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PDF versionTurn on the light -- and wonder
by Ed Hays on Jul. 31, 2009
As I touch my arm, open my mind.
This flesh I touch is matter patiently waiting,
not to return to dust again,
but to be freed into the Mystery of Light.
Turn on the light -- and wonder
The next time you flip a switch and an electric light comes on, pause to wonder. As you turn on that light, what you are witnessing is matter being liberated into energy.
© Ssuaphoto; dreamstime.comEinstein discovered that light sometimes behaves like a particle and sometimes like a wave. Today contemporary scientists tell us that there is no such thing as a wave or a particle of light; we can only treat light as if it were a wave for some purposes and as a particle for others. Yet, actually it is neither. Rather light is something beyond the grasp of our minds, an unexplained mystery and a cause for wonder.
This flesh I touch is matter patiently waiting,
not to return to dust again,
but to be freed into the Mystery of Light.
From A Book of Wonders by Ed Hays
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Prayer action suggestion: As night approaches, turn off all lights around you. Sit quietly as darkness engulfs you. Sit a few minutes more in the darkness. Then turn on a lamp or light a candle.
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With today's science we find
With today's science we find new ways of understanding God like when we say Jesus is the Light of the World. Now we know him to be knowable yet unknowable - nothing new here in a way yet more profound than when we understood it to be simply a metaphor. Now it is a reality.
DEAR FR HAYS. I LOVE YOU .
DEAR FR HAYS. I LOVE YOU . YOU TOUCH MY HEART AND LIFT MY SPIRIT. YOU BRING A TEAR TO MY IRISH EYES.
Why not thank the Creator
Why not thank the Creator rather than the creation? After all this is a Catholic publication. Thank you Christ Jesus-God come in the flesh, the Eternal Word through whom all things were made! One God, Trinity blest.. Alleluia! Alleluia! (Its doubtful that this will be posted since the Censor is very active on Fr Hays blog-perhaps bad for sales!)
Snowdrop you really need to
Snowdrop you really need to get a life....
I have a wonderful life, a in
I have a wonderful life, a in Christ! Peace and understanding in Christ Jesus-God come in the flesh...
Dear Ed, I enjoy your
Dear Ed,
I enjoy your weekly reflections and look forward to reading them on line.
Be careful about your explanation of electric light. As I understand it, when you flip the switch, The circuit is closed and electrons flow through the filament in the light bulb, causing it to glow. Electricity is transformed into light enery and heat energy. There is no transformation of matter into energy. That is another situation, governed by Einstein's equation: E = mc2, in which a tiny amount of mass is transformed into an immense amount of energy.
Dear Ed, I enjoy your
Dear Ed,
I enjoy your spiritual reflections and look forward to reading them every week.
Be careful about your explanation of a light bulb. As I understand it, when you flip the swith the circuit is closed and electrons flow through the filament, producing light. Electrial energy is transformed into light energy and heat energy, according to the Law of Conservation of Energy. There is no transformation of matter into energy. That is another situation entirely and is governed by Einstein's equation: E = mc2, in which a tiny amount of mass is transformed into an immense amount of energy.
I'm really a post-modernist,
I'm really a post-modernist, but enough of a modernist to have believed that we know alot about light and matter. Thank you for reminding me that we really know very little about so many things. Most of all thank you for the need to just enjoy and trust in these mysteries --- like light itself. Just gratefully being in the light-and in the dark -make me wise enough. Thanks!!
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