Pay Attention :: Frederick Buechner

"From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein. . .

"Literature, painting, music — the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things. . .

"And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is to love God and to love our neighbor, he too is asking us to pay attention. If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him in what is happening around us and inside us. If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces, but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in."

~ Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations 
(Art, February 20)
(Originally published in: Beyond Words: Daily Readings in The ABC's of Faith)

The Violence of Love

“We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.”
~ Oscar A. Romero, The Violence of Love 
(Free eBook version...HERE)

Advent: A Brief History

This Advent I am using a new book of meditations and reflections titled, “Monastery Journey to Christmas.” Over the past few years I have enjoyed other prayer and meditation books from the author, Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette.

The book begins with a very helpful history of Advent in the Christian East and West from as early as 330 AD. The author says, “In appearance, the Advent liturgical traditions from the East and the West may seem to differ in certain aspects and practices, but deep down I find they complement and complete each other in the one and common celebration of the Nativity and Theophany of our Lord and Savior.”

Instead of posting the few paragraph history from Brother Victor-Antoine here, I have posted it on a new supplement blog I recently created, “Quotations & Stuff.” I will use this blog to post lengthier quotes, liturgies and writings that might bog down this blog. This supplementary blog is a work in progress, so bear with me.

To read this history of Advent, click here…
Advent: A Brief History