Minute Meditation – We Are Only Given This Day

What if we could place a meal on the table differently and then hear, finally, the simple things—laughter, rain, and the smell of the sea? What if the dark is spilling the impossible blue on each one who passes by, breaking our hearts open until we see that everything gleams with light—until we are no longer able to “pass by like a dream?” A single sentence, a single word keeps turning life over. We are only given this day.

— from the book Stars at Night: When Darkness Unfolds as Night
by Paula D’Arcy

//Franciscan Media//


Minute Meditation – Stars in the Night Sky

In this world darkened by despair and deep division, we fumble dimly, to see past self-interest, fears, and endless feuding. But even looking down we can see beyond, like the pilgrim seeking clarity who found a limpid pool, and bending down glimpsed the Milky Way mirrored in the deep. Then gazing heavenward, gaped and gasped at the cosmic show above, while awe-filled silence taught: the stiller you become, the clearer will your reflection be.

—from the book Wandering and Welcome: Meditations for Finding Peace by Joseph Grant