What more can I desire than to forget myself and remember only God?
Ben Leichtling
Roald Dahl born 1916 in Cardiff, Wales: writer of children’s novels, died 1990
Works: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Twits
Quotes: “If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important.” “Nowadays, you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours and nothing is fabulous anymore.”
St. John Chrysostom: 4-5C Archbishop of Constantinople and Doctor of the Church; resisted efforts of the Patriarch of Alexandria to assert religious authority over Constantinople
Deep down and rooted in the ancestral code of me
the longing for you, O Beloved.
Deep down and rooted in this habitation of spirit
the longing for you, O Beloved.
Deep down and rooted into the far reaches of time's infinite spiral
the longing for you, O Beloved.
And how do I reach you except upon my altar.
And how do I join you except through your fire.
And how do I mix into you except through
the dissolution of that to which I am most attached,
except through the dissolution
of what secures me most,
except through the dissolution
of what I think most makes me unique.
Must it be through the smoke and flame of my own ashes?
Un-join what binds my life now that I might, though still earthbound
enjoin Life unbounded.
Though it be through the smoke
and flame of my own ashes,
release this visceral longing that I might, though still separate,
in spirit reunite as One.
Though it be through the smoke
and flame of my own ashes.
unmake what I offer now that I might, though still singular,
be remade into nourishment for you.
Benjamin Martin
Michael Ondaatje born 1943 in Colombo, Sri Lanka: novelist and poet
Works: The English Patient, In the Skin of a Lion, The Cinnamon Peeler
Quotes: “You create characters so you can argue with yourself.” “I see the poem or the novel ending with an open door.” “The first sentence of every novel should be: ‘trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town’.”
From revival meeting to boardroom, every community shares a lexicon of words that in turn reveal their patterns of beliefs and loves. The word "apophatic" has become a marker for me that well describes the song of Christuman. We use the tension of apophatic theology to fuel our quest for the divine, undefinable. I am drawn to the words of Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite. The words sing to mystery and secrecy of the divine. And how easily that patterns of Christuman come into my heart; how easily I could echo the song on this page. And yet, there is a downside to the apophatic. Such an approach can lead us to write off the possibility of the material, a product of our postmodern age which considers reality a "construct of our minds." In principle, I do not believe that Jesus came so that I could go to heaven. And so it would be easy to dismiss the incarnate god, just as quickly as I do Ward and June Cleaver, as a product of its time. Just a myth. But that would be a mistake. For god incarnate is a perpetual story. From Gilgamesh, to Mithra, to Jesus, the Buddha-God was made flesh. God was born as one of us. Does the universal story point to a universal truth about the God within us or to the divinity that can be substantiated through even the most advanced physics? Perhaps it is in the tension between the apophatic sun and the cataphatic earth that we find the spirit wind. The spirit that connects the two into something more grand than either could be on its own.
Jamie Ziegler
On This Day…
Coptic New Year which commemorates martyrs and confessors in Coptic Orthodox Christianity
D.H. Lawrence born Sept 11, 1885 in Eastwood, England: novelist and poet, died 1930
Works: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and Lovers, Women in Love
Quotes: “But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition or repetitions.” “Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.” “I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”
O Henry (Richard Sydney Porter) born Sept 11th, 1862 in North Carolina: writer of cryptic short stories, died 1910
Works: The Ransom of Red Chief, Cabbages and Kings, The Gift of the Maji
Quotes: “We may achieve climate but weather is thrust upon us.” “A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.”
Stars are sublime, as God is,
where matter and spirit touch,
where earth and holy intersect
Homo faber...homo poetus... homo sublime.
Out of our hunger for you—
our desire to be sustenance for your love
through the mixing of your grace
with the offering of our ashes
the consummation of Creator God
with human creation.
We celebrate all epiphanies and manifestations of you,
oh God, through all...
Glory be your name and your many faces.
From the Mystery of God Service
Hilda Doolittle (“H.D.”) born 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: poet, died 1961
Quotes: “Dance until the earth dances.” “Consider the birds, be wise as serpents.” “Ah, love is bitter and sweet, but which is more sweet – the bitterness or the sweetness, none has spoken it.”
Mary Oliver born 1935 in Ohio: Pulitzer Prize poet
Works: Dog Songs, Long Life, Thirst
Quotes: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” “Instructions for living a life: Pay Attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” “I simply do not distinguish between work and play.”
Our search for You is certain death
unless we seek to die.
Answers stand in stagnant pools
while unknowing fuels a living fire.
Burn up the words we worship,
yet infuse us with their heat.
Free us from our finding
that unfastened,
we may be naked in our seeking.
Kindle our death,
that we may die to self,
that life might rise from the ashes.
Benjamin Martin
On This Day…
St. Peter Claver: 17C Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary sent to Colombia, South America to minister to the African slaves, feeding them and treating their wounds before they were sold on. He is said to have baptized more than 300,000 and regularly traveled inland to visit his converts working on the plantations
Richard Wright born 1908 in Roxie, Mississippi”: writer, died 1960
Works: Native Son, Black Boy, Uncle Tom’s Children
Quotes: “Don’t leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.” “The artist must bow to the monster of his own creation.” “The impulse to dream was slowly beaten out of me by experience. Now it surged up again, and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing.”
