ON THE ARRIVAL OF AN ILLNESS

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When the reverberations of shock subside in you,
May grace come to restore you to balance.
May it shape a new space in your heart
To embrace this illness as a teacher
Who has come to open your life to new worlds.

May you find in yourself
A courageous hospitality
Toward what is difficult,
Painful, and unknown.

May you learn to use this illness
As a lantern to illuminate
The new qualities that will emerge in you.

May you be granted the courage and vision
To work through passivity and self-pity,
To see the beauty you can harvest
From the riches of this dark invitation.

May you learn to receive it graciously,
And promise to learn swiftly
That it may leave you newborn,
Willing to dedicate your time to birth.

John O’Donohue
excerpts from “On the Arrival of Illness”

PANDEMIC

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What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now, 
on trying to make the world
different than it is. 
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
 
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
 
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
 
Lynn Ungar
March 11, 2020
lynnungar.com

LENT PRAYERS

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DAILY

You alone bring order to the unruly wills and affections of sinners: may we love what You command, and desire what You promise, so that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joy is to be found.

MORNING

Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep Your ways: grant that having cheerfully done Your will this day, we may, when night comes, rejoice and give You thanks; through the One Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

EVENING

You made this day for the works of the light, and this night for the refreshment of our minds and bodies: keep us now in Christ; grant us a peaceful evening, and a night free from sin, and bring us at last to eternal life; through the One Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and for ever. Amen.

COURAGE IS HEARTBREAK

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Human beings are constantly trying to take courageous paths in their lives: in their marriages, in their relationships, in their work and with themselves. But the human way is to hope that there's a way to take that courageous step—without having one's heart broken. And it's my contention that there is no sincere path a human being can take without breaking his or her heart. 

There is no marriage, no matter how happy, that won't at times find you wanting and break your heart. In raising a family, there is no way to be a good mother or father without a child breaking that parental heart. In a good job, a good vocation, if we are sincere about our contribution, our work will always find us wanting at times. In an individual life, if we are sincere about examining our own integrity, we should, if we are really serious, at times, be existentially disappointed with ourselves. 

So it can be a lovely, merciful thing to think, "Actually, there is no path I can take without having my heart broken, so why not get on with it and stop wanting these extra-special circumstances which stop me from doing something courageous?" 

David Whyte

HOME

Home is where we start from, and it inevitably also determines how we start to be who we are.

There is nothing as un-neutral as a home. It is the most self-effacing laboratory of consciousness quietly shaping belief, expectation, and life direction.

The home is the locus of a poignant transience. In order to grow up, we have to learn to leave home.

Home is where the heart is. It stands for the sure center where individual life is shaped and from where it journeys forth. What it ultimately intends is that each of its individuals would develop the capacity to be at home in themselves.

In a sense that is exactly what spirituality is: the art of homecoming.

John O’Donohue
To Bless the Space Between Us