compline

From a series of photos following the Liturgy of the Hours (Neither Use Nor Ornament)

“We entrust ourselves to the night as if it were a great ocean from which we can fish up all sorts of wonderful things..”
From The Music of Silence by David Steindl-Rast

"Let all mortal flesh keep silence."

Lax Post Card

Furthermore Press 1983

tiger (Lax)

drawing by Robert Lax, 1983 Furthermore Press

Tiger

A tiger

is like a

butterfly,

thought

the

tiger,

here today,

gone tomorrow

He is like a

bird - a hawk,

forever 

vigilant

He is even

a little

like an

elephant,

Ponderous

& basically

gentle

Not too

gentle,

said a 

younger

tiger

I only meant it

as a metaphor,

said the old one,

A tiger is like

a number of

things

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

Bjork - Jesus Prayer

A video of John Tavener's 'Prayer of the Heart' which he wrote especially for Bjork (an Icelandic singer/songwriter). It is a stunning setting of the 'Jesus Prayer' - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me".

Hidden among the Stars

"Adoration of the Magi", Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

Gerry Straub has a very moving Epiphany post, "Hidden Among the Stars", over on his blog today which includes this beautiful quote from St. Peter Chrysologus:

“Today the Magi find, crying in the manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky.

Today the Magi see clearly, in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars.

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.

As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.”

- St. Peter Chrysologus

A homeless God, lost in the night (The Advent Project)

Thank you to all readers who encouraged and accompanied me on the louie Advent project, pairing Merton's words (mostly from his poetry collection) with NASA photos from outer space.

As one reader noted, Merton was a "writing machine", and the photos evoked sentiments that Merton seemed to capture repeatedly.  One of my biggest problems was choosing just one poem from many that seemed appropriate.  I didn't go about this in any organized way, and many times I couldn't find again a writing that I found while perusing the huge collection of poetry.  That was frustrating

I may re-visit these photos and Merton writings, so I'm thinking of this project as a kind of "first draft".

I usually looked at the photo first, then explored Merton's poetry to find words that somehow "fit" the photo.  However, there was poem that I came upon repeatedly, but no photo ever appeared that captured the essence of the words:

The shadows fall.  The stars appear.  The birds begin,
     to sleep.
Night embraces the silent half of the earth.
A vagrant, a destitute wanderer with dusty feet, finds his
     way down a new road.
A homeless God, lost in the night, without papers,
     without identification,
without even a number, a frail expendable exile
lies down in desolation under the sweet stars of the world
and entrusts Himself to sleep.

-Thomas Merton,  "Hagia Sophia" IV Sunset, The Hour of Compline, Salve Regina, Collected Poems, p. 369

I may have to peruse the NASA photos and see if there is one that finds this homeless and lost God.

Merry Christmas to everyone.  Thank you.