Tuesday, January 29, 2013

God Pursues Me Everywhere (Heschel)

 Detail of the interior of the Abbey Church - Photo by Thomas Merton

God Pursues Me Everywhere

by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

God pursues me everywhere,
Enmeshes me in glances,
And blinds my sightless back like flaming sun.

God, like a forest dense, pursues me.
My lips are ever tender, mute, so amazed,
So like a child lost in an ancient sacred grove.

God pursues me like a silent shudder.
I wish for tranquility and rest -- He urges; come!
And see -- how visions walk like the homeless on the streets.

My thoughts walk about like a vagrant mystery --
Walks through the world's long corridor.
At times I see God's featureless face hovering over me.

God pursues me in the streetcars and cafes
Every shining apple is my crystal sphere to see
How mysteries are born and vision came to be.

- from "Human, God's Ineffable Name," by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, freely rendered from the Yiddish by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi

HT: Jim Forest

5 comments:

  1. greetings
    and
    happy Bethday -

    my 2 cents

    too think that i am some one special and
    buddy buddy with god he or she or
    jesus is my friend thing or i got fire on my head
    from the holy ghost or spirit or what ever the third personality
    really tunes me off -alas
    i am very happy to know that god is chasing you
    and not me for what ever reason so good luck
    and thank you Mr. Heschel ________________________

    Blessings

    nice Merton photo -

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I often feel that way myself bob. It's the god language that makes me squirrel-y - presuming to know such things. Still I think that Heschel is getting at something that I find to be true here despit the god language. Thanks for your 2 cents. Always helpful to me.

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  2. thank you

    you are just 2 nice !

    perhaps

    we are just pursuing our own reality -

    blessings



    ReplyDelete