And yet his words are a prayer not for supernatural problem solving, nor even to grasp the entirety and complexity of whatever befalls us, but simply for the guidance and support to simply take one more step forward on our pilgrimage of life.
On behalf of all of us on campus, I would like to thank all of the staff that worked tirelessly Wednesday night, Thursday and through the weekend as well as thank the residents for their patience and cooperation in dealing with the flood and temporary relocation. We know this hasn’t been easy but we appreciate everyone coming together for the good of Beatitudes. I am once again reminded of how special the people on this campus are and how blessed I am to be a part of the Beatitudes Family.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
There are often a whole host of reasons that we narrate in order to convince ourselves and others that we are helpless to make a choice which is mindful of the needs of others.
Whether he was aware of it or not, in one of the many press conferences during this past week the England manager Gareth Southgate made rather a profound statement about those years of waiting; “We always have to believe in what is possible in life and not be hindered by history or expectations.”
You cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
Maybe your sense of belonging comes from your family, your friends, your faith community, the clubs or organizations in which you participate.
There is something holy and sacred in having the courage to ask the hard questions of God especially when those questions often have no answers
May we, like Küng be purposely bold in our thinking and faith and brave on our pilgrimage of life.
A good sermon should have a good beginning and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible.
A Happy Easter to you all! It was wonderful to join with others in our Campus community at our Campus Easter Sunrise Service this year as we heard and rejoiced in prayer and praise; “Jesus Christ is ris’n today, Alleluia! Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! Who did once upon the cross Alleluia! Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!”
And then I thought of the staff I did not see, working behind the scenes, including those providing 24 hours-a-day service “behind closed doors” in our HCC and AL, truly serving on the front line. Again, a feeling of gratitude washed over me, and I realized I had begun repeating silently, like a mantra, “thank you for your service” for all of our over 400 employees.
Pondering the connections between breathing and the divine certainly helps us, in turn, to remember that breathing, that most natural and essential of impulses, is also an engagement with something beyond ourselves.
As we enter this New Year, it almost begs us to see more clearly. I feel a sense of urgency to get things in order and set my intentions for the year and decade ahead.
Last night my wife and I were preparing to pack away the Christmas decorations for another year, and once again we were completely baffled as to how we were supposed to fit a large sprawling tree into such a seemingly small box.
As we approach the New Year, much of what we see and hear on the media is looking back on what was the best of the year 2019 and what was the worst! I am sometimes uncertain as to whether looking back, dwelling in the past, is helpful or not, however, I was enlightened by an article written by Tim Adams suggesting that looking back improves the look of tomorrow. “Long considered a disorder, nostalgia is now recognised as a powerful tool in the battle against anxiety and depression. Is it healthy to dwell in the past? Up until about 15 years ago, most psychologists would have suggested probably not. The habit of living in memory rather than the present, of comparing how things once were with how things are now, was for several centuries thought at best a trait to avoid and at worst a root cause of depressive illness. Nostalgia was the soldiers’ malady – a state of mind that made life in the here and now a debilitating process of yearning for that which had been lost: rose-tinted peace, happiness, loved ones. It had been considered a psychological disorder ever since the term was coined by a 17th-century Swiss army physician who attributed the fragile mental and physical health of some troops to their longing to return home— nostos in Greek, and algos, the pain that attended thoughts of it.”
Since the turn of this century, however, rather than being a malady, researchers have found that memories can help us feel good about ourselves, make sense of our journey and root us to our history. Nostalgia is both a driver of empathy and social connectedness, and a potent internal antidote for loneliness and alienation—a fact which has led to the beginnings of nostalgia-based therapies for illnesses that include clinical depression and perhaps Alzheimer’s. Some of this research is historical. Researcher, Tim Wildschut, was intrigued by the strong anecdotal evidence of women in concentration camps during the Holocaust who “responded to starvation by waxing nostalgic about shared meals with their families and arguing about recipes and so on.” A concentration camp survivor said: “We used our memories to temporarily alter our perception of the state we were in. It was not a solution, but the temporary change in perception allowed you to persevere just a bit longer. And that could be crucial.” Nostalgia helps build resources like optimism or inspiration or creativity. In difficult situations, nostalgia grounds you and gives you a base on which to evaluate the present as a temporary state, and in doing so it perhaps builds resilience.
I had no idea that nostalgia held such power! As you look back upon this past year and reflect on memories of your life, I hope that those memories strengthen you to look forward to tomorrow with hope and joy. Happy New Year!
Gratitude magnifies our experience of the good things in life, enabling us to enjoy them more fully.
In reflecting on the Thanksgiving holiday this week, I was reminded of the attitude of gratitude shown by a former resident a few years back.
