Saturday, September 20

Memorial of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and St. Paul Chong Hasang

(God says to us:) I can love you more than you can love yourself, and I watch over you a thousand times more carefully than you can watch over yourself. The more trustfully you give yourself up to Me, the more I shall be watching over you; you will gain a clearer knowledge of Me and experience my love more and more joyfully.

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA
Italian mystic, 14th century


This reminds me of something I read in "The Shack", which simply explained is a book about a man who spends a weekend with the trinity in the place where his world fell apart- the shack where his daughter was murdered. I think there's some synchronicity here in the quote from my e-quiet moment that The Catholic Digest sent to me and the book I began reading last night and finished this afternoon.

Quotes from The Shack that spoke to me for one reason or another:

"I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and i know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside." p. 11

"A terror gripped him [Mack], as if he had opened Pandora's Box and was being swept away into the center of madness, to be lost forever." p. 81

"Getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later...when you're ready." p. 93

"When all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me [God]?" p. 96

"Most birds were created to fily. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly. You [man], on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around." p. 97

"A bird's not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly. Remember this, humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my [God's] image." p. 100.

"Being always transcends appearance- that which only seems to be. ONce you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter. That is why Elousia is such a wonderful name. God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things- ultimately emerging as the real- and any appearances that mask that reality will fall away." p. 112.

"You cannot produce trust just as you cannot 'do' humility. It either is or is not. Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved." p. 126.

"For any created being, autonomy is lunacy." p. 132.

"Evil is a word we use to describe the absence of Good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of Light or death to describe the absence of Life." p. 136.

Rights are where survivors go, so that they won't have to work out relationships." p. 137.

"Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy." p. 145.

"We [the Trinity] will come and live our life inside of you, so that you begin to see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, and touch with our hands, and think like we do." p. 149

"Love is just the skin of knowing." p. 155

"Judging requires that you think yourself superior over the one you judge." p. 159

"Pearls- the only precious stone made by pain, suffering and - finally- death." p. 177.

"Responsibilities and expectations are the basis of guilt and shame and judgment, and they provide the essential framework that promotes performance as the basis of identity and value." p. 206.

"Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat." p. 224

For several reasons this book reminds me of A Course in Miracles, A Return to Love, The Celestine Prophesy, and some of the 12 step jargon. It hit me where I needed to be hit.