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A little girl who says to a little boy,

"Are you a Presbyterian?"

And he says, "No, we belong to another abomination!"

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

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Labels-identities (3)

I remember hearing about a man who asks his friend,

"Are you planning to vote Republican?"

The friend says, "No, I'm planning to vote Democratic.

My father was a Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat, and my great-grandfather was a Democrat."

The man says, "That is crazy logic.

I mean, if your father was a horse thief, and your grandfather was a horse thief, and your great-grandfather was a horse thief, what would you be?"

"Ah," the friend answered, "then I'd be a Republican."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

The danger of Religion

The danger of Religion

The danger of what religion can do is very nicely brought out in a story told by Cardinal Martini, the Archbishop of Milan.


The story has to do with an Italian couple that's getting married.

They have an arrangement with the parish priest to have a little reception in the parish courtyard outside the church.

But it rained, and they couldn't have the reception, so they said to the priest,

"Would it be all right if we had the celebration in the church?"

Now Father wasn't one bit happy about having a reception in the church, but they said,

"We will eat a little cake, sing a little song, drink a little wine, and then go home."

So Father was persuaded.

But being good life-loving Italians they drank a little wine, sang a little song,

then drank a little more wine, and sang some more songs,

and within a half hour there was a great celebration going on in the church.

And everybody was having a great time, lots of fun and frolic.

But Father was all tense, pacing up and down in the sacristy, all upset about the noise they were making.

The assistant pastor comes in and says, "I see you are quite tense."

"Of course, I'm tense.

Listen to all the noise they are making, and in the House of God! for heaven's sake!"

"Well, Father, they really had no place to go."

"I know that! But do they have to make all that racket?"

"Well, we mustn't forget, must we, Father, that Jesus himself was once present at a wedding!"

Father says, "I know Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet,

YOU don't have to tell me Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet!

But they didn't have the Blessed Sacrament there!!!"


You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ.
When worship becomes more important than love, when the Church becomes more important than life.
When God becomes more important than the neighbor.
And so it goes on.
That's the danger.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

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Paddy was walking down the street in Belfast

and he discovers a gun pressing against the back of his head and a voice says,

"Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

Well, Paddy has to do some pretty fast thinking.

He says, "I'm a Jew."

And he hears a voice say,

"I've got to be the luckiest Arab in the whole of Belfast."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Like water

Like water

The heart is like water

Passions agitate its surface

Rippling water in water

Creature-like, an utterance

Commingles both the good and bad

Like time, human beings body forth

As much of darkness as of light

Just as day illuminates before the night

So an extinguished star begets

Another brilliance

Similar to our vanished forbears

So we, similarly, must disappear

Time alone ensures its own endurance

As plainly as you can plainly see

Strangers in their native land are

Ardent practitioners of good

Whose intimates sever ties and turn

Frequentation to a widening gulf

Remember, should you have sealed

Friendship in the throes of poverty

Should prosperity arrive, remember

Al Ma'arri

Al-Ma'arri (full name in Arabic: أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري, Abu al-'Alā Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūkhī al-Ma'arri, December 26, 973–May 10 or May 21, 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, he attacked the dogmas of religion, and rejected the claim that Islam possessed any monopoly on truth.

Abu 'Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi (Tanukhi) was born in Syria and lost his sight at the age of four due to smallpox. He hailed from the city of Ma'arra (المعرة) in Syria from which his name derives. He then went on to study in Aleppo, Antioch, and other Syrian towns pursuing a career as a freethinker, philosopher and poet before returning his native town of Ma'arrat al-Numan, where he lived the rest of his life, practicing asceticism and vegetarianism.

He briefly travelled to the center of Baghdad where he drew a great following of both male and female disciples to listen to his lectures on poetry, grammar and rationalism. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the rights of reason against the claims of custom, tradition and authority.

Although an advocate of social justice and action, Al-Ma'arri suggested that women should not bear children in order to save future generations from the pains of life.

Al Ma'arri was exerting a notable influence on Dante's "The Divine Comedy". His collection of poems "Unnecessary Necessity" charts the tragic dimension of human experience.

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There was a man who went to the priest and said,

"Father, I want you to say a Mass for my dog."

The priest was indignant.

"What do you mean, say a Mass for your dog?"

"It's my pet dog," said the man.

"I loved that dog and I'd like you to offer a Mass for him."

The priest said, "We don't offer Masses for dogs here.

You might try the denomination down the street.

Ask them if they might have a service for you."

As the man was leaving, he said to the priest,

"Too bad. I really loved that dog.

I was planning to offer a million-dollar stipend for the Mass."

And the priest said,

"Wait a minute, you never told me your dog was Catholic."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Between yesterday and tomorrow

Between yesterday and tomorrow

Keep yourself from worries and sorrows

Seize with all your might

This fleeting life

Yesterday is already far

Tomorrow not yet arrived

Be happy for a moment

This moment is your life

Fill the bountiful cup

Life is disgrace

Drunkenness is grace.

Omar Khayyam

***

Omar Khayyam

(May 18, 1048 - December 4, 1122)

Was a Persian polymath: mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and above all poet.

As a poet, he is the most famous poet of the East in the West through various adaptations of his rather small number of quatrains (rubaiyaas) in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

He has also become established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. Recognized as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times as reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He also contributed to calendar reform and may have proposed a heliocentric theory well before Copernicus.

His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works have not received the same attention as have his scientific or poetic writings. Zamakhshari referred to him as "the philosopher of the world". Many sources have also testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Ibn Sina in Nayshapur where Khayyam lived most of his life, breathed his last, and was buried and where his mausoleum remains today a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every yea.