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From our Pastor

Mystics and Sages Class

Thursdays (5:00 – 5:40 p.m.) at St. Johannes

Would you be happier if you spent less time talking about the weather and more discussing the meaning of life? A study recently reported in the New York Times suggested that people who spend part of their day having deep discussions seemed to be happier.

“By engaging in meaningful conversations, we manage to impose meaning on an otherwise pretty chaotic world,” said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published the study. “It could have been, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ surfing on the shallow level of life,” said Dr. Mehl. But, he proposed, substantive conversation seemed to hold the key to happiness for two main reasons: both because human beings are driven to find and create meaning in their lives, and, secondly, because we are social animals who want and need to connect with other people. Substantive conversations help us to connect better.

So, if you have been wondering what it is that we have been discussing at our Mystics and Sages Class on Thursday afternoons at St. Johannes here are some recent excerpts …

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” - Pierre Teihard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and paleontologist, 1881-1955

“Life must be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward.” “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” - Søren Kierkegaard, Danish theologian, 1813-1855

“There is not a moment in which God does not present himself… All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.” - Jean-Pierre de Caussade, 1675-1751, author of a French spiritual classic, The Sacrament of the Present Moment.

“Love is the cure; for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain until your eyes constantly exhale love as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.” - Rumi, Sufi mystic, 1207-1273

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” - Martin Luther, Protestant reformer, 1483-1546.

“It is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.” - Evelyn Underhill , English mystic and author, 1875-1941

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” “The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” - Mother Theresa of Calcutta , 1910-1997

“A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.” “One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian and Christian martyr for his resistance against Nazism, 1906-1945

Join us on Thursdays when you can, we are now discussing the religions of the world.

Fr. Bruce