2009.09.03 02:59
Whether they confront evil in the world or support the good, disciplined actions are always characterized by gratitude. Anger can make us active and can even unleash in us much creative energy. But not for long. The social activists of the 1960s who allowed their anger to fuel their actions soon found themselves burned out. Often they reached a state of physical as well as mental exhaustion and needed psychotherapy or a "new spirituality." To persevere without visible success we need a spirit of gratitude. An angry action is born out of the experience of being hurt; a grateful action is born of the experience of healing. Angry actions want to take; grateful actions want to share. Gratitude is the mark of action undertaken as part of the discipline of patience. It is a response to grace. It leads us not to conquer or destroy, but to give visibility to a good that is already present. Therefore, the compassionate life is a grateful life, and actions born out of gratefulness are not compulsive but free, not somber but joyful, not fanatical but liberating. When gratitude is the source of our actions, our giving becomes receiving, and those to whom we minister become our ministers because in the center of our care for others we sense a caring presence, and in the midst of our efforts we sense an encouraging support. When this happens we can remain joyful and peaceful even when there are few successes to brag about. .... Gratitude is indeed a sign of an action guided by the discipline of patience. Even when there are no concrete results, the act itself can still be a revelation of God's caring presence here and now. Such action is true action because it is born of true knowledge of God's active presence. It grows not from the need to prove anything or to persuade anyone, but from the desire to give free witness to that which is profoundly real.... |
2009.09.03 03:07
2009.09.03 15:03
If I (or anyone) read the writing without knowing who wrote it,
I feel like it was written by a person in Budhistic philosophy.
Of course, when the religious faith reaches the highest area, they all come together
into the same or similar conclusion about the life and the society.
If the kings (or the presidents and the politicians) or religious leaders rule the society
even and fair, the people underneath may be able to live with nothing but gratitude.
But in reality, it doesn't work like that.
Through the old or new modern society, there always are masters and slaves.
In old days, people used to live under absolute ruler and they were asleep as slaves,
but nowadays, people are all wide awake and realize that there's no such absolute power.
And everyone want to be the master.
Thus, angers and revolutions have to happen....
I wish we can all live with gratitude and nothing else.
We can always hope and pray but chances are it will never happen.
2009.09.04 01:05
Thanks, Webmaster, for your comments.
These are only a small piece of their statements in the book which all of us
can stop and meditate on.
I'd like to quote a comment on the book by the publisher in the below.
"In this provocative essay on that least understood virtue, compassion,
the authors challenge themselves and us with these questions:
Where do we place compassion in our lives? Is it enough to live a life in which
we hurt one another as little as possible? Is our guiding ideal a life of
maximum pleasure and minimum pain? This book, Compassion, answers no.
.... They place compassion at the heart of a Christian life in a world governed
far too long by principles of power and destructive control.
Compassion, no longer merely an eraser of human mistakes, is a force
of prayer and action - the expression of God's love for us and our love
for God and one another.
The book, Compassion, is a book that says no to a compassion of guilt and
failure and yes to a compassionate love that pervades our spirit and
moves us to action.
Heri Nouwen, Donald McNeill, and Douglass Morrison have written a moving
document on what it means to be a Christian in a difficult time."
2009.09.04 23:14
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Douglas A. Morrison, 1983.
These three authors are catholic priests.