Look Around You (Gérard de Nerval)

Man, do you think yours is the only soul?
Look around you. Everything that you see
quivers with being. Though your thoughts are free,
one thing you do not think about: the whole.

Beasts have a mind; respect it. Flowers too—
look at one. Nature brought forth each petal.
There is a mystery that sleeps in metal.
Everything feels, and has power over you.

Be careful; the blind wall is spying on us.
All matter is connected to a word.
Do not make it serve an unholy purpose;
a god in darkness often walks obscured.
As eyelids of a newborn infant open
a spirit wakes and gazes from the stone.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

A tribute to Jesus Christ by Firacub

A tribute to Jesus Christ by Firacub... May we all be blessed by his blessings.. Amen.

Image vs. Reality (Madeleine L'Engle)

Isaiah's description of Christ as the Suffering Servant
bears little resemblance to the pretty young man with
the beautifully combed beard and melancholy eyes we
so often see depicted. But Isaiah's description rings
much more true. In his own day, Jesus was a monster
to many, disconcerting them with his unpredictability
and the company he kept, vanishing to go apart to
pray and to be alone with his Father just when people
thought they needed him.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

No Music? (William Shakespeare)

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are as dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus;
Let no such man be trusted.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Something New (C. F. Blumhardt)

It is my fervent hope that we Christians will not be forever
stuck in our Christianity. Look for something new; for a life
in God. Look for God's spirit in everyone you meet.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

In Medicine We Trust (Johann Christoph Arnold)

There is always room for science and faith to complement
each other, providing God is put first and medicine second.
Yet our culture seems bent on reversing that order. No longer
able to see human beings as souls made in the image of a
Creator, we see machines. Afraid to face frustrations,
uncertainties, and grief, we prefer to focus on physiological
functions. We tend to reduce everything, from birth to death,
into a matter of chemical and biological balances. If there is
a national neurosis, perhaps it is our fear of illness, and of
dying. Can this really be the will of God, who works in the
weak and sick, and whose strength is revealed wherever
human strength fails?



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

An Answer to Every Need (Johann Christoph Arnold)

If only each one of us truly focused on God’s will, I am certain
that every need we face—regardless of our race, nationality,
religious persuasion, income, sexual orientation, or political
leaning—would soon be answered. Then none of us would be
depressed or lonely, and even the most faint-hearted person
would be given courage. The worst enemies would be
reconciled, and we would love one another and forgive one
another.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Courage? Hope? (Cornel West)

The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life
consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the
world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to
question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with
evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social
justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing,
and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle.
To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never to allow despair to
have the last word.

(On the 40th anniversary of Malcolm X's assassination)



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

The Warfare of the Heart (Sayings of the Desert Fathers)

A brother said to an old man, “I do not know of any warfare in
my heart.” The old man said to him, “Then you are a building
open on all four sides. Whatever wishes to, goes in and out,
and you do not notice. If you had windows and a door, and
shut them so as to bar certain thoughts, you would soon
realize how many there are outside, waiting to slip in and
attack you.”



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Against Impatience (C.F. Blumhardt)

Nothing motivates us Christians more than being asked to do
something in keeping with our strength, our ability. Just the
pledge to do something, to improve a situation, can excite
thousands of people. Even sensible people waver and get
carried away. The kingdom of God, however, comes in an
entirely different way. It makes no call upon human strength
or upon the exertions of the flesh. It silences out agendas -
and for us this is the hardest thing.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

The Unteachable Heart (Sophie Scholl)

I know that life is a doorway to eternity, and yet my heart so
often gets lost in petty anxieties. It forgets the great way
home that lies before it. Unprepared, given over to childish
trivialities, it could be taken by surprise when the great hour
comes and find that, for the sake of piffling pleasures, the one
great joy has been missed. I am aware of this, but my heart is
not. It seems unteach-able; it continues its dreaming…always
wavering between joy and depression.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Here and Now (Etty Hillesum)

Before, I always lived in anticipation...that it was all a
preparation for something else, something “greater,” more
“genuine.” But that feeling has dropped away from me
completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the
full, and the life is worth living.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Salvation as Love (Kallistos Ware)

God does not condemn us to Hell; God wishes all humans to be
saved. He will love us to all eternity, but there will exist the
possibility that we do not accept the love and do not respond
to it. And the refusal to accept love, the refusal to respond to
it, that precisely is the meaning of Hell. Hell is not a place
where God puts us; it’s a place where we put ourselves. The
doors of Hell, insofar as they have locks, have locks on the
inside.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Recognition (Barbara Cawthorne Crafton)

We felt that it was important to be good to ourselves, and that
it was dangerous to tell ourselves no. About anything, ever.
Repression of one's desires was an unhealthy thing. I work
hard, we told ourselves. I deserve a little treat. We treated
ourselves every day.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

If Thou Must Love (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love’s sake only. Do not say,
“I love her for her smile - her look - her way
Of speaking gently, - for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day” -
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry.
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love, thereby!
But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

The Person in Your Path (Andre Trocme)

People tend to think of nonviolence as a choice between using
force and doing nothing. But the real choice takes place at
another level. Nonviolence is less a matter of "not killing" and
more a matter of showing compassion, of saving and
redeeming, of being a healing community. One can only choose
between doing good to the person placed in one's path, or to
do him evil. To do good is to love a person; but not to do that is
as good as killing him. To love someone is to restore that
person physically, socially, and spiritually. To neglect and
postpone this restoration is already to kill.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Full Speed Astern ! (C.S. Lewis)

Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs
improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.
Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry,
realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting
ready to start life over again from the ground floor - that is
the only way out of a "hole." This process of surrender - this
movement full speed astern - is repentance.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Test Yourself (C.F. Blumhardt)

You rack your brain to solve the mystery of the Savior, but you
would do better to examine the puzzle of your own heart. You
should be wondering why you are so impenetrable: why your
intentions, which are always so noble, are followed by so few
good deeds; why, despite your pious impulses, your life is so
lacking in genuine devotion; why, when it comes to really
getting things done, you turn out to be so feeble, so lame. You
are always sighing, it is true, but to what effect?



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Back To Normal (Ellen Goodman)

It was in the personal tragedy we felt our unity. Waves swept
away Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians with a
ferocious indifference. Once again, unified in the face of
catastrophe, we hit the pause button on our own man-made
conflicts.

But I also watch us inch back to "normal." On Page 1, the fury
of nature shares space again with the folly of humanity. The
victims of nature make room for the victims of man-made
conflict. It's impossible to watch this unfold and not wonder
why people need tragedy to remind us of our humanity. And
why we manufacture disaster when nature provides quite
enough of its own.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Not Even Victory (Pablo Neruda)

Nothing, not even victory,
will erase the terrible hole of blood:
nothing, neither the sea,
nor the passing of sand and time,
nor the geranium burning
over the grave.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

The Most Natural Prayer (Flannery O'Connor)

The experience of losing your faith, or of having lost it,
is an experience that in the long run belongs to faith; or at
least it can belong to faith if faith is still valuable to you,
and it must be or you would not have written me about this.
I don’t know how the kind of faith required of a Christian
living in the 20th century can be at all if it is not grounded
on this experience that you are having right now of unbelief.
“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” is the most natural and
most human and most agonizing prayer in the gospels, and
I think it is the foundation prayer of faith.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Getting Personal (Kallistos Ware)

The whole person is on the one side open to God, and on the
other side open to other people. The isolated individual is not a
real person, for a real person lives in and for others. This
idea...could be summed up under the word love. We become
truly personal by loving God and by loving other humans. By
love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a
fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the
energy, of the Creator in us. We are not truly human as long
as we are turned in on ourselves. We become whole only
insofar as we face others, and relate to them.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Bread for my Neighbor (Jacques Maritain)

Christianity has all too often meant withdrawal and the
unwillingness to share the common suffering of humankind.
But the world has rightly risen in protest against such piety...
The care of another - even material, bodily care - is spiritual
in essence. Bread for myself is a material question; bread for
my neighbor is a spiritual one.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

A Broken Heart (Oscar Wilde)

…And thus we rust Life’s iron chain
Degraded and alone:
And some men curse, and some men weep,
And some men make no moan:
But God’s eternal Laws are kind
And break the heart of stone.

And every human heart that breaks,
In prison-cell or yard,
Is as that broken box that gave
Its treasure to the Lord,
And filled the unclean leper’s house
With the scent of costliest nard.

Ah! happy those whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Nonvoilent Islam (Badshah Khan)

There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me
subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed.
It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all
the time he was in Mecca, and it has since been followed by all
those who wanted to throw off an oppressor's yoke. But we
had so far forgotten it that when Gandhiji placed it before us,
we thought he was sponsoring a novel creed.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

What Really Matters (Rachel Naomi Remen)

There is often more wisdom to be found at the edges of life
than in its middle. A life-threatening illness, for instance, may
shuffle our values like a deck of cards. Sometimes a card that
has been on the bottom of the deck for most of our lives turns
out to be the top card, the thing that really matters. Having
watched people sort their cards and play their hands in the
presence of death for many years, I would say that most often
the top card is love.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.

Consider This (William Shakespeare)

Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy…



Peace Forever,
Firacub

Joy Unbroken and Lasting (C.F. Blumhardt)

Sacrifice yourself for once for the sake
of God's will. It will not be in vain.
Sacrifice yourself for truth, for justice.
Sacrifice yourself for once against all
human sense for something that is truly
good. Sacrifice yourself for Christ in all
things, and seek the kingdom of God.
There is great strength in this… Stand
for something; then your joy will be
unbroken and lasting.



Peace Forever,
Firacub.