“Be helpful when you are at the bottom of the ladder and be the lowest when you are in authority.
Be simple in faith but well trained in manners.
Be demanding in your own affairs but unconcerned in those of others.
Be guileless in friendship, astute in the face of deceit.
Be slow to anger, swift to learn, slow also to speak, as St James says, equally swift to hear.
Be up and doing to make progress, slack to take revenge, careful in word, eager in work.
Be friendly with men of honour, stiff with rascals.
Be gentle to the weak, firm to the stubborn, steadfast to the proud, humble to the lowly.
Be ever sober, ever chaste, ever modest.
Be patient as far as is compatible with zeal.
Be persistent in study, unshaken in turmoil, joyful in suffering.
Be vigilant in the cause of truth, cautious in time of strife.
Be gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things.
Be respectful to the worthy, merciful to the poor.
Be mindful of favours, unmindful of wrongs.
Be a lover of the ordinary man, and do not wish for riches.
Instead, cool down excitement and speak your mind.
Do not envy your betters, or grieve at those who surpass you, or censure those who fall behind, but agree with those who urge you all.
Though weary, do not give up.
Weep and rejoice at the same time, out of zeal and hope.”

Excerpts from Letter to a Young Disciple by St Columbanus (c.540 – 615), patron saint of motorcyclists, whose Feast Day is celebrated today

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Feast Day of St Cecilia, patron saint of music

“Oh may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence: live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man’s search
To vaster issues.

So to live is heaven:
To make undying music in the world,
Breathing as beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of man.
So we inherit that sweet purity
For which we struggled, failed, and agonized
With widening retrospect that bred despair.
Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued,
A vicious parent shaming still its child
Poor anxious penitence, is quick dissolved;
Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies,
Die in the large and charitable air.
And all our rarer, better, truer self,
That sobbed religiously in yearning song,
That watched to ease the burden of the world,
Laboriously tracing what must be,
And what may yet be better—saw within
A worthier image for the sanctuary,
And shaped it forth before the multitude
Divinely human, raising worship so
To higher reverence more mixed with love—
That better self shall live till human Time
Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky
Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb
Unread forever.

This is life to come,
Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow. May I reach
That purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty—
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.”

Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible by George Eliot (1819 – 1880), born Mary Ann Evans on this day

Art by Benjamin West

World Philosophy Day

“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”

Voltaire (1694 – 1778), French Enlightenment philosopher, born on this day, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation..

Wisdom cannot be directly transmitted, and does not readily accumulate through the ages.”

Edwin Hubble (1889 – 1953), astronomer, born on this day

Art by Ed Hengeveld

“Procrastination is subtle and invasive self-persuasion that second-guesses all avenues of possibility as they present themselves. It is always easier to leave a difficult decision to the next day, to put off reading and signing a complex document until a later date, to ignore a request until the time is more convenient and our mood more amenable. The prince of procrastination is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who virtually worries himself into mental illness. When deferred actions are deferred too long, the fear around their performance becomes horrifically amplified.

When we are stuck in procrastination, we need “a rabbit-bolter” – something that flushes realizations out of their deep hiding places up to the surface of our attention. This bolter may involve taking a day off work and away from the family, going into nature or to a place of some peacefulness, without stimulus and interference from any outside source, so that our minds can cease their squirrel-cage contortions and come to rest in focused attention upon how we must act. In our prayers and in the companionship of our spiritual allies, we can ask for help, clarity, and strength to make the right decisions and to defer them no longer.”

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

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

From The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, born on this day in 1939

“I take refuge in You, O God.
I turn to you in thanksgiving, I rest in you in difficulty.
I thank you for life in this beautiful place,
for a heritage which forms me and teaches me.
I thank you for the heart you planted within me, and for the
still small voice which urges it to grow.
My spirit is glad, and my body rests in hope.
You show me the path of life,
and in your presence is Joy.”

Psalm 16 Refuge by Christine Robinson

International Day for Tolerance

“The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don’t agree with.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, US congresswoman and civil rights activist

“Every leaf that grows will tell you: what you sow will bear fruit, so if you have any sense my friend, don’t plant anything but Love.”

Rumi