Daily Signet

As a child, the Old Testament world was my land of Narnia filled with stories with irresistible plots and characters and adventure—“Why?” was rarely the question…more often it was “What’s next?” In my mind, it was a neverending story that opened in Genesis with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and came to a pause with the end of what I knew as the “Old” Testament, paused and then restarted again in the “New” Testament gospel of John, with: “In the beginning was the Word.” For me, the beginning was a bardic, vatic word, the first recitation of sacred history sent rippling along in time, forward and backward, splitting a dawning future and a fading past for all time.

Other histories may tell of socio-economic or political or psychological evolution, and other people may be charged to carry these tales. This story, however, was nothing less than a tale of God and man—the children of Israel are given the Word and through them it must be made flesh, through them God will be made known to man. The word must be kept alive in a human chain of life support until it can burst forth fully incarnate. And, how better to keep the word alive than with a good story, and that’s what the children of Israel did—create a good story—too good not to hear again and again—even the stones strain to hear the story repeated.

…In this season of Advent, may we be as filled with hope and anticipation as would a child  standing tiptoe with nose pressed to icy windows, As time again swells and we are filled with a sense of expectancy and as the nights lengthen, may we ponder and prepare, with thoughts deepening as lights are kindled within. May we renew the story with every telling, bringing it to life in the imagination of the soul where the plot thickens and the Word continues to be made flesh.                                                                                                            

Teri Martin

On This Day…

Juan Ramon Jimenez born 12-23-1881 in Mogrier, Spain: poet, Nobel Prize winner for his lyrical poetry, known for Diary of a Newlywed Poet, Stories of Life and Death.  His wife, Zenobia Camprubi Aymor translated Tagore’s poetry into Spanish. Died 5-29-1958
Quotes: “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”
“Sharp nostalgia, infinite and terrible, for what I already possess.”
“Literature is a state of culture, poetry is a state of grace, before and after culture.”