Thought for the day, Friday 11th April

“The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters, meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked. This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people, more people, more countries. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us. The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision.”

Anaïs Nin, writer (1903 – 1977)

Thought for the day, Wednesday 9th April

“The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people: despoiled of their lands, their true culture destroyed… denied equal protection of the law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows.”

Paul Robeson (1989 – 1976), actor, singer and social justice activist, born on this day

Thought for the day, Sunday 6th April

“”Self-love is the form and root of all friendship. Well-ordered self-love is right and natural – so much so that the person who hates himself or herself sins against nature. To know and to appreciate your own worth is no sin.” Thomas Aquinas

Some religious teachers build their theologies around the central idea “What am wretch am I.” Hating oneself, subscribing to a self-hating theology, is not Aquinas’s teaching, and it is not healthy psychology either. Authentic self-love is the very basis of friendship – how can we love others well if we have not learned to love ourselves well?

Aquinas goes further: Self-hatred, he says, is a sin against nature. That is strong language. But consider this self-love in the context of the rest of nature – does any tree or whale, horse or eagle, blade of grass or star hate itself? No. As Mechtild says, they seek only to fulfill their true natures, to do the work of being the best possible tree, whale, horse, eagle, and so on. It is false and pseudo-humility to hate onself. We need to come to ourselves and appreciate our own worth and to help others to do the same. There lies authentic friendship.”

From Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox