Daily Signet

“Who do men say I am?”  the Christ asks of his disciples. In answering this question of himself, he says, “I am…the way…the truth…the life…the bread... the fruit of the vine…the door…the good shepherd…the resurrection…the life…the Alpha…the Omega…that which is and was, and which is to come…the root and the Offspring…the origin of origins and the derivation as well…I am always vates…I am always and eternally the bright and morning star.”

“Who do you say I am?” asks the Christ Within. How often do we desacralize the holy name given us at birth as we answer: “I am an accountant, a tax collector, a Roman Prefect, a butcher, a baker, a toolmaker and I count notches on sticks.” How easily we toss the “I Am” about, as if it is powerless in its significance, and settle in comfort for a label: “I am a conservative, a liberal, agnostic; I am busy, tired, fine, angry. I am activity. I am what I eat.” 

“Who do men say I am?” asks the Wisdom that was in the beginning. May your “I am” reveal your kinship with the Christ within…always vatic, always revealing the vision, a Word of God sourced in the potential of the way, the truth, the life, the root and the Offspring, the Alpha and the Omega, the always and eternally bright and morning star. 

Teri Martin

On This Day…

St. Philip the Deacon: chosen by Jesus’s apostles to care for the needy so that they could be free to preach

Daily Signet

The Kingdom of Heaven is within me.

A dialogue of fire and green pastures
where what I do confronts that I am.  
What seemed afar off
now calls me out of my routine.  
This fearful event—
a death, a disease, a challenge, a burning bush—
addresses me with a voice of fire. 
I do not recognize the voice but I recognize it to be holy—
something wholly other than and yet wholly here. 
Out of what I know into an expression of what I cannot know.  
I stand on holy ground, 
my grave and my garden. 
And out of this ground I experience the I Am.   

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Shinto Day of Mourning for the massacre of peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China (1989)

Daily Signet

So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and behold this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” He made a conscious decision to turn aside to look. To marvel is to become filled with surprise, wonder or amazed curiosity. To take the time to see is the clear path to encountering a marvelous sight. Objectifying the landscape dumbs down the marvelous into the mundane. Everything is labeled and fixed in space. I remember the message of the book, Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain, that the key to drawing was not in the dexterity of the hands or even in the possession of an artistic gene but in learning to see. Learning to get past the stereotypical objectification that “It is a bush and all bushes have branches,” therefore, no need to stop to look. To stop to see is in opposition to the jaded mind-set, the daily grind, the unappreciated moment. Somehow, we must coach ourselves as Moses did and say to ourselves, “I must turn aside now to see.”                                                                                   

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

St. Justin: 2C monk, philosopher and martyr