If you have religious inclinations, you may agree with me that in the Christian faith we wait on God. We wait on Christ in the mystery of the unknowing that many people of faith experience. I have had to remind myself, many time, to wait on the Lord. I have had to remind myself that not having answers is part of the reality of faith. I have had to remind myself that "my ways are not your ways," so says the Lord. I hope you like this poem about waiting on the Lord.
Waiting on the Lord
By Peter Menkin
The earnest prayer
I offer is to receive
The mysterious, majesty
Of God in a quiet
Way of silence.
To wait on the Lord,
This special time,
A set aside for me
And my soul to know
You are.
Desert spirituality will be deeper,
and this is one.
Invitation to an all
new spirituality. This is the
monk's.
Birth at forty.
Forty to eighty.
Eighty to one-hundred twenty.
Moses was offering deliverance. (Acts.)
Settles into what is
the symbolic period
of 40 years~into the future.
After 40 years he was learned to,
as a child,
look at this strange sight,
"Why the bush is not burning."
Look hard in the desert
at 80 years of age of age.
This is a life as a child.
In the Hebrew: ~ I must go across and look.
This is a leaving of where
he was on a life
with the sheep
and have a look
at something
new.
He must leave this security
of the plain to be
confronted with the mystery.
How far the Lord wanted Abraham
to go as did Peter
in his early morning
as he waited for Christ. As did
Martha when she organized Christ,
or the Spirit.
Martha learns
something when Lazaraz
dies.
God knows when we are
in the desert when he calls
in the desertwhen he calls,
"Where is Moses."
It is in the Holy Fire
of God
when we take off our shoes,
as did Moses.
We do it
alone,
in solitude.
The very thing is the presence
of God
waiting for us.
I have heard the suffering
of my people. (Father Michael.)
God liberates Moses,
who in his
brokenness discovers his identity,
and in his~finds his mission.
Contemplation (from male spirituality):trust
in the insecurity of the painful
victoryby putting on the mind
of Christ. "Mercy."
reads an Oblate, "instead of sacrifice.
"went to the desert."
Moses meets God
in the inner Desert
and leads those in slavery
outside.
There are two deserts:
The invitation, the inside us
that is the other/Merton calls this
the great self within that is
the God within us. (The ineffable
now of truth.) Entailing
the creator,
we are in failure invited
into another truth,
the abandonment into the word.
For the Oblate (for me),
getting up early,
God very seldom comes as a
gentle invitation.
It comes as an assault on our invitation.
The Gospel only
makes sense
to the poor,
(the weakness of the poverty
of our humanity.)
We are
all struggling with the ideal
of our body, of a woman
and of a man.
The Little Book notates
poverty of spirit-- a Little Book:
New look at spirituality,
new look at being human,
new look at who God is.
The Little Book notates entering into
the dying and stripping
--stripped with everything and just being
left with the now.
A cup of wine becomes sacred.
A desert allows us
to find a meaning (a place)
in the sacred.
Cup of wine
a desert allows
burning bush
yes.
This flow is within us
and other people. There
is surrender here.
There is surrender there.
Without doing.
and not going against
the nature of things
we have to go
where we are fed by Christ.
God takes Moses
into the heart of God.
(Words & thoughts by Father Michael, OSB Cam;
poem & transcription by Peter Menkin Obl Cam OSB.)
Usually I send my poems to friends so they can be my readers. One wrote back that I had not followed the form of "names" well enough, but they knew what I meant. I took that as enough license to allow this imperfect poem.
After three years of regular attendance, one could say they have heard all (most) of the Bible read aloud. Well, as you know probably, the Lectionary is chosen by members of the Clergy who have Gospel reasons for their selections. Some things are left out. What do you know? Yet, I am inspired by the inspirational attention that is given to the reading of the Bible in Church, and by the selections that are made.
Some people read these selections earlier in the week to prepare for the coming Sunday. In the Church I attend there is a Bible study every week to look at the selections. A lot of attention is paid to these readings, and so I hope I have communicated that I read the names in the Bible. This includes the long lists of names of family members, who begat whom.
Huston Smith, a famous theologian, gave a talk at Star King Chapel at the Graduate Theological Union some years ago and talked about how he loved the begats and the begats. I heard him speak.
Poem about the illuminating reflection of Moonlight...
A poem comes along, it is written, and layed aside. My poem about the moon is such a poem. Can the reflected light of the moon represent or even be the illuminated light of Christ? I found it so one evening. This poem was written in 2000, then revised in 2004, now posted here on my blog. I grant it was written in September of that year 2000. Nonetheless, as a statement on moon gazing it is good for the Winter, 2007.
By the way, here where I live North of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge the weather is cold. There was ice on the car window this morning as I went out to use the car to get to Church. We've been having some trouble with the heat at Church, but all is better now so the Church is warm. For a while there it was cold. In fact, at our Wednesday Communion we had to go into the library where there is electric heat because the Church itself was so cold. There are not a lot of us who attend Wednesday morning.
Suggested reading: "Two Worlds Are Ours: An Introduction to Christian Mysticism" by John Macquarrie. I am reading this currently. Another suggestion, but more a devotional book from 40 years ago and only available used: "An Anthology of Christian Devotion: Holy Communion" compiled by Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. Anglicans will like these titles.
The Moon's Reflection
by Peter Menkin
The moon's reflection
in dark sky, black
brings light. Silver
cast wrought wonder
as we man/woman reach
to see, our gaze upward
basking in celestial promise.
Come divine call, everlasting
light bringing good
that is luminescence.
Awaken us. We must receive
your beauty that gives.
Everlasting promise offered.
For your information, the flowers used to illustrate the posts on this blog were taken in Washington State by my brother Michael Menkin of Bellevue, Washington. Some were taken on the Microsoft Campus when he worked there. He used a digital camera for all.
News of being published: "Westward Quarterly," "Poet's Art," "Sacred Journey," "Shepherd," and "Ceremony" have or will publish poems they've selected. I am pleased to be published.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
An ambitious statement about God and our Relationship...
"A condensation of faith and belief. I wonder at 'visit' but accept that you feel this to be true. If I were to admit to faith I would see it as my task to visit the infinite." This note from the original posting of the poem in 2002 by another poet on The Atlantic Monthly Writer's Workshop is worth sharing. Though written in June of that year, I thought that the Epiphany is that we can know God, in many ways. One is through prayer, but mostly it is about seeking God. It seems I have spent most of my adult life, and even my childhood, interested in God. It wasn't until later in my life that I came closer, at least I feel that way.
Of course, it is unlikely, to say the least, that any of us will know the God through Christ in a way that Moses did as he was a friend of God. And a receiver of great, historical things from God for the good of mankind. What I am saying, is that the greatness of the figure in religious history is a greatness that points our way to this God, and it is a sense of the vast immensity of God that helps. Wisdom is knowing the fear of the Lord. So the saying goes, and I believe it.
Here I want to help point the way to God through this poem. Many times a poem says something better than a series of sentences. Hopefully, this is true here. Nonetheless, while I have your attention I want to introduce you to a book by Thomas Merton that helps in the same regard of finding God, but also leads a way to humility. For when we seek God, a way to know we are obtaining a knowledge of him, is through humility. The book, "Thoughts in Solitude" says this about faith:
"First, let us be sure that we know what we are doing. Faith alone can give us the light to see that God's will is to be found in our everyday life. Without this light, we cannot see to make the right decisions. Without this certitude we cannot have supernatural confidence and peace. We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.
"To keep ourselves spiritualy alive we must constantly renew our faith."
Another quote:
"Humility sets us free to do what is really good, by showing us our illusions and withdrawing our will from what was only an apparent good."
Where does this book begin? I find so many entry points, for the writer, Archbishop Rowan Williams, allows the reader to join in at many places. I will start from the beginning, the usual way of writing a book review. For me, there are many lessons as in the way to live more seriously in Christ. To live more seriously in the church and into "...the historical corporateness of its tradition..." with commitment. He the head of the Anglican Church, its worldwide communion, and the Church of England again provides a service in illuminating God-in-Christ. I do not mean to reduce this thoughtful and brilliant book to a series of sound bites. For it is a readable yet scholarly book, well thought out, and filled with the "Wound of Knowledge" as the title suggests.
This Christmas season I spent time reading this excellent collection of readable, intriguing Christmas stories. All tell of the promise of the season: Goodness, giving, even each a story of a miracle of a kind. The collection subtitled, "Stories for Young and Old" is an apt description of the 332 page paperback compiled by Miriam LeBlanc, illustrated by David G. Klein and published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York. This book has the seal of approval of this reader, and here I quote from the note at the book's beginning written by Emmy Arnold. I think this is the right seal of approval in our contemporary America: "Even though Christmas is exploited for profit, even though its meaning is often corrupted, it is still the time of year that we feel the impulse to think of others. It is still the season of anticipation and joy. The brightness and fragrance of a Christmas tree under which gifts are laid--here is light and warmth; here is life and love."
