My Blog

The seven swords

03/29/2012 11:38:00

Mater Dolorosa: The Unruined Heart

The swords through your heart

are not the ones which caused your wounds,

but rather, these mighty swords of Strength,

were earned by your struggles through hard times.

Sword of Surrender: to withstand this time of learning.

Sword of Veils: to pierce the hidden meanings of this time.

Sword of Healing: to lance one's own agony, bitterness.

Sword of New Life: to cut through, cut loose, plant anew.

Sword of Courage: to speak up, row on, touch others.

Sword of Life Force: to draw from, lean on, purify.

Sword of Love: often heaviest to lift consistently;

turns one away from war, to instead,

fall into the arms of the Immaculate Strength.

O Immaculate Heart of My Mother,

give me shelter in the beautiful chambers of your heart.

Keep me strong, fierce, loving, and able in this world.

Remind me daily, that despite my imperfections,

my heart remains,

completely unruined.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes (2011), Untie the Strong Woman, p.79.

Love

03/27/2012 14:27:00

"And here too, is a prayercito, a little blessing-prayer I'd say over you now, a prayercito I created years ago in the midst of some of the most harsh challenges of my own life. I offer it to you as healing, no matter what walls surround your loved ones, no matter what devastations have occurred, no matter what prisons you have been dragged into, no matter where your loves ones are held captive, no matter what.

It is this, and I'd place you within the circle of Our Lady's wreath of green leaves and white flowers encircling her Immaculate Heart, and then just gently say these words over your perhaps tired heart, bedraggled spirit, but earnest and radiantly enduring soul: Remember, no wall against the Holy can hold us away from the Holy.

Only things remembered

with Love

are Real.

Only acts remembered

with Love

are Real.

Only Souls remembered

with Love

are Real."

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Untie the Strong Woman, p.93

The meaning of love

11/24/2011 14:53:00

'Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him.' (Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning)

Goodness and truth

11/15/2011 13:54:00

'To be truthful - few can do it! And those who can, will not! Least of all, however, can the good be truthful.

Oh these good men! Good men will never tell the truth; to be good in that way is a sickness of the spirit.

They yield, these good men, they acquiesce, their hearts imitate, they obey from the heart: But he who obeys does not listen to himself!' (Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra)

The client knows what is best

11/10/2011 20:07:00

In his introduction to On Becoming a Person Carl Rogers recounts how he worked with a mother to help her deal with her child who was 'something of a hellion'. He spent time with the mother gently interpreting her behaviour and showing her the evidence that supported his own insight that it was her early rejection of her son that caused his problems. He got nowhere with her, despite his best efforts and eventually gave up. They both agreed that the therapy had failed. As the woman got up to leave his office, she asked if he did adult counselling. He said 'yes' and she returned to the chair and began to pour out her despair at her own life. Real therapy began at that moment and was ultimately successful. Of this incident Rogers writes as follows:

'This incident was one of a number which helped me to experience the fact - only fully realized later - that it is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. It began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my own cleverness and learning, I would do better to rely on the client for the direction of movement in the process.' (On Becoming a Person, pp11-12).

The Courage to Be

11/08/2011 12:43:00

'Joy is the emotional expression of the courageous Yes to one's own true being.' (Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be)

Permission to be.

11/07/2011 17:43:00

In a conversation between Carl Rogers (the founder of person-centred therapy) and Martin Buber (a theologian and philosopher) the two men disagreed on many aspects of therapy. However, they found one area that they could whole-heartedly agree on, and this was that in the therapeutic encounter one of the most valuable things a therapist could give to a client was the permission to be:

Rogers: 'I give [the client] permission to be.'

Buber: 'I think no human being can give more than this. Making life possible for the other, if only for a moment. I'm with you.' (Carl Rogers Dialogues, London: Constable, 1989)