Contemplating-
When you ask God what His vision of Himself is, He will say-
You.
I am content
with the mystery-
live in me.
When I look at my body,
feel my bones,
the press of my flesh-
I am that close to God,
I am that close to Life,
I am that close to myself.
Don’t be afraid.
God will find you.
It is through our challenges and the pains of some of our darkest hours that we share most profoundly in the mystery of wholeness, compassion, and healing.
Every need reflects a joy
that is searching for expression.
Every fear
a love waiting to be shared.
Being One,
always One,
we are blessed
to be two
You and I.
Father
You clothe yourself in Creation.
You are
within the garment of the wind,
the closeness in every touch;
You are what is seen and what is heard
though the eye does not see and the ear does not hear.
You are the nearness
in the space between all things,
and a knowing so simple
that the mind cannot follow.
You are the Life in the living,
but the living do not see it.
You are nearer to me
than my own breath,
You are what makes me visible to myself
and the world known to my heart.
Beatitudes
Who speaks for me
when I speak not?
Who will hear my sorrow
gone lost in the
crying of the world?
Who will drink of the cup
that I drink-
Who will see my loss
when not one dream
will remember its passing?
Who will plead my cause,
pray my prayer,
sing my song?
O’ who will lift me up
Who will say my name?
And who speaks for me
when I cannot?
Death
The dying man says
I will just stop and
rest here.
I will sleep a moment
then I will awake.
John 1: 5
I have a plastic Jesus.
One that stands on the dresser by my bed.
It glows in the dark.
I am so amazed that
someone knew what I needed.
Seeking
I am seeking
to be found-
seeking on the edges,
down the curved abyss,
in the violent deeps;
Seeking to be found
by the One Who seeks
the lost.
The Great Mystery
The great mystery that mystics speak of
is neither hidden nor distant.
It is the fullness of the hidden
made visible-
the breath embracing the body,
the unseen unfolding
as cell and limb, leaf and thought.
It weaves effortlessly
and affectionately through every way
and every path.
It is the destination of every movement,
the sacred becoming visible
the landscape of our longing-
endless revelation,
endlessly present.
Meeting God
When you meet God in the
Divine Liturgy,
meet Him as
The Almighty, Everlasting, Redeemer,
Eternal Word, Exalted and
Infinite-
when you meet Him in your room
meet him as friend.
As a Child
As a child
the world is always suddenly
waiting to happen.
And when it happens,
it is too big to hold on to
or run away from- like prayer.
Tabernacle
Build within me Lord
a house,
a great temple,
a house for all the glorious
and the poor,
the joyful
and the lost-
And let me be the small
and little place in this glory,
empty enough to hold you,
small enough to serve you,
holy enough to find you in all who come.
The Word
The Word is the lightness of breath,
the bringing forth,
the saying
and the seeing,
the knowing
and the holding.
It feeds life
with endless Grace,
its endless bounty,
its intimate landscape
and limitless horizon.
And each life makes this life
its own
and returns it ten fold
to be the life
that is shared by all.
Humility
As Man discovers
his humility
in the gentle
gaze of God,
he knows himself as love,
and becomes the
greatest of all creatures.
God’s love has covered our nakedness
With Himself.
Experiencing God
Our experience of God is always sufficient.
But never enough.
Only
Only darkness can hold the Light,
Only sin can hold forgiveness.
Only pain can hold hope,
Only the broken can hold beauty.
Only loss can hold peace,
Only the Cross can hold Life.
Only love can hold it all.
What then is Mine?
What then is mine?
Who am I that I am
gone wandering
in the world.
Who am I
that you hide me so close
in Yourself that I can hear the world’s heart beat
and remember every word ever spoken,
and every sound the world has ever made-
even now.
Eucharist
God is revealed in all of our consolations,
and hidden in the tight fabric of our pain.
With Him, we are ground by the teeth of life
into hope for the lost
and comfort for the suffering.
And in him we resurrect
as hope, solace,
and consolation.
God’s Love
God’s love is a blinding Light,
a burning Fire cast upon the earth
that devours the promises
of the mighty and the selfish,
and brings down the walls that guard the proud
to reveal the lowly and the broken,
and turns all that is not of the heart to ash.
God’s love is a gentle Light,
that warms the limbs from the cold grip of fear,
dispels every darkness,
raises the seed to flower,
shows the way to the wayfarer and the lost,
and wakens all that is dead to life.
As Close as a Breath
God is the deep eternal becoming of all that is-
Inconceivable, unthinkable,
incomprehensible;
As far as infinity,
as light as a leaf,
as knowable as love,
as close as the breath.
You
O’ Lord,
You are the greening of the bough,
the silence that rises on every wave;
You wake the dreaming and love the blindest creature,
you move the bounds of eternity
for every wayward soul,
and call the star-deep heaven your own;
you are the fire hidden in every flame,
the silent words of every sigh;
You are the longing of the new born,
song among the grasses,
the teaser of our soul,
the sound of the earth turning,
the depth of the great waters,
the gentle hope of the sick,
and the bright joy of the dying.
Presence
God is always hidden
where there is no place left
for us to hide.
He follows our flights of terror,
waits in the silent moment
of our surrender,
and has already arrived
at our every destination.
John 1:5
Flame of God’s Presence,
light in the darkness,
Fire of God
the Light that no eye sees
gleaming in the night of every day.
Gift of darkness
promise made good,
gift of Life
in haunting pain and abandoned fields,
turning the many deaths of our days
into the way the earth breaths,
and the heart sings,
gift of life
in life's life Giver.
Bread
We make the bread together,
The Lord and I.
Mixing the flour and water,
kneading and folding,
waiting in the rising,
shaping and forming,
firing and baking-
Then breaking bread
with one another,
sharing this together,
You and I.