House of the Starthrower

House of the Starthrower

the starthrower  //  

 
Jan 29 / 7:05am

Authority and authenticity

What the Fathers sought most of all was their own true self, in Christ. And in order to do this, they had to reject completely the false, formal self, fabricated under social compulsion in "the world." ...
The simple men who lived their lives out to a good old age among the rocks and sands only did so because they had come into the desert to be themselves, their ordinary selves, and to forget a world that divided them from themselves. …
We cannot do exactly what they did. But we must be as thorough and as ruthless in our determination to break all spiritual chains, and cast off the domination of alien compulsions, and to find our true selves, to discover and develop our inalienable spiritual liberty and use it to build, on earth, the Kingdom of God.

Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk (1915-1968) The Wisdom of the Desert (opening essay)

 
Jan 27 / 8:46am

Tone deaf - and he isn't even a religious

"Corporate boards are tone deaf to the times, as are CEOs who justify this much compensation." 

Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto Business School, on the growing number of CEOs making $50 million or more.
(USA Today)
 
Jan 26 / 6:31am

to know one thing

If you know but one thing in life,
it should be that you are loved,
every minute of every day,
from now until eternity.
There are many people who will love you
that have not yet met;
they will care for you with all their hearts.
You just have to find them!

 Matt Schneider, Appleton, WI; From The Ripples project
 
Jan 25 / 7:45am

The church always behind

Birth control insurance rule.
"Most church-affiliated organizations will be required to offer their workers coverage of birth control as part of their health plans, the Obama administration announced Friday, but they can get more time than other employers to comply."
 
Jan 24 / 6:29am

Self knowledge for the sake of others

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion. As for the consequences of such ignorance, these are bad by every criterion, from the utilitarian to the transcendental. Bad because self-ignorance leads to unrealistic behavior and so causes every kind of trouble for everyone concerned; and bad because, without self-knowledge, there can be no true humility, therefore no effective self-naughting, therefore no unitive knowledge of the divine Ground underlying the self and ordinarily eclipsed by it.

Aldous Huxley 1894-1963,  The Perennial Philosophy

 
Jan 23 / 8:20am

Paterno RIP

Football is not the most important thing in this country. If football suddenly disappeared from the scene tomorrow, we would never miss it.
Joe Paterno, in Quotable Joe: 
 
Jan 22 / 6:40am

power of words

  Something that lay hidden in the heart is irrevocably released through speech into time is given substance and tossed like a stone into the pool of history, where the concentric rings lap out endlessly.

  Words are power, essentially the power of creation. By my words I both discover and create who I am. By my words I elicit a word from you. Through our converse we create each other.

  When G-d said, “Let there be light,” there was light where before there was only darkness. When I say I love you, there is love where before there was only ambiguous silence. In a sense I do not love you first and then speak it, but only by speaking it give it reality.

Frederick Buechner

 
Jan 21 / 7:59am

hope

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them.  When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope?  We have two options, medically and emotionally:  give up, or fight like hell. 

Lance Armstrong
Shared by a research associate
 
Jan 20 / 1:59pm

the sad reality

"The sad reality," he wrote in one missive, "is that many of the same CEOs who eviscerate workers' rights have awarded themselves generous bonuses. Elected officials who rely on political contributions from corporate lobbyists take away basic rights for workers even as they lavish the wealthiest Americans with tax breaks."

Bishop Gabino Zavala of Southern California

 
Jan 19 / 6:34am

Unknowing and love

Now all rational creatures, angels and men alike, have in them, each one individually, one chief working power, which is called a knowing power, and another chief working power called a loving power; and of these two powers, God, who is the maker of them, is always incomprehensible to the first, the knowing power. But to the second, which is the loving power, he is entirely comprehensible in each one individually; in so much that one loving soul of itself, because of love, would be able to comprehend him who is entirely sufficient, and much more so, without limit, to fill all the souls of men and angels that could ever exist. This is the everlastingly wonderful miracle of love, which shall never have an end. 

The Cloud of Unknowing 14th century, chapter iv, ed. James Walsh, SJ