Daily Signet

Sitting at the table up on the mesa, Bill explained, “Everything that you know is contained within this small circle,” which he drew on a piece of paper. “Everything that you can hope to learn can be contained within this slightly larger circle,” and he drew another circle around the outside of the first one. “And everything that you do not know is on the outside of that circle,” and the space of that unknown stretched out infinitely. He looked up from the paper. “Your circle of knowing can never encompass all that can be known."

It was at that moment that I began to understand that it is by the very fact that I cannot know the All that I am allowed the freedom to risk, to create, to love.

The power of an apophatic point of view is acknowledged in Christuman in the first line of the Credo, “…our God, Ineffable and Divine.” We do not presume to think we can entrap the Sacred Mystery within our little circle of knowledge, or bring down the Divine with our stunted nouns and adjectives.  I find that there is great joy in the effort to speak poetically of that which is Sacred, to dance to It, or sing with It, in such a way as to open our hearts and minds to all that is unknown. But the power is in the energy of the activity itself, not in any explanation or details the effort might try to produce.                                                              

Alexis Drabek

Daily Signet

Somewhere in our lives, God has parted the waters and taken us out of what we knew and given us passage into a vast wilderness of unknowing. We carry within the promise of the Imago Dei but we don't always know how to fulfill it. We look to the Holy Spirit to fill each of us with His Holy Fire, that we might be a manifestation of Holy Spirit and breakthrough to the promise.  Amen. 

Benjamin Martin

Daily Signet

O Beloved Spirit, 
There are days when the air is not so clear,
and the view is clouded by the small;
when the focus is fragmented
and particulates of debris hover
like a haze in the mind.
In the swirl of small, 
how do I stay clear of small?
In the soiled haze of small,
how do I stay clean of small?

Be my breath, 
that I might clear my mind with light.
Be my breath, 
that I might purify my heart with light.

Light fill me.
Breath fill me.
That, though I am in the smallness,
I be not of the smallness.
Though I am bounded by smallness
I be not constricted into smallness.

Be my breath, O Holy Spirit, 
my inspiration of light.
In Your Image.  Amen.

Benjamin Martin 

On This Day…

Painting by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1880-90 (MFA, Boston). Izanagi to the right, Izanami to the left.

Koshogatsu: Shinto day of prayers to the Goddess Izanami who, along with God Izanagi, created the Kami responsible for cosmic energies and nature.

Daily Signet

Somewhere in our lives, God has parted the waters and taken us out of what we knew and given us passage into a vast wilderness of unknowing. We carry within the promise of the Imago Dei but we don't always know how to fulfill it. We look to the Holy Spirit to fill each of us with His Holy Fire, that we might be a manifestation of Holy Spirit and breakthrough to the promise.  Amen.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Christuman Ordination Anniversary of Donna Leichtling

Carl Sandburg born 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois: poet, writer, editor and recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes; one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln and two for his poetry. Writings: Rootabaga Stories, The People, Yes!, The American Songbag.  Died, 1967.  Quotes: “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.” 

Kahlil Gibran born 1883 in Lebanon: artist, poet and writer. Works: The Prophet, Broken Wings, The Beloved.  Died, 1931.  Quotes: “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.” “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”  

Daily Signet

So hear me now, as we gather to the light of this fire, close together against the night. Listen with your heart as I speak with my heart. Listen with your mind as I speak with my mind. Listen with your body and give strength to my words. Look deep within and deep without. And see the Gift of Inner Fire. And with love, unite the Gift of Inner Fire with the Gifts of Life and of Tribal Fire and of Individual Reason. And named Christos, you will walk as Man with the Divine God. 

So may the Divine God accept this offering of ourselves and give power to the seed of fire that kindles within and without.                                                                      

Ben Leichtling

Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash

On This Day…

Sikh remembrance of the birthday of Guru Gobindh Singh

St. Simeon, 5C hermit and pillar sitter