“It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty…
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
“Holy Spirit, you are the mighty way in which everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, is penetrated with relatedness.” Hildegard of Bingen
“Interdependence and interrelationship are deep ways of seeing the world that our premodern ancestors celebrated. The modern age thought in terms of subjects and objects. But today, and in Hildegard’s day, the key to understanding self and others is connectedness… Ask yourself: Am I attuned to my connection with everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth? With all my relations?” Matthew Fox
“There are four questions of value in life.. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.”
Lord George Gordon Byron, born on this day in 1788
“It is a mystery. How does light become darkness, and how does darkness become light? What is the purpose of this transformation? We see this every day, yet our eyes do not see it, nor do our minds perceive it true. Do you not know that life on earth is school? Every day is class. Every day there is what to learn. And do not forget, once life teaches us its lessons, tests always follow. Why would we think that nature would follow any other course? Turn to your teacher, and learn! Listen to the voice of instruction speaking to you from every corner of the Earth. Listen to your interpreter, the voice within your mind, that translates for you the messages of nature into the language of your understanding. Underneath your skin is your full body. Underneath the sights of your eyes is where the real truth resides. Do you see it? Do you even care to seek it out? You will be tested! After all, you are nature’s student. You are attending the school which G-d has made. You can’t drop out. You must advance. And you will, one way or another. In the end, however long that may take, we will all graduate and advance to another world in another place to continue our education, and to rise higher and higher to a place that today, we cannot see. We will get there. We will learn. But we can help the process by cooperating with it. Be open to learn from life. Look for the lessons that life is teaching you daily. Reach out with your senses, and with your mind. Ask the great question, and never, ever stop asking it. W-H-Y-? That is the great question. W-H-Y-? Continue asking, never stop. Discover nature’s secrets all around us, and inside us. G-d gave us curiosity in order to motivate us to ask, so “ask” we must. When we ask, we will be answered. Only then will we understand. And when we understand, the tests will come to prove that which we know. Embrace the path – seek graduation.”
No one lives outside the walls of this sacred place, existence. The holy water, I need it upon my eyes: it is you, dear, you – each form.
What mother would lose her infant? And we are that to God, never lost from His gaze are we. Every cry of the heart is attended by light’s own arms.
You cannot wander anywhere that will not aid you. Anything you can touch – God brought it into the classroom of your mind.
Differences exist, but not in the city of love. Thus my vows and yours, I know they are the same.
I have just peeled the skin from the potato and you are still contemplating its worth, sweetheart; indeed there are wonderful nutrients in all, for God made everything.
You joined our community at birth. With your Father being who He is, what do the world’s scales know of your precious value. The priest and the prostitute – they weigh the same before the Son’s immaculate being, but who can bear that truth and freedom, so a wise man adulterated the scriptures; every wise man knows this.
My soul’s face has revealed its beauty to me; why was it shy so long, didn’t it know how this made me suffer and weep?
A different game He plays with His close ones. God tells us truths you would not believe, for most everyone needs to limit His compassion; concepts of right and wrong preserve the golden seed until one of God’s friends comes along and tends your body like a divine bride.
The Holy sent out a surveyor to find the limits of its compassion and being. God knows a divine frustration whenever He acts like that, for the Infinite has no walls.
Why not tease Him about this? Why not accept the freedom of what it means for our Lord to see us as Himself.
So magnificently sovereign is our Lover; never say, “On the other side of this river a different King rules.” For how could that be true – for nothing can oppose Infinite strength.
No one lives outside the walls of this sacred place, existence.
The holy water my soul’s brow needs is unity. Love opened my eye and I was cleansed by the purity of each form.”
“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
“If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley – but be The best little shrub on the side of the hill, Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail If you can’t be a sun, be a star; For it isn’t by size that you win or fail – Be the best of whatever you are.”
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, born on this day in 1929
Chorlton Unitarians 