Day by Day

1

The heart stands at the centre of your being, where you are at one with yourself, at one with all others and at one with the true spirit of love that some of us call God.

When you see with the heart, you discover that there is no part of life that doesn’t contain a surprise. No part is too simple or small, no part is too ordinary or extraordinary. Everything becomes full of potential, full of surprise.

The heart has its reasons which reason does not understand.

Blaise Pascal

2

We can’t all live in close contact with the earth, but we can get to know our own space upon the earth. Spend time out of doors, celebrate the earth, reverence it, give thanks for it.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, whose body Nature is, and God the soul.

Alexander Pope

3

Driving to work, in a traffic jam, under stress, under time pressure, bored, worried, hassled. All those other cars out there are driven by people too, maybe also bored, worried, hassled. Try to look beyond the exterior, the façade, and send them blessings.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

4

You cannot love anyone without experiencing the pain in yourself. When you truly experience and know your own pain, then you can reach out to lessen the intensity of another’s pain.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

5

Strive for a world where a passion for mercy and justice makes it possible to choose the common good, and do it in deep gratitude for those poor and powerless and homeless people who inspire your passion for the possible.

Everything is possible for him who believes.

Mark 9: 23

6

Every tiny detail in the living world is down to adaptability: the eye of an insect, the fin of a dolphin, the bone structure of a dog, the strategy of a reptile, the functions of the human brain. We live in a changing world – if you don’t change you perish.

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

Albert Camus

7

Sometimes, you can get choked and stultified by your problems and by your own failings. Someone who loves you can show you that you are choking, and that is a great grace.

A friend is one who accepts both the chaff and grain.

Arabian proverb

8

Remember that until you increase your self-esteem by loving yourself in small ways, you cannot begin to change yourself in bigger ways. You must start by tackling all expectations, your own and other people’s.

You are God’s work of art.

Ephesians 2: 19–20

9

What are you willing to see with new eyes, to hear with new ears, to explore with a new heart?

We are called to be pioneers. Pioneers who stand on the edge of great beginnings of unseen futures.

Teilhard de Chardin

10

The Syrian hermit St Gerasimos once saw a lion hobbling with pain because of a bit of reed stuck in his paw. He brought the animal back to the monastery and took care of him, and there developed such a friendship between them that when the saint died, the lion laid itself down weeping on his grave and died too.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Khalil Gibran

11

If you begin your day by worrying about what you have to do, you are probably taking on too much. Take things one by one and ask for help. If you accept your limitations, you will experience a new freedom and a new serenity.

One who pays heed to the wind will not sow, And one who watches the clouds will not reap.

Ecclesiastes 11: 4

12

Everyone who has a job knows how work can eat into their personal time. In our culture, the workaholic is revered, and colleagues vie with each other to see who can work the longest hours, and who can look busiest. But even the busiest person needs to stop and take time out, if only for a moment. Moments of stillness and peace are always available. They are offered to everyone. It is all a matter of becoming aware and rethinking your values.

Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.

Albert Camus

13

You have a hidden spiritual energy within you. If you tap into it, it can help you to move forward. You can learn to find this hidden energy by noticing, by paying attention and being mindful. Smell the roses, taste the coffee, feel your toes breathe, see the wind, hear the sirens.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Buddha

14

The difficulties, tensions, pressure and negativity of the commuters’ morning all dissipate when they glimpse the beauty of the morning sky.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.

Albert Einstein

15

Instead of wanting more, give thanks for the blessings you already have.

Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day.

HH The Dalai Lama

16

HH The Dalai Lama tells us that compassion is the tool that can change the world. Jesus called us to be compassionate, as God is compassionate. You are called to reach out with compassion and conviction to people who are hurting, to places of pain and suffering. Through your compassion, you too can change the world.

Wisdom, compassion and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

Confucius

17

There is a time for everything – a time for tolerance and a time for zero tolerance.

Without tolerance, there is no creativity, no love and no chance for change or growth. But tolerance does not mean countenancing injustice, or ignoring bullying and violence. Evil must always be faced and denounced.

Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding.

Mahatma Gandhi

18

Your inner beauty flows through your eyes, your smiles, your expressions, your gestures, your perceptions, your joy, your care and compassion.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

Khalil Gibran

19

Every day you experience unresolved situations; unresolved questions well up within you. Do not be overwhelmed by these unresolved realities. Rather, use them as possibilities for new things. Stay with the questions, and insight is born.

Wisdom is often times nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

William Wordsworth

20

Do not compare your talents and your abilities to somebody else’s. Do not be caught up in a life of competition instead of a life of creativity, or you will lose not only your inspiration, but your courage and conviction too.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein

21

You have only one moment to live and that moment is now.

For in Him we live and move and have our being.

Acts 17: 28

22

The world is such a beautiful place. If you get caught up with your own affairs, you can forget that. Take the time to stop, look, observe. Beauty surrounds you.

All those who are unhappy in the world are so as a result of their desire for their own happiness. All those who are happy in the world are so as a result of their desire for the happiness of others.

Shantideva

23

In prayer you are dealing with what is first of all a matter of the heart. It’s not a case of using, or straining the mind, but simply of uniting your heart to God.

Prayer is not thinking much but loving much.

St Teresa of Avila

24

Be comfortable in your own body and nourish it with healthy food and exercise. Nourish your mind with good literature, art and company. Nourish your spirit with silence, stillness and prayer.

We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Teresa

25

Do not be concerned about things you cannot change. Concern yourself, rather, with what you can change. Do not take for granted the way things are now, or think that the way things have always been is the way they are supposed to be. Question everything.

Since my house burnt down, I have a better view of the rising moon.

Japanese saying

26

Ancient proverb: An eagle can live to be seventy years old, but at forty, its pointed beak and claws curve inward and its wings become heavy with thick feathers. The eagle flies to a mountain and breaks its beak on the mountain wall. It must wait for a new beak to grow, and then it uses the new beak to pull out its old claws. When new claws grow, the eagle uses them to pull out its old feathers. Now the eagle is free of the weight of the past, it catches the wind and begins to live again.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

Bob Marley

27

You can marvel

at the sunrise and the sunset,

at the complexity of your own bodies,

at the beauty of nature,

at the comfort of friends.

These blessings are there for all of us.

Let us give thanks.

Gratitude is heaven itself.

William Blake

28

Sometimes as you look at a night sky, a single bright star appears, and in its brightness it transforms the night. Every star in the sky is changed by this new appearance. Christ is like that bright star, illuminating the whole world. You are also called to be a light in the world.

You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your way can illuminate the world.

Oprah Winfrey

29

If you recognize and do well what is needed today, the future will find you doing what is needed at that time.

He prays best who does not know that he is praying.

St Anthony of Padua

30

Joyful memories may seem faded, dimmed and weathered, but they are there, and you can revive them. One way to hold on to your most precious experiences is to keep a treasury, a book of memories of people, sayings, words, experiences, events – whatever brings joy to you at different times through your life. Then, when you look again at your treasury, it yields up its joys, as fresh as when you first experienced them.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness …

John Keats

31

The present moment is all you are sure of. The present moment is your only secure home. Living in the moment is living fully.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Buddha

32

Do not squander your unique and precious talents by comparing them with others’. What is yours is uniquely yours, and it is different. Accept that you are called to be yourself, to go the journey that nobody else can go, to create what only you are called to create.

To live is so startling; it leaves little time for anything else.

Emily Dickinson

33

Always wanting to be right can lead to closure of the mind and heart. If you are always right, you don’t need other people. You can even think you know what God wants. But if you are to live a human life to your full potential, you cannot be right all the time. Keep an open mind and an open heart. You may not always be right, but you won’t be wrong.

I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.

Psalm 40: 8

34

A sat-nav system is for when you really need to go somewhere but when you are just taking a trip for the adventure of it, enjoying not knowing what you may find around the next bend, an electronic system that directs your journey is more a hindrance than a help. Getting lost is part of the fun.

It’s the same with life. It’s the spirit in which we make the journey that counts, not where we arrive.

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey.

Paulo Coelho

35

Each day is a gift to use as you choose. If you regard every day as a holiday – a day you enjoy, a day when you celebrate – you will be grateful for each day. And when you are grateful, you will be happy.

You will not reach love without immense gratitude in your heart.

Arnaud Desjardins

36

To speak of the human is to speak of the Divine and to speak of the Divine is to speak of the human. God is the depth dimension and a mystery. When you are authentically and fully in touch with yourself, you experience God.

It is necessary that this be the aim of our entire life. In all of our thoughts and actions, we must be conscious of the infinite.

Rabindranath Tagore

37

Imagine walking across a plank thirty feet above the ground. If you focus on your goal, the platform at the end of the plank, you’ll make it. But if you take your eyes off the goal and look down, you’ll fall.

If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunities.

Robert Kennedy

38

Moments when you can bless and feel blessed are often those moments at which you are most alone, yet most alive to everyone and everything around you.

My body of a sudden blazed … I was blessed and could bless.

W. B. Yeats

39

If you try to tackle life’s problems by yourself, you will quickly get exhausted or frustrated.

Learn instead to trust God. Let him carry the load. If you lower your burden and turn the problem over to God, the clouds will part and the sun will shine through.

What is more elevating and transporting than the generosity of heart which risks everything on God’s word.

John Henry Newman

40

When you have vision you do not see beyond the present but you recognize the depth of what is, and it replenishes your energy and the inner fire that urges you to live fully every moment that you are alive.

The charity of Christ urges us on.

2 Corinthians 5: 14
(Motto of the Religious Sisters of Charity)

41

If you try not to look ahead to tomorrow, but instead live today as well as you can, tomorrow will be happier anyway. A new day can bring new beginnings.