Jottings

The most important and saving thing about Christ is that he died on the cross in obedience to his Father's will.

Christ did not go to Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod. He was brought to them by his enemies.

Every prayer is counted.

If Christ were not Christ he would be an antichrist.

Things are amazing when you think of it. What is needed is a state of consciousness in which things are amazing when you don't think of it.

If I am a worm, what are worms?

When I am alone I am with Jesus. When I am with others I am with Jesus.

Art makes something happen.

The king of the mice is still a mouse. The lowest man is still a man.

God isn't a sentimentalist.

We are all on a journey - to everlasting death or to everlasting life.

One must first reform one's self.

Rituals on Earth are actuals in Heaven.

Everything for praise of God; nothing for praise of men.

The Devil is a gentleman - but so was Jesus.

What was wanting was not wanted.

Theology is of earth.

Many people are able to explain things to their own satisfaction.

Poetry sings, prose talks.

Christ suffered before his Passion.

God is the Eternal Now, we the now eternal.

In Jesus God descends and man is raised.

Print is cold, the Web hot.

A local beauty is still beautiful, a hidden kindness still kind, an unknown good still good.

Today, January 29, 1998, I caught myself praying.

Some writers are already damned by the titles of their books.

Writing, speaking, painting, sounding.

God gives ample opportunities to those of us who need to practice forgiveness.

Most of the people who enjoy my work are dead.

Me the tilma, you the image.

Nothing earthly will make me permanently happy.

Reality most resembles a story.

When does bad become evil?

Not "All is well." But: "All will be well."

God isn't a perfectionist.

God is always with me, but I am not always with God.

If the world is going to hell, it is unreasonable to think that nobody is going with it.

A person going to hell can feel quite good about himself.

In a secular world, God will punish secular sins.

The next world is as near as the next person.

The facts of life are found in fiction.

The present colors the past.

The Apostles, who lived with Jesus and knew him better than we could ever know him in life, ran away.

Just as one Christ was enough, so one Christian would be enough.

There is nothing good about Good Friday if Jesus does not rise from the dead.

A failed Messiah is no Messiah.

Enjoy without.

Sainthood is a rocky hill climb.

Sainthood is seldom smooth sailing.

After Easter, death is less interesting.

Consolation: God first, neighbor second, me - tied for second.

The context of life is love.

Alone in love. With others in love.

Like it or not, we are loved.

Nobody my age (50) thinks he will not die.

How many theologians have been born again?

Little children like Easter much more than Good Friday.

Faith the ground I walk on. Hope the food I eat. Love the air I breathe.

Comfort: the strength to suffer more.

There was nothing of the study in Jesus.

Heaven is my birthright, but I still want my pottage.

Much evil is done in God's name, and little good. That God allows this shows how much he loves good.

Why am I so much more sensitive to the mote that is in my brother's eye than to the beam that is in my own eye?

Christ in me, Christ in my neighbor.

So much knowledge about religion, so little knowledge of religion.

It is a mistake to consider Christ inferior to his saints.

We are not Christ, but when we say "Our Father," we speak as Christ spoke.

Cradle the moment.

The person, the person, the person.

When does God begin to love a child?

Every saint is a new kind of prayer.

Dear Jesus, I know that you love me: let me be an image of your love.

The Incarnation required a mother's consent.

Many monks, how many saints?

The supply of grace is greater than the demand for it.

John of Brébeuf, John of the Cross, suffering, darkness.

What I could accomplish in the future, others could accomplish. What I can do now, no one else can do.

Our life is ample field for echoing love.

God is seen in the love of his children.

Fear of God abets love of neighbor.

The great modern enemy of religion is statistics.

"Time, talent, and treasure" - and it became apparent that the greatest of these was treasure.

The girl you just fell in love with probably has a mother.

Most of us had better settle for fame in Heaven.

I know that God loves the unborn. Does he also love the unconceived?

The loving God whom I love can be jealous and angry.

I want always to be uncertain that I have found the Way.

I yearn for a love that would be indecent in a human being.

Reason sides with Eve and the serpent.

Mind is a Goliath against temptation.

This, unrepeatable, moment.

The requirement that we become as little children does not imply any positive virtue in little children.

There is more of humanity in a page of Montaigne than in the entire Internet.

"Cardinal Bernadin taught us how to die." I will be moved when someone says, "Cardinal Bernadin taught me how to live."

If I alone were to be saved, Jesus would have died for me.

I hope that heaven will be crowded and noisy.

No wisdom here, but witness.

Now probably more than ever before, it is difficult to be where one is.

Try to remember: the future hasn't yet happened.

It is an error to think that goodness is boring.

Not to tell anybody anything, but to hear and record.

Love has more to do with the lover than with the loved one.

People miss things. The Roman Empire took only enough notice of Jesus to kill him.

Prayer is a turning to God. Eventually, prayer is a returning to God.

Is life disappointing? It had better be.

I am far from being where I want to be, which is closer to God.

When you find your voice, it will be found to be beautiful.

I have yet to find a beggar with the wit and wisdom of Alfred P. Doolittle.

The ideal approaches the Real.

1997-2000