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
A psalm for today...
ReplyDeleteObliged and shalom.
ReplyDeletegreetings
ReplyDeleteand
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 -
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.
Deletethank you
ReplyDeleteyou are just 2 nice !
perhaps
we are just pursuing our own reality -
blessings