Regardless of when in time, or where on earth, a truth bright with promise appears, its effect is always the same. By its deft touch, "the sleeper awakens" and the meaning of our life takes on a whole new magnitude. The Spirit that called inspired seekers who have gone before us -- that awakened their hearts, and quickened their minds -- so that they might have "eyes to see, and ears to hear" -- is the same spirit calling us...
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"Has the road an end or not?" He answered: "The road has an end, but the stations have no end, for the journey is twofold, one to God and one in God."
-- Attar of Nishapur (1145 – c.1221, Nishapur, Khorasan)
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self can nothing feed:
Of Good and pious works Thou art the seed,
That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:
Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
-- Michelangelo (1475 – 1564, Caprese, Tuscany)
The greatest of all crosses is self. If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. These little daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.
-- Francois Fenelon (1651 – 1715, France)
But what is the secret of finding this treasure? There isn't one. This treasure is everywhere... God's activity runs through the universe. It wells up around and penetrates every created being. Where they are, there it is also. It goes ahead of them, it is with them, and it follows them. All they have to do is let its waves sweep them onward, fulfill the simple duties of their religion and state, cheerfully accept all the troubles they meet, and submit to God's will in all they have to do. This is true spirituality, which is valid for all times and for everyone. We cannot become truly good in a better, more marvelous, and yet easier way than by the simple use of the means offered us by God: the ready acceptance of all that comes to us at each moment of our lives.
-- Jean Pierre de Caussade (1675 – 1761, France)
"It is the central urge in every atom, to return to its divine source and origin, however distant."
-- Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892, United States)
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The need for whatever it may be that we're drawn to is the yet to be realized presence within us of that very thing to which we are drawn. This means that no matter how distant seems our guiding star, or how isolated we may feel in our journey towards its light, these higher truths we're learning would have us know otherwise; we are not alone. Even more importantly, just as a small filing of iron must fly to the magnet that pulls upon it, so too must those who are drawn to the Divine eventually answer its call.
