Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Saturday, December 31, 2022

THE DAY AFTER

“Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked, where children are murdered, where civilized countries make a lot of money by selling weapons to uncivilized ones so they can blow each other apart. Christmas is God lighting a candle, and you don't light a candle in a room that's already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that's so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are. The light shines in the darkness, says St. John, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

                                                              N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth

________________________________________

 

What happened to those shepherds

who heard the angels sing?

Who saw the darkness dispelled by light and heard good news for all

 

What happened to those foolish ones who haphazardly left their flocks

And stumbled through the darkness

To where the baby lay

 

Did they dream wild new dreams?

Were their lives transformed?

 

Or did they merely wander back into the hills

Pick up their staffs, and sit once again in the cold stillness

The ardor of the moment cooling

The light fading?

And watch sheep?

 

What happened to those odd assorted souls who happened

by the scene

and awkwardly watched the sight of a motley crew

of socially sketchy folk

gathered around a mother and child?

 

Were they too touched by angel fire?

Did they too wander aimlessly, pondering these things that had come to pass?

The good news of great joy?

Or did they shrug and scurry on unchanged.

 

What happened to the cousins and aunts,

the family gathered upstairs in that warmer cleaner space?

Were they oblivious to the wonder underneath their feet?

Or did grace rise and touch the room in which they ate

And argued as families do?

 

What happened to merchants and kings

And magi from afar

As they wondered near or wondered from afar?

As they heard the experts opine

 

What happened?

Did that star, those prophetic words mean something?

Or nothing

 

Did the signs and wonders invoke hope, or fear?

Did they stay trapped in their old beliefs and systems?

Did their stomachs clinch and the bile rise?

Or did they catch a glimmer of something new?

 

Surely the only stories are not those

Of mad kings plotting infant deaths

Of magi fleeing in the dark, another way

 

Surely stories of refugee flights in the darkness

and violent oppression are not all we have

 

Surely someone became kinder

Someone loved

Someone forgave

Some one felt moved to generosity

 

Surely someone felt hope

And someone gazed into the now silent skies,

And remembered the angels singing

 

For all that happened

And all that did not happen

The world slouches on its way

 

Still Christmas comes and goes, and comes and goes again

Still the air is filled with the sound of singing

And lights twinkle as the stars

 

Still people gather

And make much of a baby’s birth

And celebrate

 

And still when all is said and done

The world returns to its ways

Still the powerful plot and the poor suffer

Still fear and hate lead to violence

 

No! This is not all that we have.

An empty celebration that when all is said and done

Leaves the world the same dark place

 

Yes, the world is indeed “a shockingly bad old place,

where wickedness flourishes unchecked,

And yet at Christmas the light came into the world

 

A light in the darkness

A light to show us the way

A light that at times may seem fragile and weak,

flickering

But never goes out

 

The light of hope, and peace, and joy

The light of love

 

which is kindled and flames in our hearts

so that sometimes we are kinder

and sometimes we love

and forgive

and give

 

And sometimes

Even as the light shines in a world murky with darkness

We gaze into the now silent skies,

And remember

And hope

EMMANUEL

“We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a revolution.”

                                          Subcomandante Marcos

 

You say you want a revolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

                                         John Lennon/ Paul McCartney

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We like our Advent expectant

Joy

Hope

Peace

And love

 

We wrap ourselves up

In the hauntingly somber songs

Of longing

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

 

We like our Christmas soft

Starry skies

Simple shepherds

Friendly animals

Angel choirs

And a cute little baby boy

 

Our hearts burn within us

as we sing “Silent Night”

by the of candlelight

 

And so

With the best of intentions, we domesticate Christmas

 

But Christmas is not soft or comfortable

Sorry for the inconvenience, but Christmas is a revolution.

Advent is the prelude to a revolution (Robert Barron)

And Christmas is that moment when the revolution began

That moment when God intruded into human history

And said (in effect)

Look and listen!

 

And then proceeded to turn everything upside down

Introducing a revolutionary new way of doing life

 

A crazy, foolish way of life

Where the first are last and the last first

Where you give to receive

And die to live

 

This is what a revolution of love looks like

 

Where we change the world

Not by grabbing power and using power

Not by accumulating wealth,

But by embracing the pain of the world,

And lifting others up

By feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless

Welcoming the stranger

And changing the systems that lead to injustice and inequity

 

In Advent we prepare for change

It is a time for introspection

And honesty

 

It is a time when we open the manger of our heart

And prepare for love to be born

 

Christmas?

Is when Jesus, truly Emmanuel

when Jesus alive inside us

changes us forever

and we start the revolution

 

Friday, December 30, 2022

BIRTH

Birth is never easy

never

 

there is the waiting

the long time of expectation mixed with fear

will the child ever come

will it be what we hoped and dreamed for

 

there are dangers to that expectancy too

will we accept the child as the child comes

will rejoice in who he is, who she is

or will we try to remake him, reshape her in our own image?

 

there is cost too

for birth requires change

commitment, and accountability!

a birth is a sacred trust

into our hands

a child is born

 

there is pain

the pain of birth is real

messy

a time of travail

 

and yet the child will come

 

on this Christmas Eve we come to the time of birthing

we stumble unexpectedly

on the child

 

there he lies

a wrinkled bit of flesh

squalling into the night

the delight of his mother's

eyes

 

but to us

just a baby

just that pink

and squalling mess

 

that baby in a manger

so common

 

and yet

 

lying there in that trough

made for feeding

 

do we not see glimmers of some truth

that he may be more than we see

or understand

 

that in this birth more than a child is born

that this birth gives birth to

love, perhaps,

or peace

hope

 

do we not see that this baby is soaked with the divine

and that this birth gives birth

 

that he may be

food for the world

that he might become

bread broken

and wine poured

 

sustenance for us

what we need to live

RESTORE

Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.

Anne Lamott               

 

We spend so much of our spiritual lives trying to ascend.  Descent is the path of having everything that offered comfort stripped away.  In the mystical tradition, the descent is also the slow revelation of the true face and incredible mystery that is God                                      

          Christine Valters Paintner, the soul’s slow ripening, pp. 120, 121

______________________________________

 

the days are short, the nights are long

the ground is frozen

 

the snow is littered

with the debris of trees lashed by winter winds

 

and we have descended slowly into a deep darkness

 

it is a season of struggle

a season of descent

 

in the darkness, we turn in on ourselves

and in the deep stillness come face to face with ourselves

our own barrenness

 

when we stare out the window at the blackness

all we see is ourselves, looking back

 

Sometimes in the dark, we are haunted

By things we would rather avoid

By the hungry ghosts of fear and failure

that leave us dis-eased

 

yet as much as we struggle with

this journey into darkness

it is a fertile time

 

For as we sit and keep our souls company

in the cold soil of our souls

the seeds of newness linger

ready to be awakened

 

they are necessary, these times of descent

these dark nights of the souls

for out of such winters of discontent comes new life

comes restoration

 

It seems we must descend before we can ascend

We must empty before we can be filled

rest before we can toil

die to be reborn

 

if the Advent of Jesus teaches us anything

it teaches us the power of love and life

the ability of Sacred to restore

 

from humble birth

to scandalous death, the Jesus story is permeated

with struggle and pain

with oppression and poverty

 

there are wounded people everywhere

there is an ignominious death

 

and yet everywhere there is newness

a baby born

shepherds rejoicing

demons expelled

errors forgiven

bodies healed

hope restored

generosity found

life out of death

 

God is always doing something new

always working to turn our descent into ascent

 

so as we sit, frozen and stolid

barely awake

barely alive

 

we are called to remember, remember, remember

the spring

 

to remember what Love can do

 

that no matter how deep hope and joy our buried

no matter how far we have descended

 

God will feed and restore our souls for the good work of ascent

for the good work of living in the light

of being the light

 

in a glooming world

Thursday, December 29, 2022

CHOOSE

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale

 

________________________________

 

 

sorry Norman

but you’ve really got it wrong

Christmas does not make the world softer or more beautiful

 

Christmas, the advent of God was not

Soft and comfortable

 

Ask Mary, pregnant and unwed at 15

Oh yeah!  Right!  Easy, cool, special

Well, it was special, but it sure wasn’t easy

 

Joseph

I don’t even want to go into that mess

poor Joseph who had to choose to stay or go

support or condemn

who had to choose to step back and silently protect

 

then we have dirty shepherds attending a birth in a manger

and an angry, paranoid king

and babies being murdered

 

we have aliens arriving

and a family fleeing, immigrants fleeing death

 

Christmas is real, very, very, real

 

when God came it was difficult, challenging, and costly

and people were confronted with a choice, every single one of them

Mary had to choose to say yes

and Joseph too

 

the shepherds had to choose to leave their sheep

the magi had to follow the star

 

Herod, paranoid and wanting to keep his power

had to choose to listen to the scriptures, or not

to accept or resist the arrival of a new King

 

later the disciples would have to choose to drop their nets and follow

or not

 

the rich young ruler would have to choose whether to keep his money

or give it away

 

Pilate had to choose

the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees had to choose

soldiers had to choose

tax collectors and other assorted “sinners” had to choose

all those Jesus met, rich, poor, Jew, Samaritan, Gentile

had to choose

 

to listen or not

to hear or not

to follow or not

to change or not

to be healed, or not

to love, or not

 

in the end, that is the one choice

to love or not

to go with the way of service and love

or not

 

choosing to buy into the strategy of God as revealed by Jesus

is no small thing

 

when we choose between Jesus and “not Jesus” we are choosing between

essential selfishness and generosity

fear and trust

exclusion and inclusion

cruelty and kindness

apathy and empathy

guns and children

profit and generosity

money and people

lies and truthfulness

businesses and the planet

                                             

there is cost here!

and sacrifice

and we are being asked to abandon one kind of power, the power of domination

for another kind of power

the power of service

 

but the reality is that the baby of Christmas

demands a choice

 

we are there

in the manger

staring down at a pink and wrinkled infant King

what choice do we make?

OBEDIENCE

To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

 

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.

Banksy

_____________________________________

 

obedience

I once took my dog to obedience school

 

sit, lie down, come, heel

stay

good boy!

 

I think, most of the time, he does not understand why I want him to do what I ask

he only does it

automatically without thought

 

I would like to think I have good reasons for asking

his safety

the safety of others

and I would like to think he obeys because he trusts me

and knows that I love him

 

 

obedience

I wanted my children to be obedient too

I wanted them to do what I asked

to stop

to go to bed

to come to the table

 

they only sometimes obeyed

having minds, very much of their own

I don’t think they always understood why I shouted “stop”

(as they wandered toward the road as toddlers)

 

but I would like to think they too knew that my requests

were not just a matter of my seeking to control,

but to protect, and help

 

I would like to think they trusted me

my intent, but most of all my love

 

and I would like to think, that in the end,

they obeyed not out of fear, but out of love

 

at its best, I think obedience

is love in, love out

 

one is asked to do something, out of love

one responds out of love

 

this seems particularly important when it comes to obedience

to those imperatives that come from the Sacred

to those laws that come from Love

 

how can we be true to Love

if love is absent?

 

commands that are not offered in love

that are a matter of dominance and control

that are purely for the benefit of the one with power

that have an intent that is malevolent

 

are dangerous and deadly

and lead to Dachau and Mi Lai

and even, perhaps, January 6

 

obedience that is not based on love

can be oppressive and fear-laden

 

I must obey, or else!

 

but when the commands and laws come out of love

and the response of obedience comes out of love

 

Ah!

 

I do not know why Mary obediently said “yes”

I do not know why Joseph obediently supported her

I do not know why the shepherds obediently stumbled to the manger

rather than run into the hills out of fear

I do not know what inner prompting caused the magi

to obediently follow that star

 

I do know the result

a child born

a gift given

and from that giving, more giving

 

I do know that in the dimness of a world in travail

the faint glimmer of heaven

shone

 

and that as we are guided in love

and respond in love

and live love

 

it still shines

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

HEAR

HEAR

 

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy

Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)

Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy

Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)

A song, a song high above the trees

With a voice as big as the sea, with a voice as big as the sea

          Song Lyrics by Gloria Shayne Baker & Noël Regney

 

Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

          Mark 5:9

 

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

          John 16:13

_____________________________________

 

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening

So are cell phones!

 

The TV is on to the latest news

about political division,

homelessness,

violence

racism

assailing our hearts and our souls

 

there is the noise of cars and trucks

washing machines and driers

 

our world is filled with the clamor of life

we have lost the gift of silence

letting noise distract us from the essence of life

 

we are assaulted by noise

tooting, howling, screeching, beeping, shrieking

grating, blaring, swooshing, swirling twanging

booming, crashing, things

 

we have become addicted to noise

taking it with us into the silent beautiful places

where we trod ear buds firmly placed

tuned in

tuned out

 

those who have ears, let them hear

 

let us hear the sound of a bird singing

of the wind in the trees

 

let us hear the crunch of snow underfoot

the sigh of breath, moving in, moving out

the sound of a heart

beating

 

let us hear the voices of angels singing

the cry of a baby in a manger

the whisper of Love in our souls

 

let us listen to the still small voice

to the gentle whisper of

the Spirit

 

which says persistently, insistently

“unto you, a child is born”

which says,

“you are my beloved child”

which says

“follow me”

 

 

SIGNS

Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?

As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning!

Then what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?

To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.

                     Anthony De Mello (a conversation between a master and disciple

___________________________________________________

 

There were signs everywhere

Everywhere

 

In the sky a tiny point of light

Shining, moving, drawing eager searchers nigh

gifts in hand

 

prophets of old had spoken

the promises were there

the details many

scattered through the Law and Prophets

and pondered

and proclaimed

 

Angels

So many angels

Proclaiming

Promising

Frightening

Calming

Do not fear

Do not fear

Do not fear

 

Someone is coming

God is on the way

 

John the Baptist

Hairy messenger of God

Shouting in the wilderness

As wild and unkempt as the ground on which he stood

Uncomfortable and strident

You brood of vipers!!!

 

Angels again

Awake shepherds awake!

Leave your sheep

find the lamb

 

There were signs everywhere

 

And so many slept

And so many sleep

 

Where are the signs that Love is on the way?

Where are the signs that the one into whom God poured God’s self

Will come and transform this bend and homely world

 

Eden reborn

Human creatures reborn

A new heaven and a new earth?

 

Perhaps there are signs everywhere

Everywhere

 

If only we have eyes to see

 

 

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

Isaiah 60:1

Monday, December 26, 2022

PURIFY

PURIFY

 

All great spirituality is about letting go. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection show us how to win by losing. In fact, this “Path of Descent” could be called the metanarrative of the Bible. It is so obvious, consistent, and constant that it’s hidden in plain sight.

          Richard Rohr

 

God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction

          Meister Eckhart

______________________________________________________________

 

Forget original sin

I mean, really!

 

God created the world and it was

Good

 

And when angels sang over Bethlehem

It was to those with whom God

Was “well pleased”.

 

I am the first to admit that the image of God

woven into the fabric of our being

is more than a little blurred

 

there is no question that we human creatures can be ugly

Sinful if you like

Yes we give into fear

Yes, we get selfish and hoard

Yes we hate and misuse power

 

Yes we are all too often poster children

for the fall

Yes

Yes

Yes

 

But that is not our nature

It may be “who we are”

But it is also not who we are

 

which is why we need to be purified!

cleansed

 

Perhaps faith is as much a matter of unlearning as it is of learning

Perhaps “God is not found in the soul by adding anything,

but by a process of subtraction” (Meister Eckhart)

 

there are so many things to unlearn that do not work

Self-loathing

Fear

The need to win (be number one)

Some pretty profound selfishness (me first)

A desperate need to be liked and admired

 

We must unlearn so that we can learn

Not for the first time

That we are loved by God

That we do not have to fear

That winning isn’t everything

And that we gain more by giving than by grasping

 

Unlearning is hard work

it can be painful

purging, refining, reconstructing

being born again

 

and our hearts cry out to God

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”

(Psalm 51)

 

O Sacred One

O God

My God

 

It is all pretty simple, isn’t it?

 

The answer to everything

to sleepless nights, to torturous thoughts

to fear and anger

 

the answer to those things that distort original blessing

and blur the divine image

 

the secret to peace, hope, joy

and love

 

is placing ourselves in your loving hands

and letting You do

Your purifying

Thing

Creating in us a clean heart,

Putting new and right spirit within us

 

So why do we try to make it all

So much

About

Us?

MAJESTY

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

          Gerard Manley Hopkins

________________________________________________

 

majesty

mountains soaring high into the sky

fiery clouds on a winter’s morn

snow-draped trees and the squeak of freshly fallen snow

and a million stars sparkling in the sky

 

majesty

a dog howling at the moon

and a cat at play

a horse feeling her oats in a pasture green

 

majesty

a child’s laughter

and a voice lifted in song

a stuffed bear loved to extinction

a living room filled with the chaos of life and love

 

majesty is not just found

in mansions large

in gold-gilded extravagance

in crowns and scepters

 

majesty is found in strange and mystical places

in every place

that Sacred dwells

 

and Sacred dwells in everything

in everyone

 

which is why everyone is a royal child

behold what love God has given us

that we should be called the children of God

and that is what we are

 

majesty

the child at school

the food handler at McDonald’s

the farmer in the field

the worker in a cubical

the nurse on the floor, the doctor in the exam room

the man at the bar, deep in his “cups”

the woman behind the counter facing the Christmas rush

the person sleeping in the doorway, soaked with urine and sweat

the family sneaking across the border in the dead of night

the gay couple celebrating their marriage

the minister wondering what to say on Christmas Eve

 

majesty

angel choirs singing in the heavens

shepherds in the fields, watching their flocks by night

animals in a stable

magi wandering

and a wrinkled and red child of poverty

born

 

Saturday, December 24, 2022

TRAVELER

 

Isn't it instructive that the spiritual formation of the original disciples happens with Jesus on the road? In effect, the disciples learn by doing. They grow into an understanding of this God of love, this God of compassion, this God who loves justice, this God who makes all things new, by participating as active observers and agents of compassion, justice, and newness. And, yes, necessarily, they pause with Jesus to reflect, ask questions (sometimes stupid questions), and pray. But the spiritual adventure described in the four Gospels does not happen in the sanctuary; it happens on the road, in the company of beggars, prostitutes, and lepers.

              Richard Rohr

___________________________________________________

 

Each day

is a crash course in love

 

after we

who would be connected with something Sacred

have practiced our spirituality

 

after the prayers have been prayed

the metta phrases spoken the deep breaths taken

 

after the sacred texts have been perused

 

we must, one way or another,

hit the road

 

and on that road (or so it seems to me)

we have one primary agenda

 

to live love

 

to think love

carry love

practice love

be love

 

it is not easy

 

for there are other people on that road

 

some we find easy to love

but others? not so much!

 

that person whose ideology makes our heads hurt

whose hate makes our souls hurt

that person whose very being challenges or frightens us

that person who has hurt us

insulted us

said negative things about us

 

that person we know just simply doesn’t like us

 

most of us do not run into actual lepers these days,

but our society has “lepers” of its own making

people with mental illness

or addiction

 

then there are the poor

the homeless

those “lazy moochers”

who just need to “get off their asses” and get to work!

 

and when we meet these people

we are called by one who is Love

to think love

and live love

 

and it is not easy

 

sometimes we are just too wrapped up in ourselves

and our own agendas, our own needs

sometimes too fearful, too angry

 

and yet there on the road

in the dust

on the hard pavement

in the grocery store

in our places of work

on Facebook

 

that is where our adventure with the Sacred is to be lived out

that is where we really learn

 

life is our spiritual school

and it is on the road that we learn about God

learn about ourselves

and learn, ah yes, learn about love, giving, forgiving, compassion

about the need for common good

 

Abraham, Moses

Elijah and Elisha

the magi on their journey

the disciples in their wanderings

Peter, and Paul (on the road to Damascus)

 

were travelers all

 

their journeys were varied

the destinations too

the lessons were diverse

and yes, some got lost

at least for a moment

 

but they traveled on

and found in mysterious and unexpected ways

 

peace, hope, joy

and yes

Love 

THIRSTY

The world is thirsty. All creation is groaning. Christianity, as it is, has not satisfied the souls of those who hunger for another way of life.”

Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

 

I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour my spirit upon your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.

They shall spring up like a green tamarisk, like willows by flowing streams.

          Isaiah 44 (NRSVUE)

______________________

 

I am thirsty Lord

My soul is parched by the hotness of hate

The heat of fear

 

I am thirsty

Wrung dry by a world where domination and greed rule

And people are oppressed and impoverished

 

Sometimes this life feels like a wasteland

A plodding existence through

A dry and barren land

Where there is no water

 

A long night’s journey toward a dawning

That never seems to come

Toward an Advent that seems more like a mirage

Than a promise

 

I am thirsty

And I long for water

Living water that will well up in my soul

That will bubble and splash

That will gush and roar

 

So that I bloom and grow

Roots deep

Flourishing

 

I know that water is dangerous

I know the devastation of the flood

As waters roar and rend

 

Covering, tearing, clearing

Cleaning

 

I know I can find myself

Like the armies of Pharoah

At the bottom of the sea

 

But yet I seek the water of life

The gushing roar of the Spirit

The fountain of life

 

my soul thirsts for Sacred Presence

my flesh faints for Lord

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63)

 

I am willing to take the risk

Knowing I may be uprooted

Washed away

Knowing I may be plunged into crushing depths

Knowing I may be tossed and battered

By the raging of the water

 

I want to be filled with water overflowing

Until the very stuff of life leaks out of the cracks in my soul

To water the dryness of the world

 

And the world blooms

And the air is filled

With the fragrance of Love

 

Thursday, December 22, 2022

BELOVED

When you looked at me

your eyes imprinted your grace in me;

for this you loved me ardently;

and thus my eyes deserved

to adore what they beheld in you. . . .

Let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty.

                     John of the Cross, “The Spiritual Canticle,” stanzas 32, 36

__________________________________

 

what is grace

other than the Beloved

looking on us with eyes of love?

 

What is grace

other than the Beloved making us the beloved?

loving us so deeply that we are given Love

permeated with the Sacred

 

the Beloved giving us a piece of

the Sacred

call it Spirit

call it Love

a piece of himself/herself

 

and then, as the indwelling one, empowering us to love God

which allows God to come back to us in full measure

a circle of love

 

The "very love with which we think we are loving God

is actually the love by which God first loved us" (Meister Eckhart)

until beloved by the beloved

 

we participate

in all that is peace

all that is hope

all that is joy

all that is love

 

and thus connected

and so filled

we are reconciled and transformed

 

new creations!

Sacred children

 

what is grace

other than we children of grace

flawed vessels that we are

cracked pots

 

leaking grace

 

looking at others the way the Beloved looks at us?

seeing in them not just a little piece of the divine

but also a little piece of ourselves

 

for we all participate

that “single, bigger Gazing and Loving”  (Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, 4/11/21)

that some call God

 

we all are joined together

by the bond of Sacred Presence

that inner dwelling

 

so that Sacred is in me

and Sacred is in you

and thus I am part of you

and you are part of me

 

what is grace

other than realizing we all participate

in the same love

unearned and freely giving

 

all participate in the same

acceptance

 

the same welcome

 

that we are indeed One in the Spirit

and that we have no other choice

but to love our neighbor

 

no matter who that neighbor is

no matter what that neighbor has done

no matter their color, culture

creed, sexual orientation

or ideology

 

we have no choice

but to love them as ourselves

passing on

humbly, through (in many cases) our weakness

 

(remember, grace is most often leaked)

 

the acceptance and welcome

we have received

 

until they too understand

they are precious souls

beloved