Facing Reality ~

What ever became of all my good intentions and determination to center my life on God? Time is running out and I see I have devoted myself to other priorities.

Consumption

I watch the trucks passing by and ask if we need everything their loaded with. Wouldn't we be happier without? If only we could concentrate on the pearl we have.

Thomas Merton ~

Lauding him as a "representative of the American people "

Pope Francis said: 

"Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions."

... words in an address before Congress. 

September 24, 2015

Rammenau Castle near Dresden ~

At a concert here last evening they played some Scott Joplin and Leroy Anderson while on the walls the portraits of nobles who once lived here looked down at us with knitted brows.

In the Tumult ~

There are places of quiet and rest. 

Munich, Germany 

Lenbachhaus

Learning to See ~

Lesson in Anthropology

Gabriel von Max

Lenbachhaus, Munich

Mothers ~

On the battlefield

the wounded and dying men

cried out to God —

or to their mothers . . .

Insight ? ~

"For me pain has no meaning."

Statement by Peter Hintze 

Vice President of the German Bundestag.

Protestant theologian,

while debating assisted suicide.

The Time has Come ~

The wheat stands high in the fields waiting for the harvesters with scythes.

Helps in Life ~

What this Carthusian monk does,

in silence and solitude,

is my constant strengthening inspiration.

La Grande Chartreuse, Grenoble, France

Morning Walk ~ At the Baltic Sea

Ruegen

We walked on tiny white seashells and sand that morning.

To a Razor ~

Praised be you, my razor,

for serving me for six months,

unlike those that needed new blades daily

back when I was twenty-one.

That the Seed Take Root ~

Stood and watched the farmer harrowing his field, row for row, patiently, in a cloud of dust.

Nazi Concentration Liberated ~ April 15, 1945

Shades of Shoah

One Sunday morning in Munich

Seventy years later

Six suitcases painted white

Stood on a sidewalk

Each with a rose stuck on

And nametags.

People walked past,

Stopped, bent over to read

And continued on

With shoulders stooped—

Wrenched from Sunday calm.

To Understand the World ~

"To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it, look very hard at what was close to hand and make it stand in for the whole. . ."

                                                           from: The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Outside My Window ~

In 10 below zero weather a black bird sat in the lilac bush under a canopy of snow for one full hour, all hunched and meditating . . .

Merton's 100th Birthday ~

There was supposed to be a weekend seminar held at this Benedictine monastery here in Germany about Thomas Merton which I was excited about and signed up for. It was called off because of lack of participants.

Mothers of the Fallen ~

Take your hands from your eyes wet with tears, dear Mother, to show us the beauty there that your suffering has caused.

We Are All Brothers ~

Spent the day in Stuttgart visiting museums walking around downtown. I saw thousands of people but not one of them would look me in the eye or show any sign of recognizing me as a fellow human being.