THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - DOROTHY DAY

The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.

---Dorothy Day

Thanks to several Facebook friends.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY FROM PEACE PILGRIM

"But, you see, I love people and I see the good in them," she continued. "And you're apt to reach what you see. The world is like a mirror: If you smile at it, it smiles at you. I love to smile, and so in general, I definitely receive smiles in return."

Listen to and/or read Peace Pilgrim's story.

H/T to Kurt Weisner at The Lead.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - FROM IT'S MARGARET

You know --anxiety is an idol... as is bitterness... as is self-destruction....

Oh so true and right.

margaret blogs at leave it lay where Jesus flang it.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY FROM TREMÉ

Davina Lambreaux (Edwina Findley), in the Tremé HBO series, asks her brother Delmond (Rob Brown) for help with their father, Albert (Clarke Peters), who wants to stay in his ruined neighborhood in New Orleans three months after Katrina and the federal flood. Delmond, a musician, says he can't help.

DELMOND: I’ve got gigs.

DAVINA: We all got gigs, Delmond. Life is a goddamn gig.

The series is marvelous.  We don't have HBO, so I'm only now watching the beginning episodes on DVD.  More about the series later.  Lots of quotable dialogue...some probably not suitable for my family friendly blog, but we'll see.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If Hurricane Sandy put Obama over the top, perhaps God is trying to tell Pat Robertson and his ilk that she doesn't hate gays.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - ETERNAL LIFE

If you are a blogger and do not believe in eternal life, then you must never have hit publish by mistake and had to delete a post. The post remains alive and visible in Google Reader forever and ever. Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The world would be a fine place, were it not for the people.

(But for me and thee!)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - MEISTER ECKHART

Man’s last and highest leave-taking is leaving God for God.

UPDATE:  The thought above in a broader context:

I will put into plain words what St. Paul means by wishing to depart from God. Man’s last and highest leave-taking is leaving God for God. St. Paul left God for God: he left everything he could give or take of God, every concept of God. In leaving these, he left God for God since God remained to him in his essential self, not as a concept of himself, or as an acquired thing, but God in his essential actuality.

From An Introduction to Meister Eckhart

H/T to Windhorse in the comments at Adventus.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Since Lawrence O'Donnell suggested that I stay tuned to The Last Word because Alec Baldwin would appear on his show, I have not watched the news on the tee vee.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - ABP NICHOLAS OKOH

Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the leader of 23 million Anglicans in Nigeria, said that while the historic position of the Archbishop of Canterbury would always be respected he should be seen as “one of” many primates.

My goodness!  I agree with  Abp Okoh!

From the Telegraph.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

May we stop calling it the defense budget and start calling it the war budget?

The thought is not original with me, but I forgot where I read it first.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - JFK, CATHOLIC PRESIDENTS, THE VATICAN.

Whatever success resulted from John F Kennedy's carefully crafted efforts to allay fears about a Roman Catholic president being influenced by the Vatican has now been washed away. I'd be uneasy with either of the two Roman Catholic Republican candidates in the White House, because I fear their policies may be influenced by the Vatican.

NOTE: My thought is not entirely original. I read similar thoughts on more than one site on the internet.

UPDATE: A Facebook friend informs me that the Vatican is ALREADY influencing the White House. Sigh...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - WENDELL BERRY

Well, anyhow, I am
not going to die young

From Given - by Wendell Berry.

Since I turned 70 in the latter part of the year before the book was published, the short poem is one of my favorites by Berry, who is high on my list of favorites of writers of contemporary poetry.

TWO THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Newt Gingrich: "If I have idols," Newt told the crowd, "it's Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher."

Charles Pierce: On, lads! On to the Falklands! Or, perhaps, to the Oscars. Go get 'em, Meryl!

If you're not reading Charles Pierce at The Politics Blog at Esquire, you're missing a lot, and I mean A LOT. He writes like 20 posts a day, and it's hard to keep up, but certainly worth a try.

UPDATE: Thanks to Lapin for the poster.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY FROM RICK SANTORUM

If you can take one part out, if it's not for the purpose of procreation, that's not one of the reasons you diminish this very special bond between men and women. So why can't you take other parts of it out? It becomes deconstructed to the point where it's simply pleasure.

Rick's on a roll! The statement is from an interview, which is posted on YouTube. The conversation is nearly 45 minutes long. Watch if you care to. I didn't.

How would you like such thoughts thrust upon you for four years?

Read more from Charles Pierce at The Politics Blog at Esquire.

UPDATE: I watched approximately 20 minutes of the video, (It was difficult!) and Rick did, indeed, say the words above.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - HERMAN CAIN

I confess I'm a bit sorry to say good-bye to Herman Cain as a viable Republican candidate for president. I rather hoped Cain would be Obama's opponent.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Our lives were simple when all we owned fit in our 1961 Ford Falcon.

Picture from LOVEFords.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY FROM ATRIOS

Odd how both parties think the path to election is "pissing off liberals."

Maybe they're even right!

Quite odd.

I've been reading Atrios at Eschaton for years and years, although I'm not a member of his tight community of commenters. They all seem to know one another, and I'm not sure they take easily to newcomers. In general, they do not like religion. Can the religious amongst us blame them with the many examples of hateful speech that circulate on the internet in the name of religion?

Hey, guys! We're not all hate-filled.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Today is the oldest you've ever been, yet the youngest you'll ever be, so enjoy this day while it lasts...

Thanks to Sue T.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - "SPEAK TO HIM"

Speak To Him

Speak to Him thou for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet -
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.

Alfred Lord Tennyson