A Bit of Omphaloskepsis

A lot of things have run through my mind since I last posted. I've been jotting things down that I intend to blog about but never get around to. So here is the list. Maybe once I see it in print (so to speak) my brain will congeal it into a cohesive whole. Or it could just be an elaborate exercise in navel-gazing. I'm not sure why some of them are in all caps but I'm sure there was a reason at the time. Most of these, IIRC, I jotted down as I was brushing my teeth, or in the middle of the night, or even while driving (yeah, I do that) or something random like that.

Anyway, regardless of how it hit the tracks....I give you my train of thought:

• "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves." ~ James 1:22
• "You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." ~ James 2:8-10
• "Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin." ~ James 4:17
• Ask for love. Pray to God to give you love
• DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE 
• "Do not ask for anything except love." ~ St Basil
• "I don't revere a God who blames someone for their fear. I revere a God who abhors lies." Janek, Poison Fruit 
• God's will
• God's will is always good
• God's will is always for our salvation
• God's will is for the salvation of the ENTIRE world
• God's will is that we be saved TOGETHER
• God's will is for His ENTIRE PEOPLE AS A WHOLE not as discrete parts
• Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
• God's will is Always GOOD
• God's will works good for ALL those who believe
• God's will is good in ALL circumstances
• God's will is bigger than one individual
• "In order to be submitted to God and do His will in the moment, especially in difficult times, we must first be practicing the remembrance of God in our lives." ~ Mother Dorothea, St Xenia Skete
• Repent = Rethink 
• "Pissed off is not the same as well armed." Eli Younger, Blood Trade
• "Fight always with your thoughts and call them back when they wander away, God does not demand of those under obedience that their thoughts be totally undistracted when they pray. And do not lose heart when your thoughts are stolen away. Just remain calm, and constantly call your mind back."~ St John Climacus
• "The recollection (or remembrance) of God is mentally standing before God in the heart...the soul must force itself to persevere and to toil. Work, making every effort to attain the unceasing remembrance of God, and God, seeing how fervently you desire it will give you this constant remembrance of Himself...To keep the mind and heart turned towards God and directed towards him...this is already prayer." ~ St Theophan the Recluse
• St Joseph, pray to God for me, a sinner!
• "I took for my advocate and comforter the glorious Saint Joseph, and commended myself fervently to him;… His aid has brought me more good than I ever desired to receive from him. ...I am quite amazed at the great favors Our Lord has given me, and the many dangers, both of soul and body, from which He has delivered me through the intercession of this blessed saint!...To other saints Our Lord seems to have given the power to succor us in some special necessity — but to this glorious saint, I know by experience, He has given the power to help us in all. Our Lord would have us understand that as He was subject to St. Joseph on earth — for St. Joseph, bearing the title of father and being His guardian, could command Him — so now in Heaven Our Lord grants all his petitions." ~ St Teresa of Avila
• Listen to me! Do but listen to me and let that be your consolation to me. Let me have my say!" ~ Job 21:1-2

So this is some of the wool I have gathered over the past few weeks. Now that it is all in one place and not spread over innumerable sticky notes, notepads, backs of envelopes, and random sheers of paper maybe I can make something out of it. Or not.

Lord have mercy on me...an absentminded sinner.