St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
One may never heard the sacred word “Christ,” but be closer to God than a priest or nun. P.125.
From my breath I extract God. And my eye is a shop where I offer Him to the world. P.126.
Because of my compassion, the sun wanted to be near me all night, and the earth deeded her fields to me, and all in heaven said, “We have voted you our governor; tell us your divine mandate.” And I did, and God will never revoke it: Nothing in existence is turned away. (…) P.127.
(…) Every cell in us worships God. (…) P.128.
(…) Every arrow in the bow of desire has rushed out in hope of nearing Him. P.128.
Our hearts irrigate this earth. We are fields before each other. How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God. P.129.
Sing, my tongue; sing, my hand; sing, my feet, my knee, my loins, my whole body. Indeed I am His choir. P.130.
The delight a child can know tossing a ball into the air, my Lord confesses He experiences whenever He looks at you. (…) P.132.
(…) Eternally amazed is the soul before God, watching Him expand. Witnessing God reveal Himself to Himself – the divine intimacy I know. P.133.
Capax universi, capable of the universe are your arms when they move with love. And I know it is true that your feet are never more alive than when they are in defense of a good cause. I want to fund your efforts: Stay near beauty, for she will always strengthen you. She will bring your mouth close to hers and breathe – inspire you the way lights does the fields. The earth inhales God, why should we not do the same? This sacred flame we tend inside needs the chants of every tongue, the communion with all. As capable as God are we. P.134.
(…) If you had a dream in which someone broke into your house and stole a certain object, would you, upon waking and finding that item still there, call the constable? Not if you were in your right mind. And whenever God wakes in us His/our thinking becomes clear – nothing is missing. P.135.
(…) Our thoughts leap out of God; creation took flight from His bow. (…) No one can change the course of His arrows. That does not mean that one should not become adept at ducking. P.137.
On the Sabbath try and make no noise that goes beyond your house. Cries of passion between lovers are exempt. P.138.
When you recognize her beauty, the eye applauds, the heart stands in an ovation, and the tongue when she is near is on its best behavior, it speaks more like light. What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, “I am not sure, but it makes me grow.” P.139.
Zeal, where does it come from? I don’t have all the answers, but every time His lips touch mine I get wonderfully crazy. P.140.
The limbs of a tree reached down and lifted me, thinking I was its child. And in the meadows my spirit becomes so quiet that if I put me cheek against the earth’s body I feel the pulse of God. (…) P.141.
I have a cause. We need those don’t we? Otherwise the darkness and the cold gets in and everything starts to ache. My soul has a purpose, it is to love; if I do not fulfill me heart’s vocation, I suffer. P.144.
All things desire to be like God, and infinite space is a mirror that tries to reflect His body. But it can’t. All the infinite existence can show us of Him is only an atom of God’s being. God stood behind Himself one night and cast a brilliant shadow from which creation came. Even this shadow is such a flame that moths consume their selves in it every second – with their sacred passion to possess beautiful forms. (…) All things desire to be like God, all things desire to love. P.146.
All are having a relationship with God. A pear taken from a limb and set in a bowl, surely it is talking to its Lord, and happy that it is being honored for its life, and somehow knowing that soon it will be returning to Him. We use words like “returning.” Think about it. Inherent in that word is separation, and separation from God is never really possible. What can you be that he is not? “You cannot be what I am not,” my Lord once said to me. P.147.
(…) I have come to learn that the truth never harms or frightens. I have come to learn that God’s compassion and light can never be limited; thus any God who could condemn is not a god at all but some disturbing image in the mind of a child we best ignore, until we can cure the dark. P.148.
The Christ said to us, “I have cut you from a garden I tend and set you in a vase for the world to see. Soon you will return, for your glorious presence I miss. My hands need to touch you again, my divine senses and eyes require your soul’s beauty near. Forgive me, my love, for the suffering our separation brought. If I said I am in debt to you, could you understand?” P.149.
Ladinsky Daniel (2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. Penguin Group.
Last updated: 2008/10/27.