Tag Archives: God

Our Happiness

“Our happiness doesn’t depend on somebody else’s action or on anything else.  It doesn’t depend on our success, but rather on the effort we’re willing to put into everything we do.  Even if people disappoint or fail us left and right, even if people turn against us, hurt us, lie about us, don’t understand us, even if they think they know everything about us and judge us unfairly, they can’t infringe upon our happiness.  True happiness means that we have a deep-seated peace and tranquillity that transcends all the difficulties of life, that cannot be disturbed by the chaos and warfare that might touch our lives.”

~ The Monks of New Skete (In the Spirit of Happiness, 312)

In the End, Happiness

“Being happy means entering wholeheartedly into everything – no matter what type of challenge it presents, no matter what the possible difficulties involved – entering into it body, soul, mind, and spirit.  We have to enter into it in such a way that we’re no longer separated from what we’re doing.  We forget ourselves at the same time that we give ourselves completely.  And when we do enter into life totally and completely, then, if we stop and reflect for just a moment, we’ll notice that somehow we’re beginning to experience happiness.  This is what we’re made for.”

~ The Monks of New Skete (In the Spirit of Happiness, 311)

Christ, Our Infinite Now

She cuddles beneath purple fleece,
knees pulled up and restless, melancholy
as Milne’s Donkey, that stuffed lovey
dangling by an ear from her thumb-sucking hand.

There are days I ride the waves of this energy,
and days I’m frustrated and mystified,
but this day I’m struck; my perspective tilted,
and I see her as she is:

the great work of hands I don’t often notice,
sculpted perfection refined and refining,
more unique than ice crystals falling
through our atmosphere.

She is blessed, mysterious, achingly,
deeply passionate, intensely loving
and intensely loved.  She’s working on it,
saving it up, storing all that energy for

the great love-work she’ll do in the future –
the great love-work she’ll do in the Infinite Now.