“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016), writer, holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, born on this day

Feast of St Michael and All Angels

“Michaelmas gales assail the waning year,
And Michael’s scale is true, his blade is bright.
He strips dead leaves; and leaves the living clear
To flourish in the touch and reach of light.
Archangel bring your balance, help me turn
Upon this turning world with you and dance
In the Great Dance. Draw near, help me discern,
And trace the hidden grace in change and chance.”

Malcolm Guite

“”World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fast home, fast fold thy child.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe

The breath of life has always had a special, sacred meaning for people worldwide, since it is the mark of our mortality. The first and last breaths are marked with particular attention: as air is drawn into a baby’s lungs for the first time, the soul is considered to be truly incarnate; as the death rattle heralds the last exhalation of air, we know that the soul is unhoused, free to return to the unseen world. Our continual breathing in and out is a reminder of these two moments wherein we are recreated anew.

The air that we take for granted is now polluted by industrial production, petroleum fumes, and other unpleasant exhalations. The immensity of this desecration of our atmosphere leaves us feeling powerless, since its cure depends on the whole world cooperatively using wiser strategies to protect the environment from damage. It may mean using our cars less, or switching off the motor when we are waiting; it may involve us influencing governments and industries to use environmental-friendly solutionss, remembering that politicians are in power because they represent the people. But the task that we can each engage in on a daily basis is a respectful acknowledgment of the sacred breath of life.

The Irish expression for taking one’s time translates literally as “drawing one’s breath.” If we make it our practice to spend a short time each day remembering the holy element of air, we restore the original blessedness with our prayerful in-and-out breathing: “Blessed be the precious and preserving air that sustains our life!””

From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

“In his poem, There Was a Child Went Forth, part of the Autumn Rivulets cycle, Walt Whitman describes the things that a child sees in his daily wanderings – the shadows, the field-sprouts, the wharves and the ferries, the clouds and the apple trees, the workers, and the families both kind and cruel.

He closes with a startling image: “These became part of the child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.”

Are you like that child who never stops adventuring? What is becoming part of that child within you? Are you incorporating shadows and field-sprouts, workers and wharves – or malls and plastics, televisions and technologies? Today is your chance to let nature become part of you.”

From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations for All Seasons by Brian Nelson

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”

From East Coker (Four Quartets) by T. S. Eliot (1888 – 1965), born on this day

“That person who’s kind
Who practices righteousness
Who remains at peace
In the world’s madness
Who feels all sentient beings
As his or her own self –
This person attains
The Deathless One
And is accompanied always
By the true God.”

Kabir, 15th century India (pictured (left) with Guru Nanak and Mardana)

“Blessed saint francis
pray for us
now and in the time of despondency
your brother the water is poisoned
children no longer know your brother the fire
the birds shun us

They belittle you
popes and czars
and the Americans buy up Assisi
including you
blessed saint francis
why did you come among us?

In the stony outskirts of the city
I saw you scurrying about
a dog pawing through garbage
even children
choose a plastic car
over you

Blessed saint francis
what have you changed
whom have you helped
Blessed saint francis
pray for us
now and when the rivers run dry
now and when our breath fails us.”

Dorothee Soelle (1929 – 2003), German liberation theologian, quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

Artwork by Francisco de Zurbarán (1598 – 1664)

“May I be at peace.
May my loved ones be at peace.
May those I have never met be at peace.
May those I have hurt, knowingly or unknowingly, be at peace.
May those who have hurt me, knowingly or unknowingly, be at peace.
May everybody be at peace.”

Buddhist Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta Bhavana), quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

Autumn Equinox

“As the summer draws to a close, its last days are filled with a special brilliance and abundance, unparalleled throughout the year. There is a mellow quality to the light, as the sun is lower upon the horizon. Life is now at its most abundant; the work of the spring and summer is coming to completion. The Autumn Equinox is a time of fruitfulness, with the turning leaves painting the forest in fiery tones, the smell of wood smoke upon the first cold winds and the scent of ripe apples in the orchards.

Now is the time to reap the rewards of our year and consider our own harvest. Have our activities produced the results we desired? Now we take stock, learn from our mistakes and preserve our resources for the winter ahead…

This is the time to draw inward once again to the comforts of the hearth and prepare for the dreaming season of winter ahead. On the wheel of the year, the Autumn Equinox, related to the element of water, is in the west, the position of old age, the setting sun and the gateway to the otherworld.”

From The Magical Year by Danu Forest

International Day of Peace

Psalm 113 by Christine Robinson

“Hallelujah!
Open your hearts, you servants of God
Open your hearts to God
Strive to be a fertile field for God’s love
All day, all night, all ways.
God’s work encompasses the nations,
the world, the distances between the stars.
God’s work is in the atom, the
core, the intestacies of matter.
God’s work is in the deeds of love, the
justice of society, the care of friends.
God’s life is in every life, making us one family.
God’s justice lifts the poor
setting them with nobility in the human community.
God’s love fills our hearts
with everything we need.”