Reflection on Wellspring
A poem
By Peter Menkin
Revised February 14, 2009


We reflect in words.

The colors of the room
where we go to reflect
are present to the bright
morning time, windows clear to day
letting in much light and largeness
that the privacy of the heart
is awake, more so.
How we are in slumber is noticed during awakening,
and being more alive in the eternal
we grasp time together.

These times allow us with God, to come, go
abide
with knowledge; we are passing through,
journeying with what is given.
That is the renewing sigh of gift.

The season is changing as we come to the end of Pentecost, knowing the
risen Lord.
New living members grow
among the spirit's times, we in quiet pray:
present growing light,
illumine us.
We are in these bodies that are
flesh of man and woman as before time itself;
we know the ancient, and feel our humanity.



Audio reading by poet is here:

Reflection on Wellspring
A poem
By Peter Menkin
Revised February 14, 2009


We reflect in words.

The colors of the room
where we go to reflect
are present to the bright
morning time, windows clear to day
letting in much light and largeness
that the privacy of the heart
is awake, more so.
How we are in slumber is noticed during awakening,
and being more alive in the eternal
we grasp time together.

These times allow us with God, to come, go
abide
with knowledge; we are passing through,
journeying with what is given.
That is the renewing sigh of gift.

The season is changing as we come to the end of Pentecost, knowing the
risen Lord.
New living members grow
among the spirit's times, we in quiet pray:
present growing light,
illumine us.
We are in these bodies that are
flesh of man and woman as before time itself;
we know the ancient, and feel our humanity.



Audio reading by poet is here:

A short essay answering this assertion about Christianity:

Why are the majority of proclaimed Christians, hypocritical bigots?Most don't read the bible, attend religious services, or pray. A higher percentage of Christians commit crimes than non-religious people and Christians are more likely to support capital punishment and wars which are all murder.

Non-religious people tend to be more tolerant and accepting,
promoting social welfare and peace. But then Christians procliam to have some kind of moral superiority.

Why is this so backwards?

The response:

With any religion, those who attend services and are active participants in good standing with their church or other place of worship find themselves at different levels of understanding and practice. I cannot speak in agreement with your rhetorical question, but as a Christian and Episcopalian will respond in kind regarding the Christian experience.A proclaimed Christian will probably be Baptized, recite the creeds, and other prayers in Church, and do deeds of service.

These similar kinds of acts are pretty standard Christian practice for the good Christian. Even the regular or average one of good standing.Yet many Christians fail, and all Christians are in some manner or degree sinners. That is a human who is and will, has failed in the eyes of Christ in God. It is in returning to the Lord, as practice, that redemption can be found. At least this is a significant way.

Interestingly, among many believers in this faith, intention is important.Each Christian meets his fellow where he may be in his journey, hypocrite, warmonger, war starter, warrior, supporter of capital punishment, evil conservative or even Fascist (pretty far gone, I know), or other. I cannot agree that the higher percentage of Christians commit crimes, but you may be right.Jails are full of Christians. One reason they seek out the faith and way of living is that it is a way of forgiveness and mercy.

It is also a way of transformation and change, whether that search for such is honest or not isn't the issue. Come and see at a Church to discover or observe this God who is generous, kind, merciful, and faithful to human beings through history. That is not an answer, per se. It is a way of saying, is this God's fault that Christians may fail? They do.

But most important in my answer, is the fact that ministers and members of the Church meet their fellows where they may be, not as they would be perfect, or as Christians would like them to be.I cannot speak to how many read the Bible, but in the Church of my denomination, if one attends one is going to hear the Bible read.

Interestingly, though, the Episcopalian who is a member remains in good standing and is considered in Communion if he or she attends worship services and takes Eucharist a mere three times a year. This means going, for instance, on Christmas, Easter, and other time. This seems scant attendance, I know. But it is so.As for the non-religious being the better part of human kind, I cannot speak in answer to your assertion. There are, after all, easily more than a billion Christians in the world--if memory serves correct.

Many may be failed Christians, even those who have fallen away but still consider themselves Christian. You may be speaking of these, too, in your question.

Regardless, they identify with Christianity, and even if not the better part may have to be their light, as Christians and Christianity is a light to the world. So I
believe.Christians live a life and way, their Church is a moral organization, and by definition membership and participation in such is a valid source of the moral life. Christ is and was a moral force, a good, in the world both now and in the history of mankind. I think most people would say so, even those not practicing or professed Christians.

How moral is what I've discussed as more, for you imply a requirement of high standard. As I say, we meet each other where one may be. Do I think Christians are morally superior? Certainly, history and Western Civilization has shown that the Christian influence has been positive and uplifting, despite its human shortcomings, failures, and errors.

This is not so much an apology, but a means of putting a framework on your questions and statements regarding the moral superiority and standing of the Christian faith. This is a framework of Christian living, which follows the poor, chaste Christ through the year. Is Christianity not one of the world's great religion, and as such by definition a superior one in our eyes of Western Civilization.

--Peter Menkin, Mill Valley, CA USA

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

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

Desire for God: a Poem with Passion

I attended a Bible study at an acquaintance's home, and there were about six of us there. I learned people come to Christ many ways. This seems a cliche, but my eyes were opened to the sincerity of my new friends. I found others who had a like mind in their desire for God. In this poem I write as a mainstream Christian of my passion. Call this need and desire.

Grace, Affection...

by Peter Menkin

This yearning need, by grace is affection

treasured, acceptance satisfying.

I am a man of faults.

You enlarge my heart by presence,

moving me to accept the other.

The other. You Almighty are other.

Each day prayers are offered, and study goes on:

reading books on spiritual matters.

It is the prayer that helps, mostly.

The books instruct, in so many ways.

The connection is living the life in the Way.

Struggle sometimes to be friend to neighbor;

love brings me strength and a wisdom,

offering a perfection. You are love,

known. I lift up my heart to You.

I open my heart to you. I wait.

Silence. You are love, unknown.

Now I must hush. I must hush.

Prayer to Aid in the Darkness

There is darkness in my mind, what I've called "the crocodile brain" part. A living darkness, ancient and primitive. I live with this part of me. A teacher says that while traveling, and I say, too, for help with the darkness, short prayers.

Taught that a prayer can be like an arrow, it is also a balm and a solution, a civilizing act, a way to goodness. An arrow to heaven. O Lord, come to my assistance.

At Easter time we rejoice for there is a promise, a certain gift and redemption in the risen Christ. The wonderful prayer in "The Book of Common Prayer" that says, "We bless you for our creation, preservation,/and all the blessings of this life;/but above all for your immeasurable love/in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ..."



One word prayers...(2001)
by Peter Menkin

One word prayers were what I practiced
on the drive home, trying on the way
to see in the night towards San Francisco
where a purple glow in the sky distinguished
the unseen cityscape, and to the north,
metal towers lit with red warning lights, for airplanes
to note in the darkness. I was told by a teacher,
short prayers are good while

travelling. On the way, the Church prays
as it goes and its members do so also. Surprise,

interruption there is peace in the evening;
as a seeker of God, lover of Christ,
I know the distracting onslought
of inner conversation--
ancient enemies that wait
in the darkness of the hour in ones mind,
like the crocodile brain deep inside. Accept
the suffering, and live to God's presence:
my short prayer is "Abba," I cry.

We go on in spirit with the journey with Christ this Easter...a blessing of the Spirit...

I have been thinking about Easter, and at Church we have been talking about the risen Christ. This poem posted here was not written in Easter, but afterward in May of some years ago. I liked how it talked of journeying on with each other in Christ. So it seems also to fit the theme of the Gospel this day that is about Thomas and the risen Christ coming to visit the disciples in a room.

Renewing on the journey
by Peter Menkin --May 16, 2001

Omega, birth with Paschal
blessings into the Spirit
that is renewing me, how
alert one comes to the body

mystical. Drawn one is;
we are pilgrim
travelers on journey for
the everlasting strivings. Live

the cross; to know and meet
the cross and embrace the travails
with desire in the Omega that
is I Am. Enlarged in an exclamation:
surprise, and my springs
of blood in marrow of bone
are enlisted with birth's
great divine entry;

You are surprise.









Another note about the word "apperception" from the new poem on Easter posted previously. I want to apologize for being so sloppy in defining the word. Something not well done in the previous post. Here is a better definition.

1 : introspective self-consciousness
2 : mental perception; especially : the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience.

I chose to go with the second definition, thinking I didn't like the first for introspective self-consciousness was not what I meant. "Apperception" is a new word to me.