning.

Thank-you, all who drive us on!

We dedicate our merit to you all, to repay your kindness.

- Gyalwa Longchenpa

Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.

Meister Echhardt

The Messenger

My work is loving the world.

Here are the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –

equal seekers of sweetness

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half perfect? Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning g to be

astonished.

The phoebe the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever. Mary Oliver

How then can we argue?

Having lunch in a field one day,

I troubled an ant with a question. I asked of him humbly,

“Have you ever been to Paris?”

And he replied, “No, but I wouldn’t mind going.” And then he asked me

if I had ever been to a famous ant city. And I regretted that I hadn’t,

and was quick to add, “I wouldn’t mind, too.”

This led to a conclusion: There is life that we do not know of.

How aware are we of all consciousness

in this universe?

What percent of space is this earth in the infinite realm?

What percent of time is one second

in eternity?

Less than that is our

knowledge of

God.

How then can we ever argue about

Him?

Meister Eckhart

We are one, after all, you and I: together we suffer, together exist,

And forever will recreate each other.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I know a cure for sadness:

Let your hands touch something

that makes you smile.

I bet there are a hundred objects close by

that can do that.

Look at

beauty’s gift to us –

her power is so great she enlivens

the earth, the sky, our

soul.

MiraBai 16^th century Hindu Mystic