Daily Signet

We look for direct access to the imagination—the star in us—the mercurial element of transformation and creation. Can we take on more than we want to be, to be what we need to be, to be what we are asked to be? We reach in for that star and look to transform, that the inner can shine outer and that what is outer is true to the inner. That in the masking and unmasking, we will learn grace and fidelity and sophia. It is more than enough to be so loved, so blessing drenched.  

Might our jobs, our work, our calling be our crucible, and what we pour into it, our mater? And out of this alchemy, a new human who is the human we have always been but could not be because we were always in the way?  

O Holy Spirit, in our giving up and giving in, may our submission lead to the star in us—the imaginatio of our mater. Amen.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

St. Mark: Apostle and evangelist

Ted Kooser born 1934 in Ames, Iowa: poet, Poet Laureate.

Works: Delights and Shadows, Local Wonders, Flying at Night

Quotes: “Sometimes you sense how faithfully your life is delivered, even though you can’t read the address.” “There are mornings when everything brims with promise, even my empty cup.” “A poem is a record of discovery.”

Daily Signet

In the New Testament, Book of Revelations, he “who sits on the throne” says, “Behold, I make all things new.” “Behold”…there’s that wonderful word that makes you stop and strain to listen, stop and look to see. “Behold!” It’s rarely followed by an explanation but almost always points to a secret that’s at the heart of a mystery…and a secret that if heard, inevitably bears great blessings. When the angel Gabriel approached the priest Zechariah with the news that life as Zechariah had known it was coming to an end, Zechariah could not “behold” the advent of the new nor could he receive the blessing of the word. He demanded proof and could only sit muted while he waited to see. When Gabriel approached Mary however, and said, “Fear not, but behold, the world as you know it has ended and I make all things new,” Mary indeed beheld. Even without understanding she beheld the blessing, and thereby became a blessing—and responded in kind, “Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord.” So, while Zechariah sat mute for six months, Mary poured forth with such creativity that the blessing of her song continues to this day, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”

Teri Martin

On This Day…

St. George: Patron saint of soldiers, Boy Scouts, and England

William Shakespeare born 1564 in Stratford, England, died 1616: poet, playwright, actor, dramatist – ‘The Bard of Avon.’

Quotes: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

Daily Signet

Self-portrait of Pico della Mirandola

Will Durant says that the essence of humanism is that belief of which the Renaissance philosopher, Pico della Mirandola seems never to have doubted, “that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality—no language they have spoken, nor oracle beside which they have hushed their voices, no dream which has once been entertained by actual human minds, nothing about which they have ever been passionate, or expended time and zeal.” For Pico, the studia humanitatis was not a matter of surveying knowledge and collecting up answers. As he searched the ancient manuscripts, he was not so much interested in cataloguing what the ancients knew as in knowing who the ancients were. For Pico, spending time with the ancients was not a matter of extracting information, but rather of expanding his own imagination and vision by surveying Esi Umano, of what it is to be human. Pico della Mirandola passionately worked to resurrect the ancients for their inspiration and timeless ability to infuse what we deem unimaginable with the vitality of their imagination and the mystery of their creativity.

Teri Martin                                                                                                            

Daily Signet

Self-portrait of Pico della Mirandola

Will Durant says that the essence of humanism is that belief of which the Renaissance philosopher, Pico della Mirandola seems never to have doubted, “that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality—no language they have spoken, nor oracle beside which they have hushed their voices, no dream which has once been entertained by actual human minds, nothing about which they have ever been passionate, or expended time and zeal.” For Pico, the studia humanitatis was not a matter of surveying knowledge and collecting up answers. As he searched the ancient manuscripts, he was not so much interested in cataloguing what the ancients knew as in knowing who the ancients were. For Pico, spending time with the ancients was not a matter of extracting information, but rather of expanding his own imagination and vision by surveying Esi Umano, of what it is to be human. Pico della Mirandola passionately worked to resurrect the ancients for their inspiration and timeless ability to infuse what we deem unimaginable with the vitality of their imagination and the mystery of their creativity.

Teri Martin                                                                                                            

On This Day…

St. Cuthbert: 1C Bishop of Lindisfarne

Daily Signet

If there are no answers, how do we justify the continuation of our studies, our search for knowledge, myth, belief, love, emotion and spirituality in its entirety? It is simple. To justify our existence we must continue the practice of proposing answers. The key is that we must immediately forget the answer we just created. And if that hurts too much, perhaps we can briefly dance in the moment of joy where we think we’ve struck spiritual gold. But to create again, we must forget everything.       

Nathan Drabek

On This Day…

Christian remembrance of the day of death for Dietrich Bonhoeffer: 20th C Lutheran pastor who, as a result of his work with the Resistance, and his public speaking after he was forbidden to do so by the Nazi party, was imprisoned, and at the end of the war, executed.

Quote: “Action springs not from thought but from a readiness for responsibility.”