Virgin born, we bow before you; blessed was the womb that bore you;

Mary, Mother meek and mild, blessed was she and her child.

blessed was the maid that fed you; blessed was the hand that led you;

Blessed was the parent’s eye that watched your slumbering infancy.

-Genevan Psalter 1543

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this one.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Foremost among footprints is the elephant’s.

Foremost among reflections is that on impermanence.

- The Buddha

Use your eyes, and never walk blind.

There ain't no telling where there's someone waiting to put one over on you.

-Hãvamãl

To experience the joy and freedom of poverty as Jesus did, we need the surrender of obedience, for that is the foundation of his love.

-Mother Teresa

Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.

- Jesus

When you feel hurt because someone has been ungrateful for your kindness, it shows that you have been looking for gratitude, and this is a great mistake.

The true reason for helping another is that it is our duty to help others insofar as we can do it wisely; or because it is an expression of love.

-Emmett Fox

What the Angel of Death can teach us is how to be truly alive.

We become aware that we can die at any moment;

we just have to be present to be alive.

- Miguel Ruiz

There are many who wept for their sins, but forgot the purpose of tears.

-Saint Anathius

- The purpose is to move from contrition, deeply felt, to the response to freeing and forgiving love.

- Esther deWaal

The Lord is the supreme poet, the first cause, the sovereign ruler, subtler than the tiniest particle, the support of all, inconceivable, bright as the sun, beyond darkness.

-Krishna

We are all a mixture of aggression and loving kindness, hard-heartedness and tender open-heartedness, small mindedness and forgiving open mind.

-Pema Chödrön

Said a sheet of snow-white paper, “Pure I was created and pure I will remain forever.

I would rather be burnt and turn to white ashes than suffer darkness to touch me as the unclean to come near me.”

The ink bottle heard what the paper was saying, and it laughed in its dark heart; but it never dared to approach her.

As the snow- white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste forever, pure and chaste -and empty.

-Kahlil Gibran

What is there I have not forgot?

Or one day will forget: this garden, the breeze in stillness, even the words...

-James Schuyler

One person sees a minaret, but not the bird perched there.

The second person sees the bird, but not the hair it carries.

A third sees minaret, bird and hair.

Until you can see the threat of the hair,

the knot of awareness will not be loosened.

-Rumi

Made For You

I want to steal the roses off your lips and place them to your ear,

so that you may stop and listen to your own blooming.

You are divine and purposeful and real.

So, angel, stop worrying.

Keep your head up to those streaking purple night skies.

Somebody, somewhere, was made for you.

And when you wish upon the stars,

know that your love is likely wishing upon them too.

- Michael Fawaz

‍