Sands of Time

Yet another year nearly over and the grainy sands of time are running fast through my hands. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to love God the way I am meant to; and to make a difference for the better where I can.

I need to be able to contain  anxiety; and develop a willingness not to know and not even to need to  know.

 

I identify with Richard Rohr when he says this :

"The illusions that we all must face are things like our own superiority, our worthiness, our supposed maturity, and our idealized altruism. Again and again we must see that they are not true! 

Both Paul and Francis were sincere when they said they were “less than the least” (Ephesians 3:8), because the closer you get to the light, the more of your shadow self you always see. 

Without the brightness of the Spirit you would never proceed. The spiritual journey is constant “shadowboxing” with one’s own pretensions and those rejected and denied parts of the self that keep coming up for air."

 

Image above from here

Richard Rohr also has a new book coming out in early March 2011. This is the advance blurb from Amazon- looks good.

In Falling Upward, Fr. Richard Rohr seeks to help readers understand the tasks of the two halves of life and to show them that those who have fallen, failed, or "gone down" are the only ones who understand "up." 
Most of us tend to think of the second half of life as largely about getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of life, but the whole thesis of this book is exactly the opposite. 


What looks like falling down can largely be experienced as "falling upward." In fact, it is not a loss but somehow actually a gain, as we have all seen with elders who have come to their fullness.

This important book explores the counterintuitive message that we grow spiritually much more by doing wrong than by doing right."