The following is a testimony of great authenticity, spoken by a woman who lives every word that she speaks. If we live in dark times, here is a light sent by God's Love. I am inspired by such a life and thank God for her. It is said of her that she is filled with Joy--the kind of Joy that comes from being filled with the Spirit of God, Who is Love.

"In the desert of the heart Let the healing fountain start...." ~W.H. Auden "Priests are at the service of a wounded existence. I am not a priest, but I understand that I have to take care of this wounded existence, and for me the first wounded existence I must heal is my own. Today, if we are not specialists or competent, nobody will listen to us. Our competence to enter into this wounded nature is the mercy that we have received to be healed of our own wounded nature. Which one of us can say that we are not wounded in some way? Who among us still does not have open wounds? This wounded existence is us, every one of us. It is the first school for being able to be close to the wounds of others. Today we are credible only if we have experience. We can say that we are experts. Personally I assure you that I feel that I can love only because I am continually filled up by God's Divine Mercy. You know what mercy means? It means to become wounded by sin. This is my experience. The wound of my sin guarantees that the love that I give to my brothers is authentic. You know that I work with those who are addicted to drugs and that I live with them. I do not just live with them in a material and physical sense, but I live in their wounds. I get dirty in their mud, and I suffer their darkness. The healing of these wounds cannot come from my natural compassion, from my human comprehension, or from the love of a consecrated woman. If it did, my experience is faith would decrease, my patience would end and my interest to continue loving would be selfish. There is only one cure to heal the wounds of the heart, of the conscience, and of life: the love of God. If you not have this love, do not go near these wounds. Otherwise, you just put the knife back in the wound, deceiving others that you can heal them with your love." ~Mother Elvira Petrozzi Mother Elvira Petrozzi is foundress of Comunita Cenacolo, which describes itself as, "The Community [which] welcomes anyone who desires to find joy again and the meaning of their own lives through a Christian journey in life, which is simple but true." http://www.comunitacenacolo.it/viewpagina.asp?keypagina=497&idlingua=2

IF I should pass the tomb of Jonah

I would stop there and sit for awhile;

Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark

And came out alive after all.

From "Losers"

by Carl Sandburg

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut,

in the center of the shopping district,

I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization

that I loved all those people,

that they were mine and I theirs,

that we could not be alien to one another

even though we were total strangers.

It was like waking from a dream of separateness,

of spurious self-isolation in a special world,

the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.

The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream...

There is no way of telling people

that they are all walking around shining like the sun....

I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts,

the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire

nor self-knowledge can reach,

the core of their reality,

the person that each one is in God's eyes.

If only they could all see themselves as they really are.

If only we could see each other that way

all of the time."

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

The Niagara River
by Kay Ryan
As though the river were a floor, we position our table and chairs upon it, eat, and have conversation. As it moves along, we notice—as calmly as though dining room paintings were being replaced— the changing scenes along the shore. We do know, we do know this is the Niagara River, but it is hard to remember what that means.

THE STRONG THIEF

Every lock has its key which fits into and opens it.

But there are strong thieves who know how to open locks without keys.

They break the lock.

So every mystery in the world can be unriddled by the particular kind of meditation fitted to it.

But God loves the thief who breaks the lock open:

I mean, the man who breaks his heart for God.