Thursday, September 5, 2013

Creation Corner Column 9/13: Reflections on Priorities, Principles, Projects

Reflections on Priorities, Principles, Projects

God touches all in the heavens and on earth; everything is full of sacred presence. Psalm 103:19

Here in the palm of my hand is a hazelnut, a small thing, round like a ball. It is all that is made; it is made by love. See in this little thing three truths: God made it; God loves it; God keeps it. In these three truths stay and grow. Julian of Norwich

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose. Heda Bejar

If you want your faith, you have to work for it. It is a gift, but for very few is it a gift given without any demand for equal time devoted to its cultivation. Flannery O'Connor

To choose what is difficult, all one's days, as if it were easy: that is faith. W.H. Auden

Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we can say, "Our work is finished." Rachel Carson

We fasted, marched, picketed, sat in...We never succeeded, and we never quite gave up. That is the best that can be said for us. We must be content if it is to be our obituary. Daniel Berrigan, SJ

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray, where nature heals and gives strength to body and soul alike. John Muir, environmentalist

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. Leo Tolstoy

To remember the past is to commit oneself to the future. To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war. Pope John Paul II

Nuclear war begins, I believe, in our hearts. And that is where it must end. Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen

The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...Under the cloud of war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The seed never sees the flower. Zen saying

If you expect to see the final results of your works, you simply have not asked a big enough question. Arab proverb

Probably every generation sees itself as charged with remaking the world. Mine, however, knows it will not remake the world. Its task is even greater; to keep the world from destroying itself. Albert Camus

We are now reminded to be aware of our place upon this earth, and to fulfill our obligations to ourselves, our families, nation, and natural world and its creator. Joanne Shenandoah ("Prophecy Song").

God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind you and before you. Martin Luther.