The Cup of Life – A Guide for Spiritual Growth by Joyce Rupp
From the Parish Library of St Alban-Roe Catholic Church Wildwood, MO
A View of the Cup of Compassion –
Poem by Joyce Rupp–
My cup of compassion holds tears of this world –
It overflows with sorrow, struggles and sadness
My cup of compassion holds the cries of children
Unfed, unloved, unsheltered, uneducated and unwanted
My cup of compassion holds the screams of war
the tortured, the slain imprisoned , theraped the disabled
My cup of compassion holds the bruised and battered
Victims of incest and abuse. gang wars & violent crimes
Marriage vows violated by infidelity
My cup of compassion holds the voice of the silent ones,
the mentally ill, the illegal immigrants,
the Unborn and the Homeless
My cup of compassion holds the emptiness of the poor,
the searing pain of racism,
the impotency of injustice
My cup of compassion holds the heartache of loss,
the sigh of the dying and the sting of the divorced
My cup of compassion holds agony of the earth,
species terminated, air polluted, land destroyed
rivers running with waste
My cup of compassion I hold in my Heart
Where the Divine dwells – where love is stronger than
death an disaster
- Learning Compassion – What can we do? We can become a sign. Whatever happens becomes a joy and a fountain of Divine Love. Bede Griffiths, OSB
- Offering the Cup – …Then there flows a constant stream of tenderness – which all petty desires seem to be extinguished – All that matter now is be kind to each other with all that is in us – Etty Hellisum
- Giving up the Cup Freely – Too many of us concern or gives focus to things that we have no ‘heart-felt’ reason. If we were asked ‘why are you doing this? we would not know how to answer…Palrker Palmer
- The Cup of Sacrifice – Compassion is the strength tat raises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to see – witness to that suffering – wether it is tp ourselves or others. It allows us – without fear – it allows us to name without hesitation – and to act strongly – with all the skills out our disposal. – Sharon Salzberg-
- Pouring the Cup – Anyone that gives (offers) to the Divine – will find that it comes back turned to gold. – Rumi
- The Gift of the Be-ing – Just to be is a blessing – Just to life is holy – Abraham Joshua Herschel
Abraham Joshua Herschel Quotes — https://www.azquotes.com/author/6636-
Abraham_Joshua_Heschel–Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
- …morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Abraham Joshua Heschel, Harold Kasimow (1991).
- “No Religion Is an Island: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Interreligious Dialogue”, Orbis Books
- Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe. Each day enrapture me with your marvelous things without number. …I do not ask to see the reason for it all: I ask only to share the wonder of it all.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendors of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.181, Macmillan - In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty – all are responsible.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
- For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power…Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space.
- Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old.
- It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
- Audacious longing, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind–these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell. It is as if He were waiting to enter our empty, perishing lives.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - People of our time are losing the power of celebration.
- Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle…. Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
- It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - One of the major symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of sensitivity to words. We use words as tools. We forget that words are a repository of the spirit.
- The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the spirit are broken. We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words – an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words – is an essential prerequisite for prayer.
- By the word of God the world was created.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals.
Abraham Joshua Heschel - Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
End to Homelessness 