Book Review: "Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the 'Saint of Calcutta'"

by Peter Menkin

This is the story of a holy woman's journey with Christ, her growth in relationship and spirit told through her letters, with narration by a man of the Roman Catholic cloth. A stunning and revealing story, "Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the `Saint of Calcutta'" edited and with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ph.D. tells us of Christ's thirst, his loneliness for human souls, and the same expression returned in love through need by reciprocity--a mirror of living the Cross in letters and in service to others by a Roman Catholic Nun. There is lots of light in this book.

In the chapter, "God Shows his Nothingness to Show his Greatness," Mother Teresa's spiritual experience is described:

"Her long experience of darkness, her sense of rejection, her loneliness, the terrible and unsatisfied longing for God, each sacrifice and pain had become for her as one more `drop of oil' that she readily offered to God, to keep the lamp--the life of Jesus within her--burning, radiating His love to others and so dispelling the darkness."

A sometimes apophatic experience of Christ, after years of much darkness and unknowing, Mother Teresa came to recognize and live the Christ experience as a knowing by his feeling of God's abandonment on the Cross, and his tears and need, his suffering and darkness at his time of the Cross and during his life. Mother Teresa found a union of understanding with Christ--through Christ a holiness of spirit and a gift to mankind.

This is a work of religious history, through letters of intimacy; the work is a service of literary religious feeling and belief. The book reveals her service to the poorest of the poor. Her obedience to the Church and her obedience in faith is literally a marvel of discipline and rigor. It is by the strength of God that she was given such Obedience, and to God she devoted her life in service. So this book demonstrates in words and letters.

A marvelous revelation of personal letter writing, the confession of an unknowing-knowing journey and suffering which she recognized as sharing in the suffering of Christ. Observers have claimed that her journey was a failure of faith, and a darkness of spirit that made her despair. True, she experiences despair and writes of her pain, but evidenced by her continued work and prayer, she maintained faith and journey with Christ in the most holy of ways. So I postulate based on her letters and the narrative written by Father Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Missionaries who works towards the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

A famous Nun of her time in the 20th Century, Mother Teresa's book of letters and her life as a light of Christ, will have a place in religious literature for decades to come. This book is a most interesting and fulfilling book for people interested in the religious life, and living with Christ through their own relationship and religious life as Christians. For Mother Theresa and her religious worked tirelessly for the poorest of the poor, in a special way of religious devotion. Many of these poor lived and live on the streets of Calcutta, in a hole, or a dirt floor shack. The religious Order Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of Charity, provide their service in many cities in India and other parts of the world including the United States.

Many or much of the poor helped by Missionaries of Charity (mostly Nuns, but a few Brothers and some Priests), are as poor or many significantly poorer than those poor described in the sociology book "Poor People," by William T. Vollmann. From the Rules of her Order, started and led during her lifetime mostly as Mother Superior:

"The General End of the Missionaries of Charity is to satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the love and souls by the Sisters [through] absolute poverty, angelic charity, cheerful obedience." To do this they carry "...Christ into the homes and streets of the slums, [among] the sick, dying, the beggars and the little street children..."

People all over the world admired this woman who was born in Skopje, Macedonia, in 1910 and died 1997. The Roman Catholic Church beatified her in 2003. The dust cover quotes her famously: "If I ever become a Saint--I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from Heaven--to light the light of those in darkness on earth." A chilling note, a note enough to give one a chill, Mother Teresa lived a good life and her Order remains active today. They bring light to darkness.

This calling is a noble means of doing God's work, and in the religious life serving and connecting to Christ. The book tells of this work and its development, both the order itself as a developing group of religious, but mainly of Mother Teresa's relationship and struggles of spiritual and religious significance in her saintly life and holy connection to Jesus Christ: Letters that cast a light on Christ and his relationship with mankind.

--Peter Menkin, 4th week of Advent (Sunday) 2007

"Advent"

by Peter Menkin

Grace:

Yielding To God.

Quiet:

Waiting In the season.

Christ is coming,

Born this year.

"Listening to my Muse, Conversations w/the Holy Spirit III"

by Peter Menkin

The resurrection of the dead, you Almighty

blessed from eternity to eternity, say

"...in that age and in the resurrection from the dead

neither marry nor are given in marriage."

Pray,

"Indeed they cannot die anymore."

Mystery and wonder, can this be--the end.

As I wait this Advent, waiting on Christmas,

the beauty of the liturgy, the starry Eucharist,

the gathering of the congregation, what is desire?

I desire You; oh, my soul

I read the Psalms as St. Romauld suggests,

and my dear one Christ, which a Priest says,

offers wisdom's gifts of healing, too. Manifold graces, tears.

"Advent Candle"

by Peter Menkin

Lit a candle.

My heart is beginning,

My heart is hopeful,

My heart is open.

It is in the season,

A coming, something.

A coming, remarkable.

A coming, promise.

It is the light in the day.

"Talking to the Muse, Conversations with the Holy Spirit I"

by Peter Menkin

My muse interrupted the reverie

this June day

with the tune, milieu-divine,

"Pennies from Heaven"

awakening event of syncopating glee. Communion.

Decca Jazz.

We live on this food: along the path

I find myself, bread & wine, fed by You.

It is a manna the Lord offers: a suitable meal --

traveling to liberty of soul in Triune God.

Manifold graces. Eucharist.

Piano plays, ratta-tat-honky-tonk swing,

refrain introduce jumpin' yes riddly-dit.

The horn blows responding, like Priests

out of 2 Chronicles. Swing it.

Dance music to Honeysuckle Rose

some hymn to intro, heaven-sent,

"Everytime it rains it rains pennies from heaven...

you'll find your fortune falling all over town."

"Talking to the Muse, Conversations with the Holy Spirit II" (Count Basie)

by Peter Menkin

My muse interrupted the reverie

this June day with the tune, "Pennies from Heaven"

awakening syncopating glee. Count Basie.

Decca Jazz.

We live on this food: along the path

I find myself fed by You.

It is a manna the Lord offers: a suitable meal --

traveling to liberty of soul in Triune God.

Manifold graces.

Piano plays, ratta-tat-honky-tonk swing,

refrain introduce jumpin' yes riddly-dit.

The horn blows responding,

like Priests out of 2 Chronicles. Swing it.

Dance music to Honeysuckle Rose

some hymn to intro "Everytime it rains it rains pennies from heaven...

you'll find your fortune

falling all over town."

Book Review: "Expanding Our Hearts in Christ: Perspectives on The Rule of Saint Benedict"

"The Rule of St. Benedict" is an optimistic work. Sister Aquinata Bockman, the author of the book of commentary on it titled, "Expanding our Hearts in Christ: Perspectives on The Rule of Saint Benedict", says it is so for the monastic, and for the reader of The Rule who is a layperson. Aquinata Bockmann calls the work, in declarative terms, an "imperative."

The Benedictine Nun, who has taught in Rome since 1973 at the Pontifical Institute for Spirituality and Moral Theology Regina Mundi, says it is "...a promise offered personally to each monastic..." that "...expresses the optimistic tone." (My editorial emphasis.)

The Rule begins: "Listen..." Simple, yet profound.

There is much here for all of us to gain benefit. The writer is learned.

Referring to another classic work, as she often does to expand and explain in a scholarly manner The Rule in her wonderful and thoughtfully fulfilling book, "Expanding Our Hearts in Christ: Perspectives on the Rule of Saint Benedict," The German Sister quotes: "My son, listen, son, to your father's instruction, and incline your ear to my words. Readily devote your attention to me, and with a faithful heart heed to all that is said. For I want to teach you about the spiritual battle and to instruct you in the ways that you should fight for your king."

How excellently this adds measure to the opening words of The Rule, which is: "Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice."

These words come down to us through fifteen hundred years. Traditional truth and learning, certainly. She notes Benedict had certainly read that first quote in the Latin in the Admonitia S. Basilii ad filium spiritualem. Right from her book's beginning the theme that St. Benedict worked with previous texts, especially "The Rule of the Master" indicates both a strength in his work and his ability to make it a Rule outliving, and widely outlasting in popularity and use all previous sources. This Rule is without doubt one of Benedict's own originality and wisdom, though it relies on the Fathers of the Church, Scripture, and previous texts. Where does the work of commentary point the reader?

It is pointed out to us that it is Christ who points us from within. So we learn about expanding the heart in Christ in this work, and it is a work that delivers. You won't be disappointed in her commentary, so I believe. "The inmost soul expands and extends into God," she writes of The Rule. Covering selected parts of The Rule, she continues, "Like the Master, Benedict seems to believe that walking, just moving ahead, is not enough. Rather one should hasten, run (cf. RB 73). This seems to be a sign of intense love and zeal, as well as of longing for God and the magnetism of God who comes to meet us."

In a decade, nay even an era, where we have forgotten God, and some say God has forgotten us, and faith is hard to come by, we learn of ways of faith and the heart, we learn that The Rule asks for zeal. The commentary points a way, the way of The Rule. What is this "zeal" the postmodern man and woman may ask? Sister Aquinata writes, "...we see that zeal is a radical passion in people. It is exclusive, permeates everything, and knows no half-measures. It is a dynamic reality, the direct opposite of weak, tired, timid, or hesitant movement." We are given doors that open us to the necessities of faith in this work, an important need in this time and certainly both the century previous to this one. Broad statement as I've made, large in its expansive way, there is a truth to this book's exhortations, as there remains the strength that The Rule brings to its reader's faith. Call this commentary a companion book of faith.

In the book's section, "That This Rule Does Not Contain the Full Observance of Justice," we learn, "Benedict addresses any human being, `anyone,' indicating that he is not referring to special perfection for a certain group." This is a commentary that calls the work a way to the Creator. Benedict "...realizes his solidarity with all of humanity that ought to let the Fathers, especially through Sacred Scripture, help us on the way to the Creator." A work that relies heavily on scripture, Benedict is a genius--a religious genius. So I say, and so it is implied in this work about his Rule. How one enters in the monastery, makes a request, is similar to the way one makes a request in Christ of God. The Rule says, "Therefore, if the newcomer perseveres in knocking and if it becomes evident in four or five days that he patiently bears the injustices done to him and the difficulties of entering and persists in his request, then entrance is to be granted, and he may first stay in the guest quarters for a few days." It is pointed out in the commentary, "Yet we may also recall that the Lord himself knocks in this way on our door and remains there even if we do not open to let him in readily..." A metaphor for coming to Christ, certainly. "

How much it is emphasized that humility is an important attribute of The Rule. "...[H]umility is the fundamental attitude of hospitality." In my own zeal for hospitality, I've gone on at length about the commentary and The Rule. I purposefully wrote a long review, yet despite various efforts have not done the book justice, nor given it the review it merits to say how good it really is as a commentary. There is so much to this book. Read it yourself; you won't be sorry. What is the worth of The Rule, and what is the worth of all the exhortation and explanation and commentary of the work by Sister Aquinata Bockmann in her book, "Expanding Our Hearts in Christ: Perspectives on the Rule of Saint Benedict"?

I want to end this review with a quotation about stability of heart used in the book from Gregory of Nyssa: "This is the most marvelous thing of all, how the same thing is both a standing still and a moving...I mean by this that the firmer and more immovable one remains in the Good, the more he progresses in the course of virtues...It is like using the standing still as if it were a wing while the heart flies upward through its stability in the Good." This Rule of Benedict is a book of ethical teaching, moral teaching, and a work about God and getting to know and live with him, a means of expanding our hearts in Christ. It says stay with God.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday, 2007

This review appears on Amazon.com.

Film Review: "Into Great Silence"

An edited transcription from a public email discussion of “Into Great Silence” indicates that this film is a winner: director Philip Groening's study of the Grande Chartreuse monastery.This is the opening email, written by Father R. and talks about the main character of the movie. Keep in mind that the film is silent, with subtitles, and that it took sixteen years for the filmmaker to receive permission to film the inner life of the monastery. Father R. writes in his message:

“Fr. Laurence Freeman…made a fascinating point, that the major character of the whole is the mysterious God, there everywhere: in the monks, in the hallways and the church, out in the fields. And the implication is that God should be the main character in our lives, in our hallways and church and fields.”

The life of a monk is one dedicated to God. “Into Great Silence” documents the events in the life of monks who live in a Carthusian monastery in France. The DVD I own has two disks, with the second disk containing a statement by Cardinal Pupard, (that is an added attraction and insightful words on the cultural merits of "Into Great Silence"). There are other interesting commentaries on the second disk. Regarding the film, which is on the first disk, I found this a powerful film.

In response to Father R., I wrote in my public email:

“Dear Father R.
"I like what you say about the film ("Into Great Silence"), for it is so apparent and yet not noticed as you've said: The mysterious God. That's part of the mystery. Thanks for the surprising observation.The photography (cinematography) is excellent, so artistic and spare, adding to the silence and simplicity. The director captures the pace of life in the monastery effectively. It helps in viewing the film. Many fine shots, like stills. This is a good documentary, and a work of art.I received my 2 CD set as a birthday gift, bought from Amazon.com. The experience of watching the film helps me to fill out the sense of community and relationship between monks and with God. I'm lucky to be reading Aquinata Bockmann, "Expanding Our Hearts in Christ, Perspectives on the Rule of Saint Benedict." Film is a powerful help to the imagination, and this film brings outa sense of lives committed to Christ. For not only is that a message in this film, it is also a message of Sister Bockmann’s book.”

There are many special moments in this film: the changing of the seasons, the rhythm of daily life through the seasons, and even the faces of the monks looking into the camera. This series of portraits is in itself interesting. During the email discussion, Anne wrote of her delight and interest in seeing the faces of the monks:

In response to the power the film held for this religious woman, Anne a viewer of the film, said:

“What they seemed to be saying to me was -- We have found it: the thing everyone in the world looks for, the deepest longing of every human heart: we have discovered it. Their faces radiate a celestial joy and a peace from beyond themselves. Something in my soul reached back out to them in longing and recognition and love. It's a moment that makes your heart whisper a long 'yes.'”

She saw in the film men fulfilling their lives. This is a positive film, filled with a kind of awe. The awe is in the life of these monks, as how they live and what they do in their prayers and dedication. It is in their peace, and their connectedness to the Almighty.

For the individual or group interested in religious subjects, wanting to learn more about life in a monastery, or what it is to dedicate one’s life to Christ, this film is an excellent choice. For film buffs interested in an artistic and visually beautiful film, this is an excellent choice. For seekers of God who wish to see what a group of people are like who make God primary in their lives, this choice of film is helpful and edifying. In fact, in its form, style, and method, this is an edifying film.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2007 (November)

This review is posted on Amazon.com.

Fall is Here
by Peter Menkin



breakfast
good morning

sunrise
wash bowl and spoon

anticipation
morning prayer.

Talking to the muse, Conversations with the Holy Spirit

By Peter Menkin - Jun 20, 2001

Edited October 27, 2007

"The spirit moves on the waters, breath of God

"to its dark and furthest corners by the wind

of heaven blown" You bring this melodious

soundings as all the earth around me receives

the wind that blows; divine love may we

gain the human self

You offer. Holy Trinity

the place begun is the place I found, as again

I see others and myself lose their lives to have

their life. Come Holy Spirit, as you are in languages

many, knowing our hearts and secret desires.

Love is a tender embrace, an entry so gentle

encompassing the spirit and soul, seducing and arousing

with whispers and songs; on the daylight through each

day and in the night, for O gracious Light,

Yours is the day, O God, Yours also the night...

the sunshine and season seek us with Your spirit

among us, in us, behind us, before us, below us,

above us.

Double-click image to make larger and readable.

Poem in Ruah: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry published by Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California USA. http://popruah.opwest.org/ My poem, "Poetic Recitation on the Rule of St. Benedict" is on page 30 in this 2007 edition.

The Poem

Attend with the ear of your heart

Listen in the silence

at night or daytime

through trials and living.

This Rule brings God, the Lord

closer: do so to me.

Labor of obedience

Before beginning a good work, pray earnestly,

We are the Lord's counted

sons and daughters.

The path offers good gifts,

open your eyes to the light.

Arise from sleep.

The Rule proffers the voice

from heaven this day.

--Peter Menkin

Book Review: "The Genesee Diary"

For the Catholic Priest and writer, Henri J.M. Nouwen, writing about visiting a Trappist Monastery is more than a diary, a visit to a monastery, it is a statement of insight and inspiration by a writer who starts his book with the simple words, "Thanks be to God that I am here!" Like the report on his visit, his words are heartfelt. The title is descriptive and straightforward, like the book itself: "The Genesee Diary: A Report from a Trappist Monastery."

A sincere, remarkable memoir by the writer, I was taken with his willingness to seek God and in his seeking come to terms with his life and relationship in Christ. Although it is a religious book, no doubt, the light hand of the well-known Henri J.M. Nouwen will not disappoint a wide readership. After all, this popular and well-regarded work has stood the test of time since it was first published, and, happily, is available again to a new generation of readers.

In his honesty, Nouwen says at one point about his conversations of spiritual direction with the Abbot John Eudes, "If I allowed no one but the Lord to determine my identity, would I know the Lord? Or is it a fact that even in my meditation I relate to the Lord as I relate to people--that is--by manipulation and projection."

Please don't be misled; this is a good man telling of his struggles, a brilliant man, even. Once a professor at Harvard, his time at Genesee brings him to say, "...I can slowly detach myself from this need for human affirmation and discover that it is in the relationship with the Lord that I find my true self, an unconditional surrender to him becomes not only possible, but even the only desire..." We journey with Father Nouwen as this unfolding reveals what he hoped for by staying at the monastery, not only for reflection and meditation, but also a coming to himself.

It is fair to say this book is about God and man; as part of his explanation, the writer states how the means to that end is prayer: "Speaking about prayer, I asked John Eudes a question that seemed very basic and a little naïve: `When I pray, to whom do I pray?' `When I say `Lord,' what do I mean?" In his quiet way, almost unnoticed by the ease of manner in the writing, the book addresses many most important questions. That is what Abbot John Eudes calls this particular insight about prayer, "...[a] most important question."

I found this book a book about love. "I would like to think a little more about love," he says, and he writes of how the monastery is a place of relationships. We learn how the monks live out their lives in Christ. We learn how he joins them, and they especially offer a hospitality that is one in Christ. Henri J.M. Nouwen comes to find this love, which teaches him, aids him in his ruminations and self-appraisals of his relationship and life in the world. After all, this is a book about a retreat. An admirable and readable hardback title published by Doubleday in my copy, certainly an asset to anyone's need for spiritual direction in the form of a report, and an asset as a book that fills the need for a just plain good read.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2007


This review appears on Amazon.com.

Book Review: "The Way of Jesus"

I come to recognize publishers that publish books interesting to me, specifically with titles of spiritual and religious topics. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company of Michigan, USA and Cambridge, United Kingdom is one such publisher. A friend loaned me the book titled, “The Way of Jesus,” I am happy to recommend this anonymous work after reading it. I admit I may have found myself overlooking the title if it had not been brought to my attention. This is a book helpful in knowing Christ and living the Christian life.

The book was originally discovered in Germany in 1516 under the title “Theologia Germanica,” published by Martin Luther. A contemporary style helps with understanding the work, it was translated into the contemporary English by Tony D’Souza, who lives in London, England. The writing contains a certain charm without being difficult to the 21st Century American reader; hence the editing is successful if only containing a whiff of plainness and kind of simplicity. This may be to its credit, after reading the entire book and looking back on it.

You guess this is a mystical work, probably, and you guess right. Written in short segments, one may read it on a daily basis finding time to reflect on each chapter. I read it straight through, so to speak, not reading it as a devotional, but as an instructive and illuminating work on Christ and my relationship and understanding of him in my life. Fortunately, I found this satisfying and illuminating. The work is an illuminating book, 140 pages and introduces itself on the cover as, “a contemporary edition of a spiritual classic.” Tony D’Souza is noted as “editor,” by the way. Just to be clear on the matter and give proper credit to him.

From the start, the book offers evidence and instruction: “…[O]ur knowledge of God should become so perfect that we see that none of our gifts or will, love or good works come from ourselves but that they all come from God, from whom all good proceeds.” Perhaps you as reader of this review say, “How obvious.” But I recall a situation where I confused my own sense of smallness before God instead of his largeness; instead my posture required an attitude of humility that accepts and acknowledges His goodness and greatness. This is not so large an error, or far from a way to humility, yet to get on a better path to the Way of Jesus this book is helpful in sorting out relationship and truths. There is discernment on its pages.

Again, in the same line, as the author says early in the book, “…[I]t is better that God should be loved, praised, and honored even if we vainly imagine that we love or praise God. This is preferable to God being left unloved, unpraised, and unhonored, because when the vain imagination turns into understanding of truth, then claiming anything for our own will fall away naturally…’Poor fool that I was, I imagined it was me, but all the time it was God.’” Simple, yes, but clarifying and also helpful in bringing the reader to an insight to Christ’s significant and special relationship with mankind (womankind, too, of course.)

It is by degrees and example, by various dictums the writer lets us know something of perspective: “Four Things Are Necessary Before a Person Can Receive Divine Truth and Become Possessed by the Spirit of God.”

Possessed by the spirit of God? I ask, and I wonder. This statement about divine truth is novel to my ears, as are discussions of evil personified by the Devil. Yet as a reviewer I urge you to buy the book to read on and persevere; the reader will find this endeavor of a book both entertaining and also written so that its certain realities are recognizable in our century. Reading a classic work does take some leaps and jumps, especially when written almost 500 years ago.

Christ says blessed are the poor. He means material poverty, and that is common knowledge. But he also says, blessed are the poor in spirit, and the author who is imparting “knowledge,” or a way of knowing, ends a chapter with the promise of his teachings: “Out of this grows that poverty of spirit of which Christ said…” One gets the firm intention of learning something about spiritual poverty by this work, and thereby a humility. To this end, the chapter headings are like aphorisms, such as the chapter just noted: “There is a Deep and True Humility and Poverty of Spirit in a Person Who Shares in the Divinity of God.” I thought these a kind of Zen Koan. But slightly so. More a puzzle made statement than an exercise in special construction. Yet the book is that, too, in its own way. There you have a sense of the way mystery is constructed by the modern edition, I guess the modern language is true to the original since a noteworthy publisher publishes the book. Here is another “aphorism”, clearer and less puzzling, but a puzzle: “What Sin Is, and How We Must Not Claim Any Good thing for Ourselves, because All Good Belongs to the True Good Alone.”

I was glad to find this book title available through Amazon.com, for I tried searching on it (the title), but could not find the book. I tried a search on the editor, Tony D’Souza, and found the book on Amazon.com. This particular copy, which was loaned to me, was purchased at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California (USA) where my friend said she found it by browsing.

I am happy she thought it suited my interests and tastes, and also that I would appreciate something that takes a desire for a special religious flavor of instruction. My Deacon friend practices contemplation in the morning, and knowing my own interest in contemplative prayer is correct in her recognition that contemplatives will find the book, “The Way of Jesus,” helpful in living a Christian life. That is a lot to say about a book, but I am sure if you’ve gotten this far in this review, you have an interest that will make this a work beneficial to your own life, contemplative in leaning or not. This is also a book for the active life in Christ, for it clarifies and instructs on understanding this historic person and God. A helpful book in living a Christian life.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2007


This amateur review of mine appears on Amazon.com.

Reminder to myself...
by Peter Menkin

To be with God...
The sacrament
of paradoxes
talk
in quiet.

Allow God to come, go
abide.

We are living
with desire
to be with the Almighty
in spirit-thought.

Raise your hands, like a prayer.

The evening light shows
suns glow, and I am thankful
for safety and peace.

Notes from The Atlantic site on other works (from 2001)

Tonight I am not sure I can take much death...


There seems to be something that let's us have the strength to bear these things, death of a parent. Mine never leave me, really, and I find as I remember my mother or my father every day that they seem to rest a little bit more. They struggled a great deal, and they laughed a great deal, and they found a way in the world together.

Most of the conversations I had with my father towards the end of his life had in them some question about my mother. He asked of me the same thing, of where she was or had gone. He kept expecting her back, soon. This was something tangible for him, for he could not imagine, let alone comprehend, that she would be gone someway away from him. Apparently, she was really just at the neighbors. In fact, she was dead. I thought, she's gone to heaven and he knows something we don't know.

In other conversations, he spoke of his mother. He told about riding behind cars on skates in the streets of New York City as a boy. He asked for his brother. He wanted to hear about people in the movies, and surprisingly he talked of people who had been good to him. Someone had been good to him, and he remembered.

"Heap my love instead," is a good thing, and painful.

Peter

This story or poetic recollection of praying with the Sisters is about impetuousness, or else the Holy Spirit. The church is a living place.

I sometimes wish I had not done something, or said something. Then I try to find a way to make it better, if it comes along. Here in this telling, I was moved by the need to get on my knees. What I wanted to be better was no loss, no mourning, no tears, no coming and waiting for the Kingdom, some way to end the ache and the loneliness, and a means to reach out as a human being.

The situation was like the time I entered into church early one day and only the minister was there. I cried out, "Reveal yourself." My call was to God. Daring cry in the almost empty church, but I was full of song and heard the Lord and heavens singing.

How does one confess ones mistakes, glorious moments as a fool in the spirit, and simply times of saying the thing that is all right in a given context but wrong in another. Or so is thought at the moment, when not so. Is the result this answer: Many times these things have a way of working themselves to the best.

There is an awe to responding to God. We were doing that in the evening, when it was dark, in our aloneness and togetherness.

I hope this is so since in this situation no one minded my getting on my knees and praying. Me and the Nuns, that's what we did. This was one of those times when I think God was pleased. I wanted to tell about it because there is a certain truth in this kind of experience, one of praying with people one doesn't know in a church one's never been to with religious people one never saw before for a woman who died and is missed and at the time surrounded mostly by friends. I think I know that going home time, those moments when things aren't always the same, when Christ is near, and also when I, too, carried someone else's cross.

Thank God others have helped me with mine.

Have I evoked the neighborhood nature of the experience with the worldly famous during the unfathonable? If not, let me tell you the spiritual reality is true and real. Maybe it was a one time life thing, but I want to reach out some more and also be. This was a hard poem for me to write for all the reasons I tell about in this note to the poem.

I want to let this poem rest here a while because here is where responsibility and friendship for another was a matter of respect. We exalted the ordinary that night.

My notes above are from the original post on The Atlantic Monthly poetry board in 2001. They are exactly as posted. Now the poem:


When I Prayed with Sisters of Charity
by Peter Menkin - Mar 26, 2001

Usually,
one waits when
there is a coffin
in the church.

I have cried. Her
mother was dead
and though not mine,
nor my Church, prayer
was what I needed.

Her mother must
have been a devout
woman, I thought,
though my companion
with whom I'd arrived
was not. In the
Spirit
I got to my
knees.
Sisters of Charity,
too, were praying.

I think that
this helped, their
gracious simplicity
that night time
in the city
at a
neighborhood church.

Book Review: "The Poetry of Piety"

More than religious sentiment or drift, these poems express genuine piety, a sense of God and Christian belief. Titled, "The Poetry of Piety: An Annotated Anthology of Christian Poetry," take the paperback book by what it's worth: a book that "...offers both expert literary and theological analysis of a wide range of Christian poetry..." that is an excellent addition to a personal library. As someone interested in the pious sensibility, and in poetry, I find the work complete though short since the Baker Academic book categorized as literature and the arts encompasses only 28 poets. But that is enough for intellectual depth and illuminating poetry.

Ben Witherington III and Christopher Mead Armitage have done a fine job of finding work that shows piety. Let's have a starting point for what is pious. This quote on Biblical poetry and its piety from The Encyclopedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite for computer:

"There is poetry of the first rank, devotional poetry in the Psalms, and erotic poetry in the Song of Songs. Lamentations is a poetic elegy, mourning over fallen Jerusalem. Job is dramatic theological dialogue. The books of the great prophets consist mainly of oral addresses in poetic form." These are illuminated writings inspired by the Holy Ghost and written by holy men. In this sense, the poems selected in "The Poetry of Piety" also reveal a deep attachment, affection and desire for God in the Christian sense by the poets comprising this 172-page book. You may recognize some of the writers.

T.S. Eliot, the modernist, C.S. Lewis, from the 20th Century also, John Updike, and others like John Henry Newman, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Blake, are a few represented in the title. I could go on with more names like Richard Wilbur and Robert Herrick. You as a reader won't be sorry to get to read these poets.

The analysis of the poetry is thoughtful, interesting, and revealing. In George Herbert's poem, "The Collar," the analysis notes, "...he recognizes his petulant and irrational actions, and his tirade is interrupted by a voice uttering the potent monosyllable, `Child!' The uncertainty of `Methoughts I heard one calling' leaves open whether God utters the word or whether the speaker is checked from within. In any case, the admonition and expression of paternal concern lead him to acknowledge his heavenly Father with the last two words of the poem." There is a great deal of thought in these analyses in this book, and the reader has room to reflect. Some poems are like a dialogue with self and self, self and God, as is this poem from the period 16th to 17th century.

Perhaps you have heard of the American poet T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi." A pious poem, certainly, and entertaining as well. Even the beginning is strong and engaging in a modern way of sensibility. Right to the point it reads: "'A cold coming we had of it,/Just the worst time of the year/For a journey, and such a long journey...'" Right away the reader is engaged. The section of the analysis of this poem called, "Piety" explains the faith statement of the journey: "As it turned out, the good news of birth was the death knell for all things dark and dangerous, all things sordid and sorry. In short, the birth signaled the death of the old era through which the magi had suffered to get to the manger. The birth left the magi dissatisfied with the old dispensation and longing for its death. Yet the birth also meant hard and bitter agony, for it was difficult for even wise men to let go of `our places,' `these Kingdoms.'"

I find something moving even in the analysis, and certainly in the poems. A reader will find these poems moving, worth reading again, and also rereading the analysis which helps the reader in understanding and appreciating the work. Scholarly, but understandably so, this work is a keeper.

Known for literary distinction, these poems were chosen also for presenting, "sentiments and ideas about Christ and Christian theology." (That from the introduction.) There is a history of the poet, a section on the "literary aspects of the poem," and one which "enlarges the religious significance and relevance of the poem, especially for today's world." One notation by a Publisher Baker Book House says, "...the questions for reflection make this book an excellent devotional or creative small group resource." The book is for someone who wishes to take a concerted look at these poems, someone who has an interest in poetry, or wishes a deeper appreciation of Christianity and piety.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2007

Swept Away

My call by God led me to become a Benedictine Oblate. It has been 12 years, including postulancy. Sometimes I feel as if I must abandon myself to Christ in the spirit and life, to go down the path of the Way and meet God on the mountains he's offered me, by grace.

Swami Abishiktananda was swept away by God. As is said on the back cover of the book, "The Life of Swami Abhishiktananda: The Cave of the Heart,"

"This is the moving account of the extraordinary life of the French Benedictine and Indian sannyasi, Henri Le Saus/Swami Abhishktananda, whose search for the Absolute carried him beyond the boundaries of established religion."

As Father Henri Le Saus writes in a letter:

"You are free, instead of being jammed together in trains or buses. There are enchanting solitudes and wonderful times of silence. Think of it, no noise of engines, no motor-horns, no trains, no radios or loudspeaders, etc. The solitude of Shantivanam is nothing compared to it. You cross hills and valleys, climbing up and down. Sometimes you follow beside a river, one of the streams which join up to form the Ganges, along a narrow valley beside the swift torrent...sheer cliffs on either side, maybe 500-1000 metres high. Then with the Ganges, you descend towards the plain. The Himalayas open up, hills are less high, the Ganges spreads out, divides up and enters the plain to make it fertile."

From the book, The Life of Swami Abhishiktananda: The Cave of the Heart, by Shirley du Boulay, published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, p. 171.


Christ was swept away by God. (See the quote below.)

It is a powerful and awesome thing to be caught in the hands of the great God of our Bible. Mary was swept away, by obedience. I think to myself and say in prayer that I dare to think of being swept away. These can be powerful calls for any of us. But Christ's call was awesomely special, as is noted in his mountain experience by the writer Brother Ramon SSF in the book, "The Prayer Mountain."

"Many things were happening on the mountain of transfiguration, but as the Collect reminded us, the shadow of the Cross had fallen across Jesus' path. After his baptism, driven in the wilderness, he had rejected the worldly and ambitious ploys to gain power or win favour. It had become clear to him that his path was that of Messiah for Israel, then the very word had to be emptied of its military and nationalistic accretions. He had already understood that such a Messiah would tread the path of suffering, and in some mysterious way that suffering would be redemptive. This was the basic impulse that drew him towards Tabor."


Prologue of the great Text of The Rule
by Peter Menkin (2001)

Savoring the words of meaning
in The Rule is an offering
for understanding
"...let us open
our eyes to the light..."
and come to know language--arise from a sleep
--to listen.

Saint Benedict!
Awakening heart and mind, in His goodness
stirring the fear of God, King, Christ the Lord
through the words of "...this message of mine..."
notes the sloth
of disobedience is in us. Calls to ears that listen
"Run while you have the light..."
inviting all to the voice of the Lord;
call delightful, what is more?


Recently, I learned through my agent Kelly Morris in Ohio, that two print publications will print poems of mine in Fall, 2007: Ruah: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry will print, "Poetic Recitation on The Rule of St. Benedict," Western Quarterly will print a poem (can't remember the title), and the web site Sacred Journey has a poem posted. I am pleased to be noticed.

Fourth of July Evening
by Peter Menkin

The expectation of summer
in July before the Fourth:
an electric agitation;
public interlude to festive
hoop-la and preparations
to wave red, white, blue--
stars and bars--come next day
fireworks in the sky at dark
exploding after the picnic
day. Hurrahs! It's grand
celebrating the nation,
we parade.
Tomorrow we will. Tonight
there is the cool breeze
carrying us along.
An energetic convergance
arranging.
The nation roars.

Summertime Conversation in Friendship

What's this poem (?), but a conversation in summertime with experimental sentences and the idea of friendship. Yes, that's it. A poem that shows friendship, and says a little bit about conversation. I hope you find it amusing. I wrote it in 2001, and this is it from six years ago.

An admirer who read it admiringly on a poetry board then, wrote: "I admire how you mingle speech and the sharing relationship of conversation with natural elements within this piece, Peter. Surely a few more deep shades of green wouldn't hurt though?" I said I would help it along, but still no revise.



Summetime talk in color and sound...
by Peter Menkin

Speaking words that come out color,
visible
as in round circle of blue
like the clear Caribbean sea
this
summertime conversation
spoken against the clouded sky;
words about our lives
held together by sunset,
light
changing the green trees
ours
tall challenge at days end
during friendly conversations
dimensions
radiant orange enlarging
between a man and woman.
To blend with the white sky
we speak admitting mortality.

Book Review: The Rule of St. Benedict, by Kardong


The godliness of living a Gospel life when it comes to The Rule of St. Benedict, the nature of the author’s intentions and set of mind, the understandings of The Rule itself, are a few of the rewards one gets from Terrence G. Kardong’s, “Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary.” One thesis of Father Kardong’s is, “…the Rule teaches a dynamic spirituality.” A book for those interested in living a Gospel life, some areas touched upon by this book include, “progress and growth” in the religious and spiritual life, what’s referred to as ongoing conversion in the life of faith, and humility.

The book suggests looking towards continued reading of “…the teaching of the Bible and Fathers.” This last a recommendation of the Rule, and the book “Benedict’s Rule” an endorsement and recommendation of St. Benedict’s little book for beginners.

A reader interested in St. Benedict’s Rule will find this 600 plus page work, published by The Liturgical Press a scholarly work. It can be used as a text for reading, as in study, or as a reference work (so I think). The book speaks of St. Benedict’s sense of moderation, and his humility, an earmark of the book about the Rule itself, and a hallmark of the author who is a monk and priest.

Father Kardong writes at the very beginning of the book in a dedication that the work is, “To my brothers of Assumption Abbey who taught me how to be a monk and who freed me for the work of writing this commentary on the Rule of Benedict.” This is a book for monks in the monastery, and also for lay people and Oblates of St. Benedict. This is a book for church goers. This is a book for people who practice the work of God, the daily office.

One needs to have patience and perseverance to read it. One needs to take this book as it comes, not hurry it along, and in many places reread both the Rule as translated by Father Kardong, and his commentary. A retired Episcopal priest, who used to give retreats for the laity introducing The Rule of St. Benedict, suggested that I read the book without a sense of time or looking towards the end of it. He thought the work a book to be savored.

Father Kardong has many good thoughts and suggestions; certainly his commentary is beneficial for the interested reader. That is not a statement too obvious to be made, for this is a worthy book by a wise and educated monk.

I will find a good quote from Terrence G. Kardong’s writings, but first this description of the book from the preface by Father Kardong says he has produced “…a double-deck commentary with detailed philological material in notes and discursive material in the overviews.” This is his interpretation of the Rule. He notes that much is experiential. For me, this added merit to the book. His commentary is part of his life experience and work. An attribute that adds to the authenticity and authority of, “The Rule: A Translation and Commentary.”

The famous words of the Rule begin, “Listen, O my son, to the teachings of your master, and turn to them with the ear of your heart.” After all, the Rule is a religious book, and religion is for the heart. These words for the heart have been around 1,500 years. What is meant by these few words of the Rule is made commentary in another quotation: “Let us open our eyes…is a possible allusion to the Transfiguration, where the drowsy disciples are startled by the shining forth of Christ, and instructed by the voice from heaven (Luke 9:32).”

At a preached retreat in Big Sur, California USA, at Immaculate Heart Hermitage, Brother Bede explained that the Rule is a holy book, an illuminated work that keeps on giving, like the Bible. I remembered his instruction when approaching “Benedict’s Rule” and considered that the writer Father Kardong also approached it as such. This itself is an important point, for the work presented is exemplary.

In his commentary on the last part of the Rule, he writes, “…that observance of the Rule [Biblical theme of the Rule] itself is not enough; the Rule, like the Law, is to be ‘fulfilled.’” Though many believe the Rule is a way to perfection, and asks for that perfection, a serious consideration is that the Rule is also a book of love. Kardong believes it is mainly a book about love.

A major theme of the last chapter, love is described in the commentary: “…for the love that is preached in the penultimate chapter is essentially communal and public…selfless love for the other is a better way to end the Rule than the theme of ‘perfection.’”

It is the love in community; love for and of one another, the love that God offers and gives, that is central to living the Rule of St. Benedict. This alone is worth the price of admission. For as the monastery is a school for living, so the Rule offers a school for living the Gospel in ongoing conversion in one’s life. “The Rule of St. Benedict” is a book inspired by the Gospel and written by a great holy man, Benedict of Nursia (St. Benedict).

--Peter Menkin, Easter 2007


This review appears on the website Amazon.com.

The first of the Ten Commandments

A few years ago I began work on the Ten Commandments, which I have paid attention to as a series of Ten poems from time to time. One book I read on the subject of the Ten Commandments noted that the first set of ten brought down from the mountain were shattered and lost, gone in a way but also still available as spirit in the world. For some people, that may be too mystical, and I agree it is an unusual idea. But this first of the Ten Commandments, about which I write as a poem, is the actual First Commandment brought to the people of Israel. There is mystery about these Ten Commandments, for clear as they may be they are the subject of wonderful discussions.

In Thunder and stone
By Peter Menkin

To be set free by stones:

Have no other Gods

but me.

Could the thunder

on Mount Sinai have

said something when

Moses came down?

I am your friend,

you are my people.

Did trumpets sound?

Light was there around Moses.

Let me say the words,

Friend of God.

Living words.

Second Commandment: Make no Idols

Confessions and conceits are not enough when it comes to the Ten Commandments. I will spare you my own idol making, or even that of people I know like my father who eschewed what he called, "That bitch Goddess success." Living with God is a struggle, if I may be so ambitious to say something profound. Each of us in our way makes peace with ourselves, and peace with God. That is part of what living is about, coming to a better or right relationship with God. In fact, I go so far as to say that is all that living is about. May the peace of the Lord be with you.

Man makes idols in the stars and below...

By Peter Menkin

The personal side

of the Second Commandment:

Man is near the stars,

(how far we fly)

but really by God's grace;

we admire this creation

(and make gods of our efforts)

celestial-the stars.

(Where is a height so admired?)

The word of God.

(My mind cannot grasp.)

This is God's work, as are the efforts

of man at his labor.

Third Commandment: Do not take the name of the Lord in vain

God asks us for reverence and respect. In my Church, we take communion on Sundays and it is a reverent experience. With reverence congregants prepare for communion. With reverence congregants approach the table. With reverence congregants take the body and blood of Christ. This is a holy time set aside for worship and God, as is the Sunday worship experience.

Part of this experience in the Christian faith is remembering Christ, it is a memorial of his death and resurrection. Communion in my Church is a source of entering into and receiving God's love. A difficult experience to communicate, this Sunday communion, these words by Thomas Merton are a help.

Thomas Merton writes of a first Communion experience:
For now I had entered into the everlasting movement of the gravitation which is the very life and spirit of God. God's own gravitation towards the depths of His own infinite nature. His goodness without end. And God, that center Who is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere, finding me, through incorporation with Christ, incorporated into this immense and tremendous gravitational movement which is love, which is the Holy Spirit, loved me.

From The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith by Thomas Merton, p. 246.

Third Commandment
By Peter Menkin

Entertaining the mystery of God:

Doing as prayer says,

Hallowed be thy name.

Examined by the Ten Commandments.

This is some of the way.

Oh, Third Commandment of mystery and cloud,

so says the Lord,

You Shall not take the Name of the Lord in vain.

So direct; yet we contemplate

the many spiritual dimensions that light the way

to know the will of God brought by Moses.