Words from the Heart

Saint Bonaventure Window (Photo credit: Niall McAuley ) As a young child, I was captivated by the Lives of the Saints. Reading about their heroic deeds, their sacrifices and their words of wisdom encouraged me to try to be the best I could be. Saints, back then, were exceptionally holy people that acted like mentors or models for Catholics.  As far as I was told, other religions didn't have saints.  What a shock when at close to 60, I find out that there is no monopoly on saints.   Saints are by definition is a person of "great holiness, virtue and benevolence."  Therefore, saints can exist everywhere!  What a delight for me, as a interfaith seminarian, to learn words of wisdom from these holy people. Wisdom, when encapsulated into short proverbs or memorable sayings, works best for me.  I can repeat the lines over and over, when I need affirmation or if I need help to keep from despair.   Since St. Valentine's day was this past week...

Sacred Geometry / (Photo credit: Sarjana Sky ) For the next few weeks, I will be teaching a class on symbols.  In preparing for the class, I came to realize that our life is deluged with symbols, but we don't even know it! Like jumping head first into a snow pile, symbols surround every part of our life.  For instance, the shape of things are based on symbols found in Sacred Geometry.  Squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, etc. are in everything we touch...the keys of the computer, the computer screen,the speakers, the planter, the bottles of vitamins, the bits and pieces of paper and even the books all on my desk at the moment, are shaped based on these simple geometric symbols or designs. Our alphabet is a series of symbols for the sounds we use to make words.  Those words can be linked together to make sentences, paragraphs and entire texts, which symbolize what we think and why we think it. The other day, as I was preparing to find a poem on women fo...