Author Archives: veerjih

“Sometimes, too, we went out in the rubber boat to look at ourselves at night. Coal-black seas towered up on all sides, and a glittering myriad of tropical stars drew a faint reflection from plankton in the water. The world was simple – stars in the darkness. Whether it was 1947 B.C. or A.D. suddenlyContinue reading “Thought for the day, Monday 6th October”

“I walk the unfrequented roadWith open eye and ear;I watch afield the farmer loadThe bounty of the year. I filch the fruit of no one’s toil,no trespasser am I —and yet I reap from every soiland from the boundless sky. I gather where I did not sow,And bind the mystic sheaf,The amber air, the river’sContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 5th October”

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds — justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the doorContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 4th October”

“The mystical certainty that nothing can separate us from the love of God grows when we ourselves become one with love by placing ourselves, freely and without guarantee of success, on the side of love.” Dorothee Sölle, quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“God is in us, and He is present everywhere. It is God’s all-encompassing love that manifests itself in us. When this happens, we see no difference between people: everyone is good, everyone is our brother, and we consider ourselves to be the servants of every created thing.” Elder Thaddeus (1914 – 2003) Artwork by CarlContinue reading “International Day of Non-Violence”

“The noblest joy of the senses,the holiest peace of the heart,the most resplendent lustre of all good worksderives from this:that the creatureputs his or her heartwholly into what s/he does.” Mechthild of Magdeburg, 13th century Beguine

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016), writer, holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, born on this day

“Michaelmas gales assail the waning year,And Michael’s scale is true, his blade is bright.He strips dead leaves; and leaves the living clearTo flourish in the touch and reach of light.Archangel bring your balance, help me turnUpon this turning world with you and danceIn the Great Dance. Draw near, help me discern,And trace the hidden graceContinue reading “Feast of St Michael and All Angels”

“”World-mothering air, air wild,Wound with thee, in thee isled,Fast home, fast fold thy child.”Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe The breath of life has always had a special, sacred meaning for people worldwide, since it is the mark of our mortality. The first and last breaths are marked withContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 28th September”

“In his poem, There Was a Child Went Forth, part of the Autumn Rivulets cycle, Walt Whitman describes the things that a child sees in his daily wanderings – the shadows, the field-sprouts, the wharves and the ferries, the clouds and the apple trees, the workers, and the families both kind and cruel.He closes withContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 27th September”