We spent the weekend up at the Lakehouse again, and the time spent there never fails to amaze me. Always something knew to see, always a different variation on a theme – be it sunlight or mist or rain – and we never grow tired of that music. Standing on the dock and just looking is a contemplative gaze, and has the power to pull the child out of every heart.
Archive for August, 2009
Fertile Ground
August 31, 2009This Week’s Mission Moment – August 24, 2009
August 24, 2009A Sacred Space – Mary Immaculate Center
August 20, 2009– Pope John Paul II
This Week’s Mission Moment
August 17, 2009Peace Out
August 15, 2009“Maintain a spirit of peace and you will save a thousand souls.”
– St. Seraphim
We just finished a week’s vacation in Maine with the family “from the north” – my dad, brother, wife, and two little ones. My brother Sean manages a summer camp “up they’ah” and he took us all on a little pleasure cruise last night. We slipped over the glassy surface of Washington Pond, just as the sun was tipping his hat to the day on the western rim of the world, in a pontoon boat. It was recently “kitted out” with new carpet and new cooshy seats, each equipped with a snazzy drink holder. In essence, it’s like taking your living room out for a drive (or float I should say).
Our little guy is just 11 months old now (we can’t believe it), and Sean and Amy’s little ones are each under 5. Needless to say, the down time for us adults is few and far between. It comes in dribs and drabs, like scattered coins that we’re quick to pick up. Last night’s cruise, brief as it was, came like a shower of gold.
The kids were strapped, secured, and seated, and under the watchful eyes of five adults. So for a few moments, slipping out across the cool water, we each in our turns could let the mind wander….
Water lapping up on the hull.
Wind over the face.
Dark pines on the edge of the water.
Sunshine peeking through the trees. Sunshine pouring honey on the
lake’s skyward gaze.
A loon in the distance.
The face of my father looking out and up as he held the throttle that muttered bubbly commands to the engine below. And on the deck, quiet submission. For just seconds at a time, a quiet surrender to the peace of the moment.
In the flurry of our work in the “real world” these moments of peace can keep us afloat.
Beauty as Teacher
August 7, 2009I’ve had this article in my treasury of killer quotes from Pope John Paul II for a couple of years now. It shares his thoughts on Beauty and its connection to Truth. In the words of the Lucky Charms mascot, they are magically delicious! Magic in that they break the spell of modern reductionism with the counter-spell of wonder and awe, and the sacramental vision that sees not just dead matter, but the Divine Heart that shapes and holds it in existence.
“The brilliance of contemplated beauty opens the spirit to the mystery of God.”
“Indeed, when love and the search for beauty spring from a dimension of faith, one can penetrate the depth of things and come into contact with the One who is the source of everything that is beautiful.”
“It is evident that nature, things, people, are able to cause astonishment because of their beauty. How is it possible not to see, for example, in a sunset in the mountains, in the immensity of the sea, in the features of a face something that is attractive and, at the same time, compels one to know more profoundly the reality that surrounds us?”
“Truth is perceived in the beautiful, which attracts to itself through the unmistakable fascination that springs from great values. Thus feeling and reason find themselves radically united in an appeal addressed to the whole person. Reality, with its beauty, makes one feel the beginning of the fulfillment and seems to whisper to us: ‘You will not be unhappy; the desire of your heart will be fulfilled, what is more, it is already being fulfilled.'”
The message points to the Book of Wisdom in the Bible, which reminds us that “from the greatness and beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen” (Wisdom 13:5).
Get On
August 5, 2009Oh this is a poor poor translation of the gift of the man Dave Wilcox and his music…. but behold, through the scratchy, smooshed up digitization of YouTube…. pure gold. I’m using this song for the retreat this weekend in Connecticut. The lyrics are key for so many of us, torn between the war of heart and mind…
…right now I only wish I knew
Where all of this is leading to
I’m working up the courage
As I stand here with your hand in mine
And I’m running out of time
And my heart says, C’mon let’s go
And my mind’s saying, I don’t know
And the train is at the station
But I’m lost in contemplation
And this ticket’s only good for just so long
I can think about it ’til that train is gone
Or just get on
I Love This Nun
August 4, 2009The Pool of God
There was nothing in the Virgin’s soul
that belonged to the Virgin –
no word, no thought, no image, no intent.
She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting
God, only God.
She held His burnished day; she held His night
of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.
God was her sky and she who mirrored Him
became His firmament.
When I so much as turn my thoughts toward her
my spirit is enisled in her repose.
And when I gaze into her selfless depths
an anguish in me grows
to hold such blueness and to hold such fire.
I pray to hollow out my earth and be
filled with these waters of transparency.
I think that one could die of this desire,
seeing oneself dry earth or stubborn sod.
Oh, to become a pure pool like the Virgin,
water that lost the semblances of water
and was a sky like God.
– Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit (Jessica Powers)
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The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers
The Riddle at Twisted Mystics
August 3, 2009A couple of years ago, my wife and I were driving from some place to some place else when Five for Fighting’s “The Riddle” came on the radio. “Have you heard this one?” she asked. “I don’t think so…” Then she smiled, “You’re gonna love it.” She was right….
Read the rest at the Twisted Mystics Blog