From my son--
Dear Lord, today I turn to you to give you thanks for my mother. With your own gift of life, she bore me in her womb and gave me life. She tenderly, patiently cared for me and taught me to walk and talk. She read to me and made me laugh. No one delighted in my successes more; no one could comfort me better in my failures. I am so grateful for how she mothered me and mentored me, and even disciplined me. Please bless her, Lord, and comfort her. Help her loving heart to continue to love and give of herself to others. Strengthen her when she is down and give her hope when she is discouraged. Most of all, Lord, on this Mother’s Day, give my mother the graces she most needs and desires today. I ask you this, in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior forever and ever.

World

As we begin to wake up and realize that we are not separate from each other, nor from this wondrous earth, we realize that the ways we live together and relate to the earth need to be reconstructed too. That means not only social engagement as individuals helping other individuals, but finding ways to address the problematic economic and political structures that are deeply implicated in the eco-crisis and the social justice issues that confront us today. This reclaims the goal of enlightenment from an exclusively individualistic model. Engagement in the world is how our personal awakening blossoms, and contemplative practices such as meditation ground our activism, transforming it into a spiritual path

Worship

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. . . . Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.

David Foster Wallace

Poem

The Right Thing

By Theodore Roethke

(1908 - 1963)

Let others probe the mystery if they can.

Time-harried prisoners of Shall and Will --

The right thing happens to the happy man.

The bird flies out, the bird flies back again:

The hill becomes the valley, and is still;

Let others delve that mystery if they can.

God bless the roots! -- Body and soul are one!

The small become the great, the great the small;

The right thing happens to the happy man.

Child of the dark, he can out leap the sun,

His being single, and that being all;

The right thing happens to the happy man.

Or he sits still, a solid figure when

The self-destructive shake the common wall;

Takes to himself what mystery he can.

And, praising change as the slow night comes on,

Wills what he would, surrendering his will

Till mystery is no more: No more he can.

The right thing happens to the happy man.