Daily Signet

There’s a most magnificent moment in the Ramayana, when all the monkeys are taken aback by the need to leap 100 yojanas, the distance from mainland India to Sri Lanka. They monkey about on the beach bragging of leaps of 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 yojanas—but 100 is beyond attempting, or even imagining. Finally, Jambavan, the king of the bears, goes to the great ape Hanuman and says, "Hanuman, why are you sitting thus, alone, silent and dejected? How is it you do not realize that you are as valiant as Sugriva the King, or Rama or Lakshman? You must have heard of Garuda [the greatest of eagles]…he is famed for his strength, for the speed with which he can fly, for the beauty of his wings, which has earned for him the name ‘Suparna’. I am telling you that the powerful wings of Garuda are not to be compared with the strength of your arms. Your strength, your wisdom, your valor, and your good nature are superior to those of everyone else in this entire world. Do you not know yourself?"  And Hanuman then leaps and does find Sita and does not get a swelled head.

Do you not know yourself?  Who you are is of greatness. What you are doing is of greatness. What you are creating is of greatness. With Rama’s name writ large on every bone, you must rise up to leap—beyond even your imagination.

Benjamin Martin           

On This Day…

Maurice Sendak born 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, died 2012: writer and illustrator of children’s books
Works: In The Night Kitchen, Where the Wild Things Are
Quotes: “There must be more to life than having everything.” “Kids don’t know about best-sellers. They go for that they enjoy. They aren’t chasers and they don’t suck up. It’s why I like them.”

Daily Signet

Humility is not that we think less of ourselves, but that we think about ourselves less.

The less often you think about yourself—the less self-confident, the less self-aware, the less self-conscious you are—the greater you will be and will feel. All freedom is freedom from self.

Lose the self in the greater-than-you-are. Avoid people who make you self-aware. So live that people never notice you—they notice what you are saying, what you are doing, what you are achieving—then they will remember you as a far greater person.

Mastering an art lies in loss of self in the art—as in the art of living. 

William Boast

On This Day…

St. Columba (Columcille): 6C Irish monk, founder of many monastaries including Derry, Darrow and Kell. Involved in a long feud with King Diarmid – when 3,000 men were killed in the resulting battle of Cuil Dremne, Columcille left Ireland in atonement and vowed to convert 3,000 to Christianity. Founded and built the monastery on the Holy Isle of Iona, where he is buried.

Daily Signet

“I awoke,” said Muhammad,” from my sleep and it was as if they had written a message on my heart.”
I toil at remaining asleep.
Preferring even the endurance of deadly,
thundering nightmares
to the awakening and
the reading of the missive upon my heart
which once read,
must be answered.  

Donna Piper Leichtling

On This Day…

Shinto World Oceans Day

Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash

Daily Signet

And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.’ In the paradox of the moment, a truth revealed. It is unthinkable no matter how much you think about it. It burns but is not burnt. It moves but it doesn’t move. It’s almost between the out and the in breath, in between the two notes where we hear the music. We live in a universe interlaced with paradox and there are days when what we would have expected gives way to the unexpected and we encounter a marvelous sight….

One of the nine foundations of Christuman: “We seek to marry the vision and the action through a true beloving where the Christos and our daily work unite into the human: all believed and all beloved.” The hardest path to choose is…to traverse the cultural confines of an 8 to 5 job, of a professional position, of a parent, of a teacher immersed in the daily activities and to still make the conscious choice to turn aside, to see the marvelous sight, the visionary, the paradoxical, the creative…to be breathed in and out by the Spirit.                                                    

Benjamin Martin

Daily Signet

Among the many powerful truths exemplified by Mother Teresa, the one that is most forceful to me now is how she surrendered herself to her call. She was so clear and firm: she surrendered her control and accepted that what would blossom, bear fruit and multiply was what God wanted. It really was that simple; that deeply complex.

Does that mean that she passively waited for God to create what he wanted out of the material of the rest of the world? Obviously and emphatically not! Mother Teresa was proactive (to use a small word for it). She devoted every ounce of will, determination, energy and prayer to ask God to supply the next gab of rice, carton of medicine, house for feeding the poor or shelter for the dying. She accepted that if it wasn’t given God hadn’t meant for it to happen.  Then she prayed for guidance about what to do next and moved on….

Mother’s Teresa’s calling isn’t mine or yours. My first and primary task is to listen for my own; to do whatever is necessary to hear God calling me; to let go and let the Holy Spirit move me where it will. That’s my pledge: to make time and space to listen, to be unafraid to hear and follow. 

Ben Leichtling

On This Day…

Anniversary of the Christuman Ordination of Alexis Drabek

St. Boniface (675-754): court chaplain to the Emperor of Rome and missionary to Germany, Hungary and Russia