Self-defense

Choose to align yourself with people who are like-minded in their search for simplified inspiration. Give those who find fault or who are confrontational a silent blessing and remove yourself from their energy as quickly as possible. Your life is simplified enormously when you don't have to defend yourself to anyone, and when you receive support rather than criticism.

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Hope after loss

When tragedy strikes, it can rob your sense of hope. It tampers with your ability to believe in the best that life can offer. How can you be optimistic when you know the worst case scenario not only can happen but already has?
First, you have to deal with the grief and this can take a long time. Loss is a powerful event that can't be swept under the rug. It's important to talk to someone to sort out your feelings: a friend, support group, counselor, therapist, perhaps even your doctor. There are people out there who can help you through this process. You don't have to go it alone.
Eventually, you'll find your way back to happiness again. Whatever happened to you will no longer hold you prisoner, and the fear won't compare to the freedom you feel to enjoy life to its fullest.
I don't think we ever really get over a crisis or "move on". Instead, we grow. We take all we've learned and continue growing. Trusting in the goodness of life is part of that. Instead of dreading the next calamity, we hope for impending joy. I know it's difficult, but I also know it's possible. I've seen it happen.

Jennifer E. Jones

After a loss

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

Maya Angelou

Prayer

Prayer is a way of gradually purifying and correcting our wishes and of slowly coming to realize what we really need: God and his Spirit.

From "Jesus of Nazareth", by Pope Benedict XVI

God's promise

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for tears, and light for the way.

Lean-tos

We all need lean-tos; we all need to be lean-tos for others. That's the blessing of human love and compassion. There are situations and moments in our lives when we are not strong. We feel weak, downtrodden, and miserable. If we are fortunate, others will stand by us and walk with us. They will wait for us to grow, will be patient with our pain, will speak encouraging words and listen long hours to us. They will believe in us when our own belief is in shreds. They will love us when our own love has been mired in the dregs of self-pity or confusion. They will be strength for us. They will watch patiently with us until our life begins again.
Lean-tos are not permanent havens; they are temporary but essential shelters when the storms rage around us or inside of us. Becoming too dependent upon others is emotionally unhealthy. We need to trust others for comfort, support, and vision when our spirit feels weak and visionless, but in the end, we have to do our part, accept our responsibility, and make our own choices and decisions. It is unfair for us to expect others to do this for us. They can cheer us on and cheer us up. They can go on believing in us when we cease to believe in ourselves. But they cannot do our growing for us.

From "May I have this dance", by Joyce Rupp

Trials

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

Chinese proverb

All is on loan

All of life is filled with loss and with letting go. For the one who believes that all is on loan, this is to be expected. Not that this expectation cripples the spirit of joy. Just the opposite is true: the present moment is treasured and enjoyed all the more because it is so precious and so fleeting.

From "Praying our Goodbyes", by Joyce Rupp

Something good

Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.

Author unknown

Loving my enemy

Some people think that loving one's enemies is a great effort. But for me it's far more of an effort to hate one's enemy. For then the enemy determines my own mood and my attitude. For me, loving my enemy means freedom. I don't regard the other person as an enemy but as a human being longing for friendship.

From "Through the Year with Jesus", by Anselm Grün

Christ in us

Christ in us does not negate our unique personality, nor does he eliminate our singular contribution to the human experience. The opposite is true: Christ in us enables us to be the fullest and most authentic versions of ourselves.

From "Spirituality You Can Live With"

"Blessed are those who mourn"

The second Beatitude: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Mt 5:4). Is it good to mourn and to declare mourning blessed? There are two kinds of mourning. The first is the kind that has lost hope, that has become mistrustful of love and of truth, and that therefore eats away and destroys man from within. But there is also the mourning occasioned by the shattering encounter with truth, which leads man to undergo conversion and to resist evil. This mourning heals, because it teaches man to hope and to love again...
Those who do not harden their hearts to the pain and need of others, who do not give evil entry to their souls, but suffer under its power and so acknowledge the truth of God - they are the ones who open the windows of the world to let the light in. It is to those who mourn in this sense that great consolation is promised.

From "Jesus of Nazareth", by Pope Benedict XVI

The Jesus who divides

"Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two, and two against three; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law" (Luke 12:51-53)

... Jesus doesn't divide because he's divided in himself. He simply shows up the way in which people are torn apart. He reveals that apparently harmonious families only seem to hold together, that their members have conformed to one another not out of love but out of convenience. But a great deal of aggression has accumulated behind this conformity which rips the family apart internally. Jesus speaks in a provocative way so that everyone can decide for him or against him, so that all can decide on the way that God entrusts to them, so that all can come to life on their own authentically personal ways...

But yet another aspect of the Jesus who divides is important to me: many people haven't ever decided what course to take... They do what others expect of them. Jesus challenges us to seek our own way and to discover our own self. That can happen only if we distance ourselves from the wishes of others...
It's only when I stand on my own feet that I can really communicate in freedom with my fellow men and women. Only then can encounter take place. As long as we're entangled with one another and the demarcation lines aren't clear, we can't recognize either the mystery of the other or our own identity. Jesus wants encounters between mature people, independent people. And that first requires division, distancing, detachment. That's the only way to a fruitful relationship.

From "Through the Year with Jesus", by Anselm Grün

Only Jesus

Only the Lord can enable us to do battle successfully; only he can bind up our wounds and heal our battle scars.
True joy and peace are on the straight and narrow path that Jesus shows us.

from "Spirituality You Can Live with"

Christ, the rock of our life

And what do we want to build our life on? Who can really answer the restlessness of our heart? Christ is the rock of our life! He is the eternal and definitive Word who keeps us from fearing any adversity, difficulty, hardship.

Pope Benedict XVI

Faith in Providence

Faith in providence, in fact, does not dispense us from the exhausting struggle for a dignified life, but it frees us from anxiety about things and from the fear of tomorrow.

Pope Benedict XVI