June  5,  2020

PRAYER CHAIR:

JUST   BE   THERE

Be still, be silent, be there for

just for a few moments each day.

Designate a chair as your prayer chair,

your sacred space, your sacred place.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone

spotted you and asked what you’re doing.

And you said, “Just praying, just sitting

here with God for a few wonder moments.”

And the other said,  “What? How long

have you been doing this – just sitting there?”

And you smiled – answering – "For a while

now. It just soothes my very soul.”

You don’t tell them: “For about 3 years now -

nor do you add: “Matthew 6:6” – but you want to.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

June  5, 2020 

Thought   for  Today

 “If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?"

Mary Oliver,

"Singapore"

Painting: "Crucifixion" 
by Vincente Silva
Manansala, 
Philippines (1910-1981)

THE  ISLAND

Here's  a Russian movie that can get you thinking,  praying,  and looking at life.

You'll need some time  to watch it - but it's worth the watching - and praying.

It's called, "The Island" - a 2006 Russian Movie.

We're all on it - Island Earth.

Hit the little box - down on the right hand corner - to get full screen - or however you get full screen.

Prayers - and hopes.

Here's what YouTube or someone says about this movie:

The Island (Russian movie with English subtitles)

1,946,813 views

•Jun 5, 2016

"The Island" is a 2006 Russian biographical film about a 20th century Eastern Orthodox monk. Pyotr Mamonov, who plays the lead character, formerly a rock musician in the USSR, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in the 1990s and lives now in an isolated village. Film director Pavel Lungin said about him that "to a large extent, he played himself." Mamonov was first very hesitant to play in the film, but then was urged by his confessor to play the character. After the filming, one of the movie crew staff decided to stay on the island and live there as a hermit.

June   4,   2020

WITHIN

Surgeons need lights when they look within,

so too psychoanalysts and friends who

are trying to listen to what we’re feeling.

I prefer learning what’s within – when it’s

a box of chocolates and I know one of

these babies have red raspberry within.

Tell me more. Tell me how you swim with
God when you swim or when you sit with

God on a park bench or corner church seat.

Tell me about the old lady you visit on Thursday

afternoon for tea or the kids you tutor in math

for free and how you love Willie Nelson's songs.

Tell me how you figured life out after your husband

died and your kids were out and about - paving

their paths and roads and familying their families.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

June  4,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“The  only  wisdom we can hope to acquire / Is  the wisdom of humility: humility is endless”. 

T. S.  Eliot, page 35

In T. S. Eliot, A

Symposium for His

Seventieth Birthday,

N.Y, Farrar, Straus

& Company, 1958

Edited by Neville

Brayubrooke

June  3,  2020

SPRAWL

That’s how he sat on the couch ….

That’s how he drove his big 2 door car ….

That’s how his living room looked ….

That’s how he laughed and told a story ….

That’s how he sat in a restaurant  -

an empty chair on each side of him –

the rest of us on the edge and on our side….

You got to say, “He was consistent ….

He was open to what you had to say,

but you felt more like a couch pillow

than a person – your ideas or comments

would  remain like a half-eaten bag of chips ….

I think that’s why most people were past

history when it came to him …. We were

all going, going, gone …. Bye bye …. Bye bye….

©  Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

June  3,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“You  carry  heaven  and  hell  with  you.”  

Sri Ramana Mararshi