I've been receiving a few email posts of late which suggests that it might be useful to start saving at least some on a web page. I've decided to do this by subject.

Belief   "Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? ... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."   -- Blaise Pascal 1623-1662     Emptiness   I am the utter poverty of God. I am His emptiness, littleness, nothingness, lostness. When this is understood, my life in God's freedom, the self-emptying of God in me is the fullness of grace. A love for God that knows no reason because God is the fullness of grace. A love for God that knows no reason because God is God; a love without measure, a love for God as personal.   Thomas Merton [20th C] Praying With Thomas Merton   Ideology & change   A group of political activists were attempting to show the Master how their ideology would change the world.   The Master listened carefully. The following day he said, 'An ideology is as good or bad as the people who make use of it. If a million wolves were to organize for justice, would they cease to be a million wolves?'"   -- Anthony de Mello One Minute Wisdom   Imperfection   The great imperfection of most of us proceeds from want of reflection, but, on the other hand, there are many who think overmuch, who fall into the mistake of too close self-inspection, and who are perpetually fretting over their failings and weaknesses.   -- Jean-Pierre Camus [17th C] The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales Longing or looking for God   Our natural will is to have God, and the good will of God is to have us, and we may never cease willing or longing for God until we have him in the fullness of joy. Christ will never have his full bliss in us until we have our full bliss in him. -- Blessed Julian of Norwich     Only His Name   Shall we look for His face in shadows and darkness, His presence in moons and shrouded fog, His word buried in text of ancient metaphor?   We we find Him perhaps manifest in light, in life, in tears of mist beyond the shroud, in glimmers of hope, in light upon the leaves; His word in tumults of thunder and the roar of rivers?   Are we to know only His name, to know His heart? Are we to know only h reach of His arms, His touch, His grace, and the perfume of His love?   Are we to breathe only His breath, to see with His heart, to hear His wings, to feel Him rest within our veins -- this Crimsom Dove?   Are we to know only His name and the sound of His heart, to dance His song?   We we know His presence in His presence? Will we see His word in his word? Will we hear Him in His light? Will I know His name?   -- Brian Rowland Port Orchard, Washington Love of God Great and overflowing is the love of God, that never standeth still, but floweth on for ever and without ceasing, with no labour or effort, but freely and fully, so that our little vessel is full and over-full. If we do not stop the channel by our self-will it will never slacken in its flowing, but the gift of God will ever make our cup to run over."   -- Mechthild of Magdeburg [13th C] the Flowing Forth of the Light of the Godhead       God's unfailing love for us is shown in Jesus; that is why Jesus accepts us with an accpetance deeper than our being. Jesus accepts us in the deepest roots of our being, the roots lying beneath our consciousness, from which our conscious lives arise. Thus our acceptance by Jesus is even more than our consciousness of him; that is why we can trust our whole selves--conscious and unconscious, known and unknown--to him.   -- Arthur A. Vogel [20th C] Radical Christianity and the Flesh of Jesus Mystical Contemplation   Do thou, in the intent practice of mystic contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations of the intellect, and all things that the senses or the intellect can perceive, and all things which are not and things which are, and strain upwards in unknowing, as far as may be, towards the union with God Who is, above all being and knowledge. For by unceasing and absolute withdrawal from thyself and all things in purity, abandoning all and set free from all, thou wilt be borne up to the ray of the divine which surpasseth all being.   --Pseudo-Dionysius Mystical Theology - 5th C.   Pleasing God     "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desrie to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing."   -- Thomas Merton   Prayer   Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness... It is better in prayer to have a heart without words then words without a heart.   --Mohandas K. Gandhi, Young India   Purity   Question: When is a person sure of having arrived at purity? Answer: When s/he considers all human beings are good, and no created thing appears impure or defiled. Then s/he is truly pure in heart.   Isaac of Nineveh [7th C] Ascetic Treatises, 85 True Home Our true home is in the present moment. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. Peace is all around us--in the world and in nature--and within us--in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.   --Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ   Unawareness   If you doze off, don't give it a second thought. A child in the arms of a parent drops off to sleep occasionally, but the parent isn't disturbed by that as long as the child is happily resting there and opens its eyes once in a while.   --Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart   Wind Ponies   White gulls tunnel through the clouds, bursting into the light, riding the breath like wind ponies.   High above in the rain shadows a lone raven flows, hanging on the thermals.   Their paths ribboned around the clouds. The bow formed in black and white beneath their wings.   Shadows now, their trail lost; a lone gull watches, as I stand in awe. My heart follows, and my silence speaks.   -- Brian Rowland Port Orchard, Washington