Monday, November 14, 2011

broken open

Four times a day—on rising, at noon, late afternoon, and before going to bed—Agnes and Father Damien became that one person who addressed the unknown. The priest stopped what he was doing, cast himself down, made himself transparent, broke himself open. That is, prayed.

Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. Harper Collins, 2001. 182.

to live in a broken world

People say they do not want to give way on important moral issues, but far too often they don't want to give way on the ego's need to be  right, superior, and in control. This mimics that "original sin," described as a "desire to be like God" and daring to eat the apple of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's the human unwillingness to live in a broken world. In the illusion of an unbroken world, we do not have to rely upon grace, mercy and forgiveness, we do not need to be "saved."

Richard Rohr, Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety. Cincinnati, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2001. 35.