MSI Press Blog

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -35-   The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live. He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything.   Albert Schweitzer   Gratefulness is not conditional. Gratefulness means being aware of and thankful for daily blessings, but thankfulness when things appear to be going well is just a slice of the pie. Gratefulness is a practice, an attitude, and a perspective on your life. Even amid the trials and challenges of your life, isn’t there a foundation—a big picture—for which you can be grateful? You are alive. If you’re holding this book, you can see, and you can read. There is someone, somewhere, who loves you. You have the ability to choose who you are and who you are going to become. This is the reality, and it’s always there in the backgroun...

Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -34-   Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.   Harold Kushner   Blessings abound. Some tap us on the shoulder or stare us in the face. Some, we take for granted. I remember going with my dad when he bought his first brand-new car, a 1961 Dodge Lancer. He asked the salesman whether cars now all came with heaters. This was a serious question, and the man did not laugh. The answer was “yes” although cars did not come with radios and our AM radio receiver was an optional extra. Now, we roll down the road in a cabin with all the comforts of home. Concert quality sound. Precise temperature control, whether it is ra...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -33-   [Let’s] remember the great truth that moments of surprise want to teach us; everything is gratuitous, everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is the measure of our gratefulness. And gratefulness is the measure of our aliveness. Are we not dead to whatever we take for granted? Surely to be numb is to be dead. For those who awaken to life through surprise, death lies behind, not ahead. To live life open for surprise, in spite of all of the dying which life implies, makes us even more alive.   David Steindl-Rast   Speaking at Columbia University Teachers’ College in New York a couple of years ago, I took some extra time to be a tourist. Having known a sculptor who worked on the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, this was one of my priority stops. Like other Gothic cathedrals aroun...