37. Poem 3: Love's Likeness

I believe nothing more important in life than love. It restores meaning and purpose, faith and hope, and opens new possibilities when we thought there were none. This is also true of God’s love for us. This is because in God's economy,

All beings are interconnected in the boundless love of the Divine,
and so we are both beholden to and responsible for one another. (1)

These sentiments are captured in the following Love Song I wrote to illustrate 'Love's Likeness'. It recalls the story Jesus told of the Prodigal Son.

Poem 3: Love's Likeness

Love is like a loving parent
of whom you ask
for a share of your inheritance
so you can go off and enjoy yourself.
And Love agrees.

However, you soon squander
all your inheritance,
and you become destitute.
Eventually, you wake up
and come to your senses.
You decide to return home
and beg Love to take you back.

When you draw near,
you discover Love has been waiting
patiently for your return,
and runs to welcome you.
Within Love's warm embrace
you find your home once more,
and tell Love the words
that weigh heavily upon your heart:
'I have been so stupid;
I no longer deserve
to be called your child.'

But Love is overjoyed:
'I thought I had lost you, my child,
but you have returned!
I thought you were dead,
but, look, you are alive again!'
And that night you celebrate.2

Julian of Norwich once said that: 'God loved us before we were made, and this love has never diminished and never shall'.

Would this be true for you in your life experience?

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

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1. Mirabai Starr, The interfaith observer, 2013.

2. Luke 15:11-24

3. Chilson, Richard (2001). Yeshua of Nazareth: Spiritual Master. IN: Sorin Books

36.Poem 2: Seeking Love

Jesus gave us a vision of how the world could be different. This meant he often clashed with the religious beliefs and teachings of his day. Instead of telling people what to believe, he encouraged them to use their common sense and think for themselves. 

So when he taught, he often began with a familiar description, such as a woman baking bread, or a shepherd with his sheep, or the miracle of growth hidden in a tiny seed:

Poem 3: Seeking Love

Love is like a mustard seed,
the smallest of all the seeds,
buried within the secret depths of your heart.
When warmed by your desire
and the passion of your seeking,
she stirs within your being
and soon grows,
producing a plant large enough
to provide shelter
for the birds of the sky. (1)

Or, Love is like a pearl merchant
searching for his heart's desire.
One day he finds you,
a single pearl of immense value.
It costs him everything he has;
but he has found the one thing he longed for. (2)

Then again,
Love is like a treasure
hidden in a field,
which one day you find by chance.
So what do you do?
Overjoyed,
you cover her up in a secret place
and sell all that you have
in exchange for your heart's longing. (3)

No wonder his listeners were amazed at the wisdom and insight of his teaching. They had never known God's presence was already hidden within them, like 'yeast in flour' or 'treasure in a field'(4), waiting for them to find for themselves. Such knowledge began to transform their lives and relationships and helped them discover the breakthrough I referred to at the end of my last blog.

Is this something you too have experienced?

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

____________

            1. Gospel of Thomas 20:2

2. Gospel of Thomas 76

3. Gospel of Matthew 13:44-45

4. Gospel of Matthew 13:33; 13:44

35. Poem 1: Starting Out

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth,

beyond us all, beyond the heavens,
beyond the highest, the very highest heavens...
This is the light that shines in our heart.(1)

This quotation comes from an Indian text and reflects a similar truth to that found in an ancient Hebrew poem of creation. In the beginning, when God created human life, God took a handful of earth and breathed Divine-life into it – and we became a living being (Genesis 2:7). Intrinsic to this story is the belief we carry within us God's life-force. Another Hebrew poet expressed the intimacy and wonder of this miracle of life, with these words:

Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.(2)

The same thought occurs in many Christian writings. For example, the Franciscan scholar, St Bonaventure offered this insight, 

The soul itself is an image of God...
and has the capacity for God
and the ability to participate in God...(3)

Such is the power of your love, O soul,
you live more truly when you love...
this is the kingdom of God within us. (4)

Our search for God may at times feel tantalizingly elusive. Yet the journey begins by learning to love who we are and who we can become.

Poem 1 Starting out

If you would seek Love,
begin first to love yourself
with the same love
that Love embraces you;
then with that love,
love others;
and in that loving
you will find your heart's desire.(5)

If you should desire to
journey into Love's domain,
it is no easy path:
Her door is narrow;
her way is rough.
Many will desire to find it
and will not be able.

Strive, then,
if you must desire,
to enter through
Love's narrow door.(6)

St Bonaventure suggested we do not see this light of heaven because we have become 'blind and bent over'. We have become separated from each other, from our environment and from our Divine source.

How true is this for you? Would you agree with Bonaventure?

A Buddhist teacher once said to me: 

        'A great breakthrough occurs in your spiritual practice
        when you know there is nothing else to do
        – except let go and be present to what the universe has in store for you'.

That sounds deliciously simple and exciting! I will write more about this in my next blog.

Until then...

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

^{_______________________}

1. Chandogya Upanishad,Chapter 8v7

2. Psalm 139:7-10 NIV

3. St Bonaventure (1217-1274) The Journey of the Soul into God Ch 3:2

4. St Bonaventure (1217-1274) Soliloquy IV:

5. Mark 12:30.31

6. Luke 13:24

34. Love Poems of a Jewish Carpenter - Introduction

 Ten years ago I wrote a short book on the sayings of Jesus called 'Love Songs of a Jewish Carpenter'.  The original version remained unpublished, so I thought I would share a revised version of those 'poems' with you over the next few weeks.

Prologue

The peasant carpenter,
laid down his tools
and listened to the customer's
familiar complaints:

“What's the point of Religion?
I find it demands far more
than it ever gives! (1)
How can I find faith
that satisfies my
deepest longing?

In the Carpenter's heart Love cried:
'Come!
Come to me,
all who struggle with life's load
and I shall refresh you.
Learn from me
and your spirit shall be renewed!'(2)

The Carpenter left his workbench
and began to speak of Love.

It is easy to think that we know someone. Then suddenly they do something that seems to us to be totally out of character. With a shock, we realise that actually, we didn't know them very well at all. All we knew was our perception of whom we thought they were.

As a teenager, I thought I knew who Jesus was. As a young university student, I thought I knew Jesus well enough to go door to door in his name to challenge others to believe in him. As a theological student, I began to discover a larger picture of who Jesus might have been.

Now, as I grow older, I have found life experience to be the most profound teacher. It has taught me a lot about myself, and about who God, and Jesus, may or may not be. Often the lessons were demanding and painful. I find I now believe less, and what I know is simpler.

How about you? Has your understanding of God and Jesus has changed over the years?​

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga 

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

__________

1. Luke 11:42-52

2. Matthew 11:28-29

33. Body Beautiful

It is another lovely warm Spring day, and one way I have used the restrictions of COVID -19 is to start walking and bike-riding again. As my fitness improves, so does my enjoyment, especially now as nature is clothing itself once again with the life and vitality of Spring.

Springtime in the Southern hemisphere coincides with the feast-day of the Assumption of Mary (August 15^th) which marks her death and physical entry into heaven. One tradition suggests that on the day she died, the Apostle, St Thomas, was absent – as he was when Jesus appeared to the Disciples on the first Easter evening. The other Apostles went with him to the stone cave tomb and opened it, so he could gaze upon Mary for one last time. I let this lovely poem by Sister M. Angeline retell the legend:

They bore her in a reverent group
To a holy place,
Left her body in the earth –
Her body, “full of grace”.
But Thomas, tardy, slow of foot,
Absent when she died,
Spent with sorrow, craved to see
Her of the Crucified.
There was a swift intake of breath,
A hurried silent prayer;
Startled they opened the new-made tomb
To find but lilies there. (1)

All legends carry their own truth, and Mary’s empty tomb has been a sacred site since the early beginnings of Christianity. It lies in an ancient cemetery in the foothills of the Mount of Olives, and dates back to the 1^st century AD when rock caves were a common way to bury the dead.

Over the centuries, Churches have been built over her grave-site – and destroyed during the political unrest. The current church dates from the second half of the 14th century. Each time, the underground cave-tomb has survived untouched.

The question remains whether the empty tomb was Mary's? In whatever way you answer that question, 'The Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary' continues to share similar popularity to the empty tomb(s) of Jesus. They both draw constant visits by Christian pilgrims and tourist..

It doesn't worry me whether these sacred places are authentic or not. Rather, I find both the feast of the Assumption of Mary and the Resurrection of Jesus, affirm that we are sacred beautiful bodied-beings. Created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). This is something Christianity has not been good in emphasising. Instead, the physical body was often regarded as something sinful; needing to be 'mortified and put to death' because it is 'hostile to God', as suggested by St Paul in Romans 8.

In contrast, the Feast of the Assumption (and the Resurrection) encourage us to delight in our physicality. They remind us that our body is a God-given gift. Given for us to delight in. Given also for us to develop the qualities and experiences of love, meaning, power, goodness,  sacrifice for a cause, and the willingness to be their hands and feet:

Christ (and Mary) have no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which they look
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which they walk to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which they bless all the world.(2)

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

___________________

(1) Robert, Cyril. Our Lady's Praise in Poetry. Poughkeepsie, NY: Marist Press, 1944.

See also Mary's Tomb, https://www.biblewalks.com/marystomb

(2) These words are adapted from a prayer attributed to St Teresa of Ávila. For the original prayer see: https://liturgy.co.nz/i-have-no-hands-but-yours

32.Gratefulness

We live in changing times, especially with the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 virus. It is easy to experience a sense of 'disenchantment' to everything that is occurring at the moment. And to lose touch of a sense of wonder and gratefulness which allows me to encounter what Gerard Manely Hopkins called the 'dearest freshness' that exists in all things.

However, I know I also have a choice. I can only experience an attitude of gratefulness by staying in the present moment. I may feel gratitude for past events (when we lived in a time before the virus arrived, for example). Or live with anticipation and hope for the future (when a safe, proven and affordable vaccine is readily available for all people) for example. The challenge is, how do I live with an attitude of gratefulnesses 'now' amidst all that is occurring? This is where I find my spiritual practice is essential because it helps me to stay in the present moment.

The Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once said that the deepest act of love is not helping or service, but this immediate attentive presence. This is one reason why living mindfully in the present moment is the goal of every spiritual practice. Staying present opens the door to discover all of life is holy because the miraculous presence of God flows through all things – as challenging as that may be to accept.

A way I have found helpful was suggested by Denise Levertov in her poem, The Conversion of Brother Lawrence. Her poem refers to a 17th-century monk who made a choice to seek to always live in the present moment. With an open attitude of gratefulness despite all that was happening around him. Her poem includes these lines:

Everything faded, thinned to nothing, beside
the light which bathed and warmed,
the Presence your being had opened to.
Where it shone, there life was, and abundantly;
it touched your dullest task, and the task was easy.
Joyful, absorbed, you 'practiced the presence of God' as a musician
practices hour after hour their art:
'A stone before the carver',
you 'entered into yourself'.

I find practising being open to God's presence is an ongoing conscious choice. The more I do this the more I discover the 'dearest freshness that exists in all things', however challenging or stressful the current situation may be.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

­__________________

Levertov, D, Conversion of Brother Lawrence, Seamus Sweeney, https://seamussweeney.net/2018/05/18/denise-levertov-conversion-of-brother-lawrence/

Steindl-Rast, D osb, Deeper than Words – Living the Apostle's Creed, Doubleday, 2010

 

31. Leaping For Joy

I wonder what causes your heart to leap for joy?

In my last blog on the 'First Signs of Spring', I mentioned my joy at seeing the first signs of life in our garden. I also enjoy watching the new lambs race and frolic together. How they manage to find their way back to the right mother is another of nature's mysteries! My blog also left me wondering about the other things in life that brought me joy.

However, Joy is not the same as happiness. The UK Psychologist Rachel Fearnley, suggests joy flows out of making peace with who we are, why we are, and how we are. While happiness usually arises from the things we have or receive, or places we visit, on thoughts that come to mind, or on particular events during our day. Fearnley also suggests 'Joy' has the unique ability to open our hearts. And for this reason alone joy is a familiar theme in our Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, as found for example, in the following reflection I wrote on Psalm 4:

You, O God, are my refuge and my strength,
my helper in time of trouble.
I have no need to fear,
even when all I hold dear
is taken from me,
and the foundations of my life are shaken,
you are there.

You are within me.
In my depths I find your river of joy;
its water refreshes my soul.
You are my holy place.
When I rest in you,
I am secure.

Each morning, when I wake,
your strong arms cradle me
for you are my past and future;
in you, I am eternally present.

I will be still
and know that you are God.
You are exalted in all the earth!

This same joy-filled and awe-inspiring wonder and union with creation is found in the poetry of the Franciscan mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno,

Everywhere she looked
she saw the created universe resplendent, with God's presence
and herself one with it...
In a vision, she could see nothing except the divine power
so that marvelling she cried aloud:
'This whole world is pregnant with God...
the world is so charged with the grandeur of God'.
Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation...
but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.¹

Have you thought of starting a journal to list the things each day that brought you joy?
It is a simple way to help increase mindfulness and cultivate gratitude for the awe-inspiring world we live in.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

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1.Paul Lachance OFM, The Spiritual Journey of the Blessed Angela of Foligno, 1984