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