Friday, February 27, 2009

You wait ~

art by Viktor Vasnetsov. His only begotten son and the word of God

You wait for us
until we are open to you.
We wait for your word
To make us receptive.
Attune us to your voice,
to your silence,
speak and bring your Son to us -
Jesus, the word of your peace.
Your word is near,
O Lord our God,
your grace is near.
Come to us, then,
Do not let us be deaf to you,
but make us receptive and open
to Jesus Christ your Son,
who will come to look for us and save us
today and every day
for ever and ever.

~Huub Oosterhuis

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Gold ~

"Consider gold: the oftener it is melted, the more pure does it become; continue to melt it and every imperfection is destroyed. This is the effect of fire on all materials.

The soul, however, cannot be annihilated in God, but in herself she can, and the longer her purification lasts, the more perfectly does she die to herself, until at length she remains purified in God.

When gold has been completely freed from dross, no fire, however great, has any further action on it, for nothing but its imperfections can be consumed. So it is with the divine fire in the soul.

God retains her in these flames until every stain is burned away, and she is brought to the highest perfection of which she is capable, each soul in her own degree. And when this is accomplished, she rests wholly in God. Nothing of herself remains, and God is her entire being.

When he has thus led her to himself and purified her, she is no longer passable, for nothing remains to be consumed. If when thus refined she should again approach the fire she would feel no pain, for to her it has become the fire of divine love, which is life eternal and which nothing mars."

~St Catherine of Genoa, 16th century


Monday, February 23, 2009

Fire and Light ~

William Turner,
The Angel Standing in the Sun

Wouldst thou know my meaning?
Lie down in the Fire
See and taste the Flowing
Godhead through thy being;
Feel the Holy Spirit
Moving and compelling
Thee within the Flowing
Fire and Light of God.

~Mechthild of Magdeburg, 13th century




Sunday, February 22, 2009

Word

... my heart's climate is not constant; I doubt if anyone's is. My inner
weather shifts with the days. But much sunshine has shone on me through the sharing and giving and receiving.

And so I am taught to pray. And so I am taught to be. -- Madeleine L'Engle, June 1978

I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns
To hold its peace, to listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I leave, returned to language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended.
I, who live by words, am wordless when

I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen.

~Madeleine L'Engle