The mystery of God is in the God above the God—the God above all names and images ascribed by all nations and tribes, above all descriptions—even above the apophatic namings: not that, not that and not that.
No label, no name, no role—no I found it bumper sticker can put borders on the nature of God and successfully name God. God is like the thought that forms a word and though the word is dispersed on the page and across the telephone lines and between the satellite dishes, the thought remains.
God is like a thought that pervades all formulation of words. Though the words convey the thought, they themselves are contained within the thought. Though they carry the thought's image, the thought still precedes them and extends above and beyond them.
Benjamin Martin
Gregory the Great: 6C Benedictine monk, appointed Pope on Sept. 3rd, 590; an excellent administrator, he wrote, directed and instructed relentlessly, reshaping liturgical practices, setting up programs for the relief of the poor, weeding out recalcitrant clergy, heretics and schismatics.
Sarah Orne Jewett born in Berwick, Maine on Sept. 3, 1875: poet and writer
Works: A White Heron, Country of the Pointed Firs, Deephaven
Quotes: “The road was new to me, as roads always are, going back.” “What has made this nation great? Not its heroes, but its households.” “God would not give us the same talent if what were right for men were wrong for women.”
To You who has woven yourself
into stone and sea throughout years
summed into trillions,
to You who blazes into stars
hung in galaxies unbounded,
to You who splices spirit
with body and mind
that we might reach Human,
we pay homage to the mystery of the Way.
And though the mystery be in us,
it is also beyond us.
And though it be beyond us,
it unfolds through us
into a thousand fruits of grace.
Benjamin Martin
There is a burning in my heart…
There is but one God and his name is manifold.
We call God—Allah, Yahweh, Brahman—
we call God—Ahura Mazda, Min, Manitou or Mithra.
God is the nameless with the hidden name.
So God is numinous, is light, is dark,
is all—is Omni-Dei.
—From the Mystery of God High Service
Edgar Rice Burroughs born in Chicago, Illinois in 1875: writer whose famous creation was Tarzan of the Apes, died 1950
Quotes: “I am alive and a reality, or am I but a dream?” “If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.” “You are here but for an instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously.”
Ahura Mazda, Brahman, Buddha, Tao, Allah, Yahweh, Christ.
God is not more when He speaks again 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 thousand years later, over Bethlehem or in a cave outside Mecca or in the Deer Park or by Deer Creek.
God is god-Eternally and Universally. Who expected less?
William Boast
St. Jerome: 4-5C priest, theologian, Doctor of the Church
Quote: “We have to translate the words of scripture into deeds.”
Truman Capote born 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana: writer, died 1984
Works: Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Other Voices, Other Rooms; A Christmas memory
Quotes: “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” “All literature is gossip.”
W.S. Merwin born 1927 in New York City: Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning poet
Works: Shadows of Sirius, The Moon Before Morning, The Rain In the Trees
Quotes: “Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong, you’ve lost the whole thing.” “On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree.”
Dear God, Remove from me all that keeps your light from glowing within. Help me to build on to this flame so that I may use it to see those paths which bring me to the Divine within, to you and for those who are also seeking. O Agni and Brahman, and all those names which are yours, the world is both spiritual and organic. Through the spiritual we are led to the soul, the light, the Divine. Through the organic we know the mortal. These are not separate; remind me to keep both in harmony, in synchrony. Initiate me with the drink of soma and bring my tapas from the profane to the sacred. Unite my mind and heart with the atman of Earl. Through this and a daily ritual of death of the old self/that which is not atman of Earl, may I ascend to heaven, come into your presence, be blessed and generate anew.
Earl Behnke
On This Day…
Samuel Johnson born 1709 in Litchfield, England: essayist, biographer, lexicographer, died 1784
Quotes: “The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up, some are going down.” “Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.”
