Tag Archives: quotations

Reading & Reflection: Rooted & Grounded in Love

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From the Daily Reading for June 15, 2012

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Lectionary: 171

Reading 2
Eph 3:8-12, 14-19

Brothers and sisters:

To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given,
to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery
hidden from ages past in God who created all things,
so that the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known through the church
to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.
This was according to the eternal purpose
that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness of speech
and confidence of access through faith in him.

For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Kevin Quotes

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Kevin says these are his only two original sayings, but I’m thinking he must be wrong…if only because he hates to be wrong so bad. ;P

He says all of this is “very true.”

  • “As a spiritual Benedictine Oblate, the world is my monastery.”
  • “Like you need air, I need prayer.”

Quotation Inspiration: Padre Pio’s Embroidery Parable

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“There is a mother who is embroidering. Her son, sitting on a low stool, sees her work, but upside down. He sees the knots of the embroidery, the tangled threads and says, ‘Mother, what are you doing? Your work is not at all clear.’ The mother lowers the embroidery frame and shows the good part of her work, each color in its place and the variety of threads forming a harmonious design. We are seeing the reverse side of the embroidery; we are sitting on the low stool.” -Padre Pio

Climbing into a Quotation

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My favorite quotation and my favorite Photoshop all in one!

I made this for a class I took last year. It was my final project, a lesson that I could use to teach my students how to use an aspect of the graphics program.

I haven’t used it yet, but another English teacher used it this year with her journalism students and said they loved it.

Posting the directions for this project at mrshawke-dot-com is on my to-do list for this summer.

=)

Quotation Inspiration: Attitude

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I took this one behind my parents’ house. I love the incongruity of the dainty flowers flourishing amid the hardy cacti.

As we were sitting in a meeting waiting for someone to return the other day, Kevin pointed out a photocopied quotation thumb-tacked to a board. It’s by Charles (Chuck) Swindoll.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.”

Imagine people reading this, taking it to heart, and actually acting on it. The world could be changed for the better in an instant.

It brings out some points that I try to instill in my students and my own kids, advice that I’m always giving myself, as well:

  • You don’t always have control over where you are, but you can choose to make the best of it. Bloom where you’re planted.
  • The only person you can change is you. Be the change you want to see.
  • Don’t spend too much time looking back. Reflect on what happened, learn from your successes and mistakes, and move on. Don’t let your past alone define you. You are who you choose to be.

I also really like the analogy of the “one string” we have to play. If our attitude is our string, our instrument, then with it …

  • You can blow everyone else out of the room, or you can tone down to a pleasing volume, so they can actually enjoy what they hear.
  • You can be loud and proud, blocking others from being heard, or you can be team players, contributing to the overall composition.
  • You can play so low nobody can hear just in case, or you can do your very best, defeating that nasty old insecurity (for this battle, anyway).
  • You can lay down your instrument and sit out altogether because you messed up last week or last month or year or decade, or you can determine to do your very best this time, regardless.

We make choices every second of every day. Think about it.

Classroom Conundrum

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I’d had this quotation in mind for a long time, but only made a poster of it this past year. It’s what you could call a conversation-starter. And not just with students.

The “witticism” is attributed to Winston Churchill, although there’s a lot of debate over its original form.

“Don’t end a sentence with a preposition” is one of those language rules that we’re taught early on, before we can be trusted with inconsistencies and user discretion. It goes right along with “Don’t start a sentence with ‘because.'” #ugh