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December 27,
2011
I thought this
quote from Thomas Keating was great for the New Year.
May yours be a
"kairos" time! Cecily
The *kairos,* 'the appointed time,' is *now.*
According to Paul,
'Now is the time of salvation,' that is, now is the time
when the
whole of the divine mercy is available. Now is the time to risk
further growth. To go on growing is to be at the cutting edge of
human
evolution and of the spiritual journey. The divine action may
turn our lives
upside-down; it may call us into various forms of
service. Readiness for any
eventuality is the attitude of one who has
entered into the freedom of the
Gospel. Commitment to the new world
that Christ is creating - the new
corporate personality of redeemed
humanity - requires flexibility and
detachment: the readiness to go
anywhere or nowhere, to live or to die, to
rest or to work, to be
sick or to be well, to take up one service and to put
down another.
Everything is important when one is opening to Christ-consciousness.
This awareness transforms our worldly concepts of security into the
security
of accepting, for love of God, an unknown future. The
greatest safety is to
take that risk. Everything else is dangerous.
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of
Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual
Experience. PP. 27-28.
Cecily
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December 20, 2011
No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even for God - for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God. Emmanuel. God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God. Oscar Romero Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, president of Caritas Internationalis, led a 20-person Caritas delegation to the United Nations-sponsored climate change talks in Durham, South Africa, at the beginning of December. Here are some of his comments: Excessive focus on money is destroying the environment and dehumanizing people. Religious communities have a duty to call attention to the importance of the human person who is at the centre of creation. Our economic system and its search for money above all have dehumanized human beings. Our tendency to search for money is destroying the environment. A materialist, consumerist lifestyle not only has a harmful impact on the environment, it also distances people from God. We're filling our lives with things, but remain empty inside. We're informed about everything, but have no idea where to direct our lives. People must shed all the superfluous things in our excessive consumer society and embrace only that which is necessary for life. They should also be guided by God's peace and love in order to promote justice and solidarity in the world.
Peace, love, joy, blessings!
Cecily
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