Calendar Events
Would you like to make your End of Year Donation to the Interfaith Council? It’s as easy as following this link! Please support the work of the Council today.
◊◊◊ Monthly Interfaith Dialogues (Yes, you are invited!)Walnut Creek United Methodist Church
1543 Sunnyvale Ave. Walnut Creek
◊◊◊ Lunch and Learn at St. Isadore’s
◊◊◊ International Women’s Day Event (Save the Date)2949 Stone Valley Rd., Danville.
+++ Ongoing Opportunity: Responding to Genocide of the Yezidis
- From Rabbi Pam Frydman: World leaders have declared that what so-called-ISIS is doing to the Yezidi people is Genocide. A consortium of Jewish and Interfaith Leaders is implementing aBeyond Genocide Yezidi Campaign to rescue and support Yezidis who are being persecuted because of who they are.More than 12,000 have been murdered, including mass murders and beheadings of fathers in front of their families. Over 3500 Yezidi women and girls remain in sexual slavery. Nineteen Yezidi women were burned alive in June 2016 for refusing to cooperate with their rapists. More than 2000 Yezidi boys have served as forced child soldiers and hundreds are being forced to train as suicide bombers. More than 100 Yezidi boys have already been killed in battle. Thousands of other Yezidis have been tortured, while an unknown number of Yezidis continue to be held as hostages.
- Here are some things you can do:
o Add your name to the growing list at http://www.norcalrabbis.org/yezidi-fundraiser/
o Make a personal donation from your pocket and/or your Discretionary Fund by clicking on the Donate button in the upper right hand corner at http://www.norcalrabbis.org/yezidi-fundraiser/
o Share this information with your extended network of friends, family, congregants, etc.
o Develop a local Beyond Genocide Yezidi Campaign charity project.
o Clergy and other leaders wishing to lend their name to the Beyond Genocide Yezidi Campaign may do so by emailing marving@sfjcf.org. Please include your title and name as you wish it to appear, name of your organization (if any), physical address, city and state or country and telephone number. We will only list your city and state or country on this website, but we need the additional information for our records.
Volunteer Opportunities:
◊◊◊ Mountain View Shelter in Martinez.
Dear Friend,
The Interfaith Council would like to thank everyone who has partnered with SHELTER, Inc. to prepare and/or provide and meals at the Mountain View Shelter in Martinez. Your willingness to help by providing meals makes it possible for us to direct our limited funds to 1) continue operating the shelter and 2) to provide critical services that will help families end the cycle of homelessness (e.g. case management, employment services, tutoring, etc.).
Please consider this volunteer opportunity as a rewarding experience that you can create for your family, friends or co-workers. You can utilize the shelter’s commercial kitchen to cook healthy, nutritious dinners and get to know some of the men, women and children who don’t have a place of their own to call home. The upcoming meal dates needed are:
- 12/26- 12/30
- 2017 weeks are open!
General Information:
- Mountain View Emergency Family Shelter is located at 1391 Shell Ave, Martinez, CA94553
- A weekly menu is recommended but not necessary (A menu helps give the families with something to look forward to throughout the week.) Some ideas for this fall would be Soup and Hot Sandwiches, Taco Bar, Stew. MartieSteinmetz, can help you come up with ideas!
- Volunteers are asked to purchase items to prepare the meals including beverages (please only milk, water, or 100% juice; dessert is optional.
- Volunteers should expect to provide enough food for 12 adults, 15 children and themselves. Please call Martiethe week before your scheduled week to cook in order to get an updated count of the parents and children.
- Volunteers may choose to prepare the meal offsite and bring to the shelter to serve for dinner time, at which time volunteers can serve or staff. Volunteers may also choose to cook onsite.
- Dinner is served at 6:00pm, with the exception of Wednesday when our parenting class is in session (Please check with the Martie in regards to this.) Volunteers can arrive as early as 2:30pm (arrival time depends on whether volunteers are preparing meal onsite).
Please contact Martie Steinmetz via e-mail at MartieS@shelterinc.org or at 925-228-6920 if you are ready to sign-up or if you would like additional information. Your generosity is helping homeless families in our community rebuild their lives. Thank you!
+++ You can play a direct, personal role in helping to end hunger in the Contra Costa County. Think about helping with The White Pony Express!
White Pony Express is a 100% volunteer-based non-profit that redistributes approximately 18,000 lbs. of fresh, delicious, healthy food each week to those in need. We need more volunteers to get the food delivered to these neighbors!
White Pony Express (WPE) partners with food retailers with a surplus and delivers free of charge to those in need. Some of the more well-known donors are Nob Hill Foods, Whole Foods, Costco, Sprouts Farmers’ Market and The Cheesecake Factory—but there are a hundred additional donors. White Pony Express distributes throughout the County to over 30 recipient partners including Bay Area Rescue Mission, Shelter, Inc., Loaves & Fishes, Love A Child, Don Brown Shelter, and Shepard’s Gate.
WPE operates fifteen hours a day, seven days a week. Volunteers are needed for 2-4 hour shifts. Our primary need is for daytime volunteers during the hours from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Help us serve those in need – it is rewarding work! Contact: Vince Karakashian at vkarakashian@gmail.com or 925-876-0402.
+++ Help Trinity Center House up to 50 people this Winter!
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Donna Colombo
Trinity Center
Website and 925.212.2383
Volunteers needed for Trinity Center Winter Evening Program
Trinity Center is seeking help with their 2016 /2017 Winter Night Program from November 12 to March 30, 2017. The program will support 30 to 50 local homeless with a variety of services including counseling and dinner / breakfast. The program was recently overwhelmingly approved by the Walnut Creek City Council and will take place in the National Guard Armory in Walnut Creek.
Urgently needed are vans and SUVs with drivers to transport the members from Trinity Center to 1800 Carmel Dr. in Walnut Creek a one mile five minute drive in the evening and return in the morning. All participants are members for Trinity Center who have been vetted and have flu shots.
Please contact Nora Hudson at: norahudsonst@gmail.com or Steve Mason at stevemason200@gmail.com or 925-487-2994
+++ Habitat for Humanity Volunteer Opportunities:Speakers Bureau: Are you interested in speaking about Habitat to your congregation or other faith communities? Or, do you feel shy in front of groups, but like tabling and talking to people one-on-one? Do you love to talk about Habitat, but want to brush up your knowledge or learn more about our geography or programs? Speaker’s Bureau is a great way to get involved. Please contact me for more information.
All Faiths Build Days: … and onward into 2015, each Third Saturday of the month. Please get in touch via email or phone to request dates for you and your congregation. We discussed using a Google Document to help volunteers register, to better share who would be joining you on your build days.
Why a Tour?
Updates and Tours are a great way to see the work of Habitat first hand, get inspired, meet new staff, AmeriCorps, and volunteers, and get a quick update. Invite a friend to join you and share your passion for building homes and hope.
From our Building on Faith Framing Blitz in 2015, you know just how powerful 1000 hands are. Join us in 2016 to celebrate 30 years of building homes and hope with Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley.
Not a builder? We’ve got a job for you! We usually need 10-20 volunteers per day of the Build-A-Thon to help with food, parking, registration, and many other tasks. Your help makes the whole event run smoothly.
Spots go quickly, so don’t hesitate to reach out via email at TBommarito@HabitatEBSV.org or 510-803-3375 with any questions about how to get involved.
Alternative ways to get involved: Sign up to bring lunch or coffee and donuts to one of the build or service days. These engagement ideas may also be a part of our Google doc sign-up system.
+++ CCIH Faith Communities Service Opportunities for summer volunteers!
We’re Off to See the Wizard! Contra Costa Interfaith Housing’s annual auction gala, Ruby Slippers-There’s No Place Like Home is February 4, 2017 at Diablo Country Club. This over the rainbow evening includes a silent and live auction, dinner, and dancing. You won’t want to miss out on this fun evening! Buy tickets here: http://bit.ly/2dQy0d2 We are also looking for Safeway gift cards and other exciting auction items. If you have questions, please email elba@ccinterfaithhousing.org. See you on the yellow brick road!
(1) Youth Outreach services for run aways, primarily through the Safe Place Program in Contra Costa and Solano Counties, including an emergency telephone hotline.
(2) 24-hour accessible short-term shelter for runaway and home¬less youth.
(3) Crisis counseling and family mediation with runaway and homeless youth.
(4) Psychotherapy with families and children.
(5) Long-term foster care for children aged 1 through 17 years, who may be referred by Child Protective Services.At this time NCFC is recruiting foster parents to provide homes for the abundance of children in need of home placement. We also offer family mediation services for runaways as well as family counseling. This maybe a good resource for families having difficulty with accepting their LGBTQ youth who do not feel comfortable going to the RCC. My personal project for this internship is to recruit LGBTQ foster parents and create training materials and train cis-foster parents as LGBTQ allies.
ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
The Northern California Family Center is a non-profit, licensed Foster Family Agency that has been serving the needs of youth and families for over 38 years. Our staff are dedicated professionals on-call 24 hours a day to provide experienced clinical care and assessment for a wide range of personal and family problems.
YOU CAN HELP: The Northern California Family Center needs special people, like you, with a little extra space in their home and the ability to provide a caring environment for children in need. Youth may be in ongoing foster care, or brief shelter, including evening and weekend stays. There are all types of foster families, those with children, couples without children, families whose children have grown, working couples and singles.
Many of the youth in our program have histories of abuse and neglect. They need adults, like you, who care.
WHAT’S INVOLVED: In General Foster Care, we work with the county social service departments. We provide foster care to children between 0 and 17 who have been taken out of their families’ home because of abuse or abandonment. General foster care can occur over weeks, months or years. The focus of the program is to provide a secure, nurturing home to facilitate the youth’s development, and independence.
During Brief Shelter, youth, ages 9-17, stay approximately 1-5 days in foster placement with a family. The Northern California Family Center counselors work with the youth and their families for reunification, or to develop a mutually agreed upon alternative living agreement.
Emancipation and work experience are also considered. This program works well for people who are considering providing foster care services on a short-term basis.
“My parents and I got to the point that we were so angry we just couldn’t talk; so I ran away. My counselor at school gave me Northern California Family Center’s number…” Runaway, age 14.
“I’ve never really been able to talk much with my dad. The Northern California Family Center counselors helped me sit down and talk about my feelings without getting angry.” Runaway, age 16.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: Foster Parents must be able to pass a background record check, as well as participate in training related to foster care. Foster parents should have extra room in their home and be able to be supportive and appropriately supervise youth in their care.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
If your family is ready for a rewarding experience or if you would like to receive further information, please call the Northern California Family Center at (925) 370-1990.
Northern California Family Center
2244 Pacheco Blvd. Martinez, CA 94553
(925) 370-1990 or 1-800-718-4357
Naveed Royeen, a recent refugee from Afghanistan is living at San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville. He is fluent in English with a BA in business administration and a job in the Reutlinger Home, Danville business office. We have created a sign up genius account to provide rides to and from work for him until he receives his green card and can purchase a car in November. Pease go to www.signupgenius.com and click on “Find a Sign Up” enter: sandamiano2@outlook.com where you are asked for the email address. Then enter the random text and numbers. Once in, pick your dates and to or from work drive.
Naveed is intelligent, well-spoken and very interesting individual; those of us who have been driving him over the past two weeks have, with out exception, enjoyed his company. If you need more information contact Jean Crane at mjeancrane88@gmail.com or Steve Mason at stevemason200@gmail.com.
If you would like to sign up for our eBlasts that come out twice a month, send your contact information to Rev. Will McGarvey.
If you want to add an event to this page contact Will here or sign in.
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Interfaith Calendars
From http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/2016.htm
Announcements:
Chronological Events:
+++ Interfaith Series at B’nai Tikvah
25 Hillcroft Way, Walnut Creek
Sunday, June 25th – 3 PM
+++ Affordable Care Acts Create Incentives for Better Health and Provides Payroll Tax Savings for Your Organization.Many organizations are taking advantage of provisions in the Affordable Care Act to promote preventative health care for their employees. Coeus Financial has partnered with A Charitable Life (ACL) Health Solutions to create a Participatory Preventative Health Solutions program to provide benefits to your nonprofit and your employees, and is in line with the Affordable Care Act guidelines. The Participatory Preventative Health Solutions is a new program that provides opportunities for your employees to better their well-being and provide you with health care and tax savings. These are direct savings to your organization that can help fund your programs. The Participatory Preventative Health program also supports the government requirement to reduce healthcare costs and provide additional options outside of social security benefits for retirement.
Highlights of the program include:
An average of $180 in supplemental benefits to the employee
Tax savings to the nonprofit of about $500.00 per employee per year (direct reduction of FICA payments)
No change in employees’ net pay
Please click on the link below to learn more.
ACLHS Employer Video
The attached brochure will also help answer most questions regarding our program. Please feel free to contact me to find out how much your organization can save and how your employees can take advantage of this program.
ACL Program Overview – TriFold Brochure 1-16-16
+++ Talks and Workshops on Judaism and Jewish Mysticism
Dr. Charles Burack is available to give talks and workshops on a variety of Jewish subjects and spiritual topics. Topics include: The Three Pillars of Judaism; The Jewish Mystical Experience of God; Jewish Mystical Interpretations of the Bible; Chasidic Teachings on Spiritual Healing and Transformation; The Jewish High Holidays; The Passover Seder; Jewish Perspectives on Evil; Core Jewish Mystical Ideas and Practices; Jewish Meditation; Kabbalah and Psychology; Kabbalah and Creativity; The Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Dr. Burack welcomes invitations from churches, ashrams, mosques, temples, synagogues, interfaith centers, and cultural centers. A former rabbinical student, he is an award-winning professor and author, as well as an interfaith counselor and lay chaplain who is active in interfaith education and arts. He can be reached at cmburack@sbcglobal.com or (925) 405-7075.
+++ Monthly Immigration Vigil
First Saturdays from 11 AM – 12 PM
West County Detention Facility
5555 Giant Highway, Richmond
+++ NAMI Workshops for Mandarin Speaking Community
2nd Saturday of each month, 10:00 am -12:00 noon.
San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church
902 Danville Blvd, Alamo
National Alliance on Mental Illness: Contra Costa contact information: Gloria, 925-487-8288, or Susan, 925-216-9592; mandarin@namicontracosta.org.
+++ Mental Health Crash Course: Questions on Mental Illness?
A one-time seminar that will give you an orientation to the Contra Costa County Mental Health System of Care.
Offered EVERY Wednesday night throughout the Year from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Family Justice Center, 2151 Salvio Street, Ste. 201, Todos Santos Plaza, Concord. Across from Todos Santos Park In Concord. (Same Building that E.J. Phairs Restaurant is in.)
FREE NO RSVP crashcoursehelp@aol.com 925-676 5771
+++ Women’s Circles in Lafayette
+++ SECOND SUNDAYS: MONTHLY MEDITATION & POTLUCK
August 14th Meditation: 5-6pm Potluck Fellowship: 6-7 pm
Doors open at 4:45 pm
Oakland Peace Center
111 Fairmount Ave, Oakland
This is the building of the First Christian Church of Oakland, corner of Fairmount Ave and 29th St. Enter through the parking lot door.
OneLife is excited to launch a new offering! Second Sundays is a Monthly Meditation Circle and Community Potluck.
We meet the 2nd Sunday of each month. There will be a number on the door to text for late arrivals. Chairs provided, but feel free to BYO cushion, pillow, mat, etc. Please bring food that is easy to serve – there is no kitchen available. (It’s okay to come for only meditation or only the potluck, or stay for BOTH!) All are welcome. No meditation experience required. Please contact us with questions about wheelchair accessibility.
+++ Ceasefire Night Walk Richmond
Friday July 29th New Hope Missionary Baptist 321 Alamo Ave., Richmond
COMING UP
For more information contact Rev. Donnell “Rickey” Jones: 510-331-3605
Check out the coverage on Richmond Ceasefire-Lifelines to Healing Movement.
+++ Interfaith Community Healing Service: Gathering to bring healing, health, harmony and wholeness into our lives.+++ Help a Veteran Find a Home!
vacant or soon to be vacant unit, consider renting to one of these brave men and women.Chuck’s Story
Wellness City Challenge is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. For more information, go to: http://www.wellnesscitychallenge.org/
Are you living with shelter?
So many of our neighbors aren’t.
L.E.A.P.
please contact our Housing and Shelter Task Force co-chair, Doug Leich at leichd@gmail.com
+++ Ecumenical Taizé
3rd Sunday of the month 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Practice is at 6:30pm in church, except for CTK (practice is at 6:15pm) which will be next door to church at Ministry Center.
The mission of No One Left Behind is to treat these refugees as the heroes they are, by supplying them with household goods, employment, education, social services and housing assistance, and emotional support. Most, but not all of these families are served by governmental resettlement agencies but their obligation to the families end 90 days after arrival. Some families have been here for over 2 years without adequate support. We aim to fill the gap in service that the government-funded agencies cannot fill.
Many of you know Pastor Pablo Morataya from Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana (PIPH). He has been a tireless and outspoken defender of migrant rights in Oakland. His congregation is one of the 3 congregations who declared Sanctuary in 2014.
He has asked us to reach out to you for a new volunteer opportunity. PIPH is running an ESL program from Mondays – Wednesday, 7pm -9pm. The ESL program is supported by volunteers who give their time and talent to teach English to newly arrived migrants.
A good number of volunteers have served 80-100 students who are eager to learn English on three different levels: beginners, intermediate and semi-advanced. For this semester, they have volunteers teachers for Mondays and Wednesdays, but not Tuesdays. As you can see, there is a great need to cover!
Teaching ESL to newly arrived immigrants is a great way to grow community with the immigrant population, and is also a great way to learn from their culture!
If you feel called to offer your talents and gifts by helping newly arrived immigrants learn English, here is what is asked of volunteers:
Cover one class weekly. Volunteers usually pick one day to teach and give one class a week. For this semester, PIPH needs volunteers for Tuesdays.
To commit to teach for the next 10 weeks until this semester is over.
If you are unable to cover your class, to contact the coordinator 24 hours in advanced and help in whatever way you can to find a replacement.
+++ Contra Costa Interfaith Housing
-Fall 2016 Backpack Drive: Help equip formerly homeless and low-income students for a successful 2016-17 school year. Please let us know if your community is interested in participating. A Target Gift Registry has been created for all items except for backpacks as the donor can choose size/color. Please copy and paste this link to shop: http://tinyurl.com/hf9eeak
(Additionally, I am Attaching a Flyer a list for families that do not like to shop online.)
-Interested in helping run a summer day camp for one week? We are currently putting together summer programming for kids (toddler through middle school), and we need your help. Many of these kids are formerly homeless or very low-income. This is a great opportunity for ages 13+ as adult supervision is provided. You can sign up at Sign-Up Genius by copying and pasting this web address:http://tinyurl.com/j3aojbd. If you are a new volunteer, you will also need to fill out a volunteer interest form at www.ccinterfaithhousing.org/volunteer.
+++ Want to help with the Refugee Crisis? Here’s a start.
Flyer – RefugeeHelpVolunteers 5.17.16
+++ Interfaith Quotes (from the Awakening Center and elsewhere)
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone person to person.
– Mother Teresa
There is a soul force in the universe, which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results.
– Mahatma Gandhi
At certain moments, always unforeseen, I become happy… I look at the strangers near as if I had known them all my life… everything fills me with affection… It may be an hour before the mood passes, but latterly I seem to understand that I enter upon it the moment I cease to hate.
– William Butler Yeats
Only a life lived for others is worth Living at all.
– Albert Einstein
When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines down upon you.
– Jon Krakauer
In order to love others with perfect charity I must be true to them, to myself, and to God.
– Thomas Merton
The silence that we acquire through prayer and meditation helps us find peace and true happiness in this noisy world.
– Amma
The friendship that can cease has never been real.
– St. Jerome
Silence is an empty space; space is the home of the awakened mind.
– Buddha
Few are the number of those who think with their own mind and feel with their own heart.
– Albert Einstein
Thank God for what you have, and you will always have everything you need. If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts.
– Alan Cohen
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
– Henry David Thoreau
Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
– Henry Miller
A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept.
– St. Jerome
A generous heart, kind speech, and compassion are the things in which renew humanity.
– Buddha
Ego says, “once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.” Spirit says, find your peace and then everything will fall into place.”
– Marianne Williamson
Life can be found only in the present moment
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Love is the light that dissolves all walls between Souls.
– Paramahanan Yogananda
To give the Lord a perfect hospitality, Mary and Martha must combine.
– St. Teresa of Avila
When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines down upon you.
– Jon Krakauer
Death has no power to change you, but you have the power to transform yourself.
– Swami Rama
Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people’s, if we are always criticizing trivial actions – which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
“Learn to be still in body and mind, for where motion ceases, there begins the perception of God.”
– Yogananda
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”
– Seneca
“Each day the Master would be inundated with questions that he would reply to seriously, playfully, gently, firmly. One disciple always sat through each session in silence. When someone questioned her about it, she said, “I hardly hear a word he says. I am too distracted by his Silence”.
– Anthony de Mello, S.J
FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real
– Wayne Dyer
Spiritual life is the bouquet, the perfume, the flowering and fulfillment of a human life, not a supernatural virtue imposed on it.
– Joseph Cambell
We become ourselves by dying to ourselves. We gain only what we give up, if we give up everything we gain everything. We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others, yet at the same time before we can go out to others we must first find ourselves.
– Thomas Merton
Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.
– Gerard De Nerval
Passover and Easter are the only Jewish and Christian holidays that move in sync, like the ice skating pairs we saw during the winter Olympics.
– Marvin Olasky
The tortoise moves about in the water. But can you guess where her thoughts are? There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on God.
– Sri Ramakrishna
If you harbor not subject-object thinking, no demons can e’re harm you.
– Milarepa
The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.
– St. Jerome
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.
– Henry Drummond
The life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God.
– Saint Anthony of Padua
Brooding on sense objects causes attachment to them. Attachment breeds craving; craving breeds anger. Anger breeds delusion; delusion breeds loss of memory (of the Higher Self). Loss of right memory causes decay of the discriminating faculty. From decay of discrimination, annihilation (of spiritual life) follows.
– Bhagavad Gita II:62-63
The greatest joy in life is service. The greatest power in life is love. The greatest battle in life is the battle against oneself. The greatest enemy that man of earth shall ever know is in his own thinking. The greatest poverty that man of earth shall ever know is impoverished thinking; and the greatest blessing man shall ever know is the blessings of spiritual riches…
– Frater Achad
Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
– Francis of Assisi
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this we are less prone to hate our enemies.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Praying in faith is not an inner conviction that God will act according to our desires if only we believe hard enough. It involves believing that God will always respond to our prayers in accord with His nature, His purposes, and His promises.
– Alvin VanderGriend
Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.
– Francis of Assisi
I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
– Woody Allen
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
– Mark Twain
A cowboy appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. “Have you ever done anything of particular merit?” St. Peter asked. “Well, I can think of one thing,” the cowboy offered. “On a trip to the Big Horn Mountains out in Wyoming, I came upon a gang of bikers who were threatening a young woman. I asked them to leave her alone, but they wouldn’t listen. So, I approached the largest and most tattooed biker and smacked him in the face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and threw it on the ground.” I yelled, “Now, back off or I’ll kick the shit out of all of you” Saint Peter was impressed, “When did this happen?” “Couple of minutes ago.”
– Jokesdaily.net
You can never know your mind without knowing your heart.
– Swami Rama
We too easily assume that we are our real selves, and that our choices are really the ones we want to make when, in fact, our acts of free choice are largely dictated by psychological compulsions, flowing from our inordinate ideas of our own importance. Our choices are too often dictated by our false selves.
– Thomas Merton
He (Siddhartha) abandoned the desire to escape the world of phenomena, and as he returned to himself, he found he was completely present to the world of phenomena. One breath, one bird’s song, one leaf, one ray of sunlight—any of these might serve as his subject of meditation. He began to see that the key to liberation lay in each breath, each step, each small pebble along the path.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Those who look outside, dream. Those who look inside, awaken.
– Carl Gustav Jung
Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them.
– Thomas Merton
God does not depend on the Universe; the Universe depends on God. Mind does not depend on the body; the body depends on the mind.
– Swami Veda
Concentrated power is silence. Diffused power is noise…When you reach the place of silence in mind, you have reached the place of power, the place where all is one…
– Baird Spalding
What is it that stands higher than words? Action. What is it that stands higher than action? Silence…
– Francis of Assisi
“A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of”
– Nelson Mandela
“Religious knowledge is a practical kind of knowledge like driving or swimming. You can’t learn to swim or dance from reading a book. You’ve got to get into the water and learn to float.”
– Karen Armstrong
“Show me a religion that doesn’t care about compassion. Show me a religion that doesn’t care about stewardship of the environment. Show me a religion that doesn’t care about hospitality.”
– Eboo Patel
“[I]t is not possible to establish true links with God while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.”
– Pope Francis I.
Life is a beautiful song. Open your heart and rejoice in its melody. Once you are attuned to this song, you will find the Composer seated in the lotus of your heart.
– Swami Rama
I stand between the years. The Light of My Presence is flung across the year to come. Backward, over the past year, is My Shadow thrown, hiding trouble and sorrow and disappointment. Dwell not on the past—only on the present. I hold the year in My Hands—in trust for you. But I shall guide you one day at a time.
– Anonymous (taken from the book, God Calling)
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.
– Hamilton Writht Mable
The sun, the moon, the stars, and all the lights that you can imagine in the entire external world are but fragments of that one great Light that is within you.
– Swami Rama
Here are Christmas gift suggestions from our friend Ray:
Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service
To all, charity
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.
– Oren Arnold
Silence does not lie within the domain of your mind; silence lies beyond your mind.
– Swami Rama
The truest communication with God is absolute, total silence; there is not a single word in existence that can convey this communication…
– Bernadette Roberts
Life is not to be regarded as an uninterrupted flow of words which is finally silenced by death. Its rhythm develops in silence, comes to the surface in moments of necessary expression, returns to deeper silence, culminates in a final declaration, then ascends quietly into the silence of Heaven which resounds with unending praise.
– Thomas Merton
The best way to love ourselves is to love others, yet we cannot love others unless we love ourselves since it is written, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anybody else. And indeed when we love ourselves wrongly we hate ourselves; if we hate ourselves we cannot help hating others.
– Thomas Mer
There are three qualities that define a completely open mind, a mind that is experiencing freedom: spaciousness, clarity, and compassion. By spaciousness we mean a mind that is not grasping at separateness, at the feeling that you and I are separate, that you are reading something that I have written. In spaciousness there is only the direct experience of reading. Clarity is the quality of clearly knowing what is happening right now, not being lost in thoughts about the past or future. Compassion is the open heart meeting we experience in life with a desire to alleviate suffering. It has been said the heart is the depth of the mind and the mind is the surface of the heart.
– Dale Borglum
It is impossible to be negative while we are giving thanks!
– Donald Curtis
Appreciate life instead of resisting it…
– Judy Tatelbaum
If the only prayer you say in your entire life is “Thank you,” that will suffice…
– Meister Eckhart
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
– John F. Kennedy
Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi:
Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.
Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.
Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon
for love of You and bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
By You Most High, they will be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.
The life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God.
– Saint Anthony of Padua
Brooding on sense objects causes attachment to them. Attachment breeds craving; craving breeds anger. Anger breeds delusion; delusion breeds loss of memory (of the Higher Self). Loss of right memory causes decay of the discriminating faculty. From decay of discrimination, annihilation (of spiritual life) follows.
– Bhagavad Gita II:62-63
The greatest joy in life is service. The greatest power in life is love. The greatest battle in life is the battle against oneself. The greatest enemy that man of earth shall ever know is in his own thinking. The greatest poverty that man of earth shall ever know is impoverished thinking; and the greatest blessing man shall ever know is the blessings of spiritual riches…
– Frater Achad
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi
Good friends are like stars—the darker the night the brighter they shine.
– Anonymous
Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.
– Anthony de Mello, S.J.
The Success of one’s life depends upon one’s ability to forget what is not relevant to the present moment.
– Amma
The gift of love is the gift of the power and the capacity to love, and, therefore, to give love with full effect is also to receive it. So, love can only be kept by being given away, and it can only be given perfectly when it is also received.
– Thomas Merton
…our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom. So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation’s future is at stake. Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause—united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future—and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.
– John F. Kennedy
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi
“Life on this earth is but a brief moment; utilize that moment to purify the way of the soul.”
– Swami Rama
“Close the language door and open the love window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window.”
– Rumi
“If you go into solitude with a silent tongue, the silence of mute beings will share with you their rest. But if you go into solitude with a silent heart, the silence of creation will speak louder than the tongues of men or angels.”
– Thomas Merton
“A positive reality is put into a person who receives grace…”
– Thomas Aquinas
“We find that by opening the door to the shadow realm a little, and letting out various elements a few at a time, relating to them, finding use for them, negotiating, we can reduce being surprised by shadow sneak attacks and unexpected explosions.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“I understood suddenly how thought was just an illusory thing, and how thought is responsible for, if not all, most of the suffering we experience. And then I suddenly felt that I was looking at these thoughts from another perspective, and I thought, ‘Who is it that is aware that I’m thinking?’ Suddenly, I was thrown into this expansive, amazing feeling of freedom — from myself, from my problems. I saw that I was bigger than what I do, bigger than my body, everything and everyone. I was no longer a fragment of the universe. I was the universe.”
– Jim Carrey
You are constantly being sent signs from the universe about what path to take…
– Sanaya Roman
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.
– Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
– Melody Beattie
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God – the rest will be given.
– Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Retain evenness of mind under all circumstances. In every situation be calmly active and actively calm. Banish all disillusionment, all disappointments you might have found in losses and suffering. These constraints on the power of thought and will must absolutely be done away with. Your trials did not come to punish you, but to awaken you—to make you realize that you are a part of Spirit and that just behind the spark of your life is the Flame of Infinity; just behind the glimmer of your thoughts is the Great Light of God…
– Paramahansa Yogananda
My life is my message.
– Gandi
Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment.
– Lao Tzu
Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to truth.
– Anthony DeMello
Action and reaction are continuous. Everything is connected to everything else.
– Swami Prajnanpad
Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.
– Mother Teresa
Our Task must be to free ourselves, by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.
– Albert Einstein
Darkness can’t drive out darkness, only light can.
– Martin Luther King
God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
Those who are considered to be great know how to perform their duties selflessly for humanity. They surrender the fruits of their actions to the Lord, whom they see in others. When you work for yourself, you are afraid you might not get the fruits, or if you get the fruits, perhaps they will be snatched from you. If you work for God, you will have no such fears and you will enjoy all the actions of your life.
– Swami Rama
Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
How can you determine whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream: or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state…
– Plato
To serve others means to serve the Lord. If you could see God in those whom you love and do your duties for God, you would experience harmony and peace within. You could never hurt or treat someone badly if you could see God in that person.
– Swami Rama
The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence.
– Gandhi
Swami Rama, Swami Veda, Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle all say, to be here now, but we are all here because we are not all there.
– Michael Smith
The root cause of all emotion is desire.
– Swami Rama
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
– Mother Theresa
Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.
– Pema Chödrön
If you really want to know who you are, you have to take off all the masks, one after the other.
– Swami Rama
When you are patient, you take the time to immerse yourself in the joy of the moment, which is denied to those who hurry…
– Donald Curtis
People tend to be generous when sharing their nonsense, fear, and ignorance. And while they seem quite eager to feed you their negativity, please remember that sometimes the diet we need to be on is a spiritual and emotional one. Be cautious with what you feed your mind and soul. Fuel yourself with positivity and let that fuel propel you into positive action.
– Steve Maraboli
It is not enough to know the way; we must travel it…
– Alice H. Rice
Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love. Love is the missing factor; there is a lack of affection, of warmth in relationship; and because we lack that love, that tenderness, that generosity, that mercy in relationship, we escape into mass action, which produces further confusion, further misery. We fill our hearts with blueprints for world reform and do not look to that one resolving factor which is love.
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
– Mother Teresa
When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers…
– Thich Nhat Hahn.
Ecstasy is the awakening of consciousness, the extending of awareness from the limits of the body to the limitlessness of Eternity…
– Yogananda
The only strength a person can rely on is inner strength, and that inner strength is based on love.
– Swami Rama
The most important teachings have their source in intuition and are beyond the powers of verbal communication.
– Swami Rama
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
– Steve Jobs
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing dismay you;
All things pass;
God never changes…
One who has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
– St Teresa of Avila
I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
– Teresa of Avila
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
– Mark Twain
You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.
– Woody Allen
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.
– Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
Loneliness and feelings of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty…
– Mother Teresa
Loneliness is the root cause of many diseases. People are lonely because they are not aware of the fountain within.
– Swami Rama
The ability to discipline oneself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success.
– Brian Tracy
The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence.
– Thich Nhat Hahn.
The greatest power in the world is the divine power of grace.
– Swami Rama
Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you…
– Jesus
We must learn to work in this world with interest, but keep relaxed and unattached.
– Yogananda
Spirit is the life of God within us…
– Teresa of Avila
Fearlessness is the first requisite of the spiritual life…
– Mohandas Gandhi
Spiritual life cannot force out of anyone more than the person wishes to put into it…
– Gayatri Devi
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
– Teilhard de Chardin
You can create many diseases through your own mind and you can heal yourself through the same mind.
– Swami Rama
Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there…
– Meister Eckhart
Wise beings do not want to remain a slave to fear of pain. They permit the world to be what it is instead of being afraid of it. They wholeheartedly participate in life, but not for the purpose of using life to avoid themselves. If life does something that causes a disturbance inside of you, instead of pulling away, let it pass through you like the wind.
– Michael Singer
Both the optimist and the pessimist are right, but as different as light is from darkness…
– Anonymous
True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice…
– Francis de Sales
I am realizing every day that the search for truth is vain unless it is founded upon love. To injure a single human being is to injure those divine powers within us, and thus the harm reaches not only that one human being, but with him the whole world…
– Mohandas Gandhi
Where there is humility and patience, there is neither anger nor vexation…
– Francis of Assisi
There are two ways to lose your mind. The way of the mad, and the way of the mystic…
– Swami Veda
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don’t blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the President. You realize that you control your own destiny…
– Albert Ellis
The root cause of all emotions is desire.
– Swami Rama
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious
– Carl G. Jung
…If you would only switch on the light of awareness and observe yourself and everything around you throughout the day, if you would see yourself reflected in the mirror of awareness the way you see your face reflected in a looking glass, that is, accurately, clearly, exactly as it is without the slightest distortion or addition, and if you observed this reflection without any judgment or condemnation, you would experience all sorts of marvelous changes coming about in you.
– Anthony De Mello
Patience means waiting without anxiety…
– Francis de Sales
Harmony means absence of conflict; it means stillness and silence, peace and tranquility…
– Ramesh Balsekar
There is no path greater than love. There is no law higher than love. And there is no goal beyond love, God and love are identical…
– Meher Baba
Our highest hopes are often destroyed to prepare us for better things. The failure of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly; the passing of the bud is the becoming of the rose; the death or destruction of the seed is the prelude to its resurrection as wheat. It is at night in the darkest hours, those preceding dawn, that plants grow best, that they most increase in size…
– William G. Jordan
I have found that in the heart of disappointment there is always seated a limitless joy that can emancipate one from sorrow.
– Swami Rama
At times I think that Jesus may be knocking from the inside, that we may let him out.
– Pope Francis
The worst thing in your life may contain seeds of the best. When you see crises as an opportunity, your life becomes not easy, but more satisfying
– Joe Kogel
There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual walk with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it…
– Brother Lawrence
Gratitude is one of the great positive emotions because it creates magnetism… A magnet is that which draws things to itself; therefore, by giving heartfelt thanks for all the good we now have, through the magnetism that gratitude creates, we will start attracting more good into our daily life…
– Elaine Hibbard
I am a nobody,
nobody is perfect,
therefore I am perfect.
And who says nothing is impossible;
I’ve been doing nothing all day.
Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled.
– Michael Smith
God is good but God and Chocolate is even better.
– St. Teresa of Avila
I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
– Woody Allen
The Lord is within you, seated deep beyond your mind and emotions.
– Swami Rama
Emotions are like waves. Watch them come and go on the vast ocean of existence…
– Hindu proverb
If negative emotions produce negative chemical changes in the body, wouldn’t the positive emotions produce positive chemical changes?
– Norman Cousins
Fill yourself first and then only will you be able to give to others…
– St. Augustine
Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it…
– Mohandas Gandi
Where are the gateways to peace and enlightenment? In the spaces between words. Look closely and enter.
– Swami Veda Bharati
Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live.
– Mikhail Naimy
Ingratitude is the soul’s enemy… Like a hot, parching wind, it dries up the well-spring of holiness, the dew of mercy, and the streams of grace…
– St. Bernard
The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove…
– Samuel Johnson
The spiritual quest is a journey without distance. You travel from where you are right now to where you have always been. From ignorance to recognition…
– Anthony de Mello
Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two jumps…
– David L. George
Buddha left a road map, Jesus left a road map, Krishna left a road map. But you still have to travel the road yourself…
– Steve Levine
Every dream has a purpose, whether it’s to warn us, inspire us, encourage us to slow down or to get moving…
– Patricia Garfield
Great dreams contain inexhaustible truths, and orient us, like runes, toward our futures… Great dreams are like wells that never run dry…
– Michael Grosso
Nothing so much convinces me of the boundlessness of the human mind as its operations in dreaming…
– William B. Clulow
Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change. Kiss slowly, play hard, forgive quickly, take chances, give everything and have no regrets. Life’s too short to be anything but joyful.
– Unknown
Our primary relationship is really with ourselves… Our relationships with other people constantly reflect exactly where we are in the process.
– Shakti Gawain
A relationship is like a garden. If it is to thrive it must be watered regularly. Special care must be given, taking into account the seasons as well as any unpredictable weather. New seeds must be sown and weeds must be pulled…
– John Gray
“We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us…”
– Thomas Merton
“Do you know what one feels in meditation? The mind becomes like a continuous flow of oil—it thinks one object only, and that is God. It does not think of anything else…”
– Ramakrishna
“May you become so large as to encompass all space
with your subtle body.
May your heart strings be played by the Master
Musician of the universe.
May you radiate a golden glow in a dark room.
May you give back to Nature twice what you receive from Her.”
– Swami Veda Bharati
“I am so washed in the tide of His measureless love that I seem to be below the surface of a sea and cannot touch or see or feel anything around me except its water.”
– Catherine of Genoa
“Do not doubt the ability to remove the root cause of the disturbance inside of you. You can look deep within yourself, to the core of your being, and decide that you don’t want the weakest part of you running your life. You want to be free of this. You want to talk to people because you find them interesting, not because you’re lonely. You want to have relationships with people because you genuinely like them, not because you need for them to like you. You want to love because you truly love, not because you need to avoid your inner problems.”
– Michael Singer
“Light, even though it passes through pollution, is not polluted…”
– Augustine
“Love means non-hurting, non-harming, non-injuring, and non-killing, not only through actions, but through speech and thoughts also.”
– Swami Rama
“When you demand nothing… seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected.”
– Nisargadatta Maharaj
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
– Plato
“To fight the darkness of ignorance do not draw your sword, light a candle of love”
– Zarathustra
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