Leaving your Mark, photo by Rick White, Mill Valley, CA
Peter Menkin (on left), Linda Shirado,
Brother Rich Atkinson
at The Redwoods, Mill Valley, CA
in Ministry to the Elderly
Alleluah!! Easter!! By Peter Menkin
At the intersection of Easter
we wait with thoughts of new life,
the life of a baby, the life of the Baptized,
the life of the lamb, and the memory of slaughter,
of the death is fresh, but forgotten for the time
we say, He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
Those bones, those bones, those dry bones
are linked, renewed, given flesh, given life.
More than renewal, like freshness, like birth...
Out of the tomb, white as lightning, transfigured...
we are mystified, believers, quiet in surprise,
wondering at the miracle and hearing how the Apostles
told their friends the tomb is empty.
He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
The mind cannot fathom God's working, the promise,
we go on with the tale, this myth, this story
this reality after vigil, after waiting, knowing the end
does not come, for from generation to generation the day
is celebrated, as from everlasting to everlasting there is Christ.
Shall we say it the third time, Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy,
Lord have mercy. He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
Alleluah!
Freely is the offer made, freely we take the body and blood,
...we bless you in this freeform of sentences, for our creation,
preservation...above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption
of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; we share in his victory over death.
Stone on Beach by Rick White
Friday, April 23, 2010
God knows your heart each day, each morning poem by Peter Menkin
The Benedictine way says look forward to Easter All year round.
Keep in mind the Lord and His victory; we share "with that mother blessed/ Of the sole-begotten One... acceptance find, purer love attaining..." Our devotion said,
Look towards heaven, pray in harmony of love in heart expanding to Easter the year through.
Say the words, as God knows their meaning in your mind, in your heart each day, each morning new.
Easter words, of salvation offered freely to all, "Give now the water of life to those who thirst for you..." This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad in it.
Poem as read aloud in audio by poet himself:
Photo by Henry Worthy, Benedictine Oblate, London. Henry is an amateur photographer, and as you see, he is a good one. I have enjoyed his photography for some time. He says he will send more pictures, and I look forward to receiving them. Henry is a Facebook friend (I am on Facebook).
Monday, April 19, 2010
Alleluah! He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
by Peter Menkin
At the intersection of Easter
we wait with thoughts of new life,
the life of a baby, the life of the Baptized,
the life of the lamb, and the memory of slaughter,
of the death is fresh, but forgotten for the time
we say, He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
Those bones, those bones, those dry bones
are linked, renewed, given flesh, given life.
More than renewal, like freshness, like birth...
Out of the tomb, white as lightning, transfigured...
we are mystified, believers, quiet in surprise,
wondering at the miracle and hearing how the Apostles
told their friends the tomb is empty.
He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
The mind cannot fathom God's working, the promise,
we go on with the tale, this myth, this story
this reality after vigil, after waiting, knowing the end
does not come, for from generation to generation the day
is celebrated, as from everlasting to everlasting there is Christ.
Shall we say it the third time, Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy,
Lord have mercy. He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
Alleluah!
Freely is the offer made, freely we take the body and blood,
...we bless you in this freeform of sentences, for our creation,
preservation...above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption
of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; we share in his victory over death.
Audio reading of poem written by poet, read by poet:
The painting:
Roz Dimon
Eternal Gaze
Ink on parchment
Date/Size: August 2007
/12 x 12 inches
Art is many things, but foremost it is a visual language.
That said, I want to change the way we look at art today. Where Dada and conceptualism have reigned for over 100 years, there could be nothing more radical than embracing today’s digital palette as the new world order, while restoring the academics of drawing and painting as its foundation.
Visual beauty matters and if we don’t know what that is – we must rediscover it by looking both backward and forward, as great art has a legacy we must uphold. We must also develop a critical benchmark for evaluating the art and artists working in this genre.
Unlike my recent digital creations, here I work with ink and parchment honing my craft, saluting the tools that artists have used in the past. This piece was created by my hand during a session with a live model.
Statement on Church/State about the "frog"
Dimon makes clear her advocacy for separation of church and state in this comic but serious pledge to the frog (a take off on the traditional American ...
Report and commentary on Easter sermon explaining the Cross as given by Archbishop Rowan Williams By Peter Menkin
It is not so usual for someone in California, San Francisco’s Bay Area, New York City, Dallas, or almost any place in the United States to get in trouble for wearing the religious symbol of Christians, the Cross. The central symbol of Easter and the Christian religion, most people in the West know that Christ died on a cross. Most members of the public know that the cross is a terrible way to die, and most know that Christ died a horrible, miserable, painful, ignomious death on the cross. The cross is non-threatening, in its ironic way. Yet in England, wearing the cross is a threat--in its ironic way. It is the symbol of Easter, the cross.
Episcopalians in San Francisco’s Bay Area celebrate Easter, and all after the 40 days of Lent turn to their Church on Easter Sunday and find the cross displayed. What is this cross we have been asking at Easter; Christians must live with it and live it. They do so right here in their lives. They are to do this every day. This is the significant part of who they are in their lives and in the life of society. (Remember, and this writer will repeat the fact, Easter is a Sunday and a season in the Christian faith.)
In this report and commentary on the Easter sermon of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, he tells us about the cross and Easter.
The cross is a universal symbol of martyrdom, the cross represents a way of life, and a faith, a major world religion. There is something unfair, wrong, a matter of persecution, lies and life gone wrong in the story of Easter’s crucifixion of Christ. His trial was a mockery of justice, his trial was a series of false witnesses making accusations that led to His death on a cross. Misery!!
Where we learn of this Easter and its victory is in Church. We find Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan William’s, who is spiritual leader for 77 million Anglicans worldwide in his Easter sermon talks about the cross in a Christian life. Have not all of us sorrows of some kind? Even the Archbishop of Canterbury with all the trouble in the Anglican Communion.
In England the cross is an unfavorable symbol, it is so because it represents a religion that has become controversial. As the newspaper “Telegraph” in Great Britain reports:
…[T]he case of Christian nurse Shirley Chaplin made headlines after she refused to remove a necklace bearing a crucifix, saying it would "violate her faith". She is claiming discrimination against the Royal Devon and Exeter National Health Service Trust Hospital at an employment tribunal.
Rather than the symbol of mercy, succor, and aid, the same Christian symbol worn by Florence Nightingale, the cross is persona non grata. Hear what the Archbishop said at Canterbury Cathedral regarding the way of the cross Christians are asked to live and travel.
…[T]o explain both why you would be right to be afraid of the word of the cross and why you need to hear the Risen Jesus saying, 'Don't be afraid!' The human condition is more serious and more terribly damaged than anyone wants to hear; but the resource of God's self-emptying love is greater than we have words to express. We are to be judged by our relation with the crucified; yet once we have accepted what that means, we are also released and absolved. If that is indeed the promise of the cross, it's well worth being obstinate about the freedom to show it to the world - so long as we ourselves are ready to show it in lives that look for Christ in the outcast, that examine their own failures in truthfulness and that constantly seek to share forgiveness and hope.
In his Easter sermon, Archbishop Rowan Williams diminishes those who in their petty way as bureaucrats tell their employees that it is illegal to wear the cross; yet Christians find that as religious symbol the cross and the Christian life it symbolizes is a way of hope. Critical of the limitations of society in England, and the way of the world in general, the Archbishop’s words speak to a world of despair and trouble, of human suffering, and need for faith. This is a good message for Easter, for the spirit of Easter (He is risen!! He is risen indeed!!) is reflected in Rowan William’s message:
For Christians, making the cross invisible is dangerously close to making both ultimate tragedy and undefeated love invisible. If we fear what these petty bureaucratic assaults mean, it should not be because we fear for ourselves or our faith or our God, who is amply able to look after himself. It should be because we fear for a society that cannot cope with the realities of unspeakable human tragedy and cannot cope either with the hope of ultimate healing and reconciliation; a society that shrinks into its comfort zones when challenged.
Easter is a day in the life of the Christian, it is the most important holiday of the year, and it is a season in the Church year and in the year of the Christian. For the Benedictine, and for many Christians, Easter is a day, an idea, a way of life and hope that is yearned for and looked forward to throughout the year. Easter is a highpoint of Christian faith and religion.
Go forward with your faith, Christian, is the message offered in the Archbishop’s Easter sermon:
I don't imagine for a moment that much, if any, of this is going on in the mind of some hyper-conscientious administrative officer rebuking an employee for wearing a cross to work or even saying a prayer with a colleague. But perhaps we should take the opportunity of saying, 'This is what the cross actually means. If you want it to be invisible because it's too upsetting to people's security, I can well understand that; but let's have it out in the open. Is the God we see in the cross, the God who lives through and beyond terrible dereliction and death and still promises mercy, renewal, life - is that God too much of a menace to be mentioned or shown in the public life and the human interactions of society?'
This is not a petty consideration to be shaken by the cross. Rowan Williams suggests Christians do more than wear a cross. He says be shaken by the cross: “Christians may secretly be happier treating the cross just as a 'religious symbol' than letting ourselves be shaken and unmade and remade by it.”
There is much to think about in this Easter sermon. Let this writer in this report and commentary on the Archbishop’s sermon offer this quotation by Rowan Williams. It is a good thought for the season of Easter.
…[W]e must learn to trust that love and justice are not defeated by our failure; that God has provided from his own strength and resourcefulness a way to freedom, once we have become able to recognize in the face of the suffering Jesus his own divine promise of mercy and life. The resurrection is the manifesting to the world of the triumph of a love that uses no coercion or manipulation but is simply itself – an indestructible love. The challenge of Easter is to believe that God is not defeated by the most extreme rejection imaginable.
Anglicans are an Easter people, as are all Christians an Easter people.
Images: (1) Christ on Cross at sunrise, by Henry Worthy, Obl Cam OSB, London; (2) Woman in morning before Holy Island, by Henry Worthy, Obl Cam OSB, London; Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, courtesy Archbishop's website.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
The courage to Pray--note on Easter prayer
by Peter Menkin
Searching for the words, the courage
to pray enters my life. Like an arrow,
the declaration of thanksgiving comes
and I say aloud, moving my lips:
Like promise, like heart song, like breath
that is in me--speak. My friend the monk
advises: speak. So trying short notes,
with courage of soul, speak I do.
The artist who painted the flowers, what I call tulips, has a name: Jerome Lawrence. Fortunately, this painting is in the Episcopal Church Visual Arts web page archives.Jerome Lawrence
http://www.ecva.org/exhibition/Gifts2009/Lawrence.htm
Jerome Lawrence says: I find beauty in both subject and process. I bargain with artistic elements in varying intensity, variety, placement and proportion then shift within styles as if choosing colors or shapes.
The heart yearns, wishes for warmth, finds opening to the Lord. A deeper thing like the blood that courses through the body
this divine love sustains life. More. In the secret of the self, within the psyche, we yearn for knowledge with self recognition of existence, Christ does feed us. More.
The beyond calls; mankind discovers something uniquely
greater than the mysteries that Intrigue senses and thoughts. Easter reveals to us this greater than, this renewal of the good, exploding with eternal might
there is love greater everlastinggift unforgettable recognized with prayer. More. With a knowledge of expanded eternity beyond the measure of imagination--the gasp of surrender. Promise that tells us God Embraces the spirit of mankind.
Image: Painting by Camaldoli Priest and monk Father Arthur, "Radiant Light:" Camaldolese, Benedictine monk Father Arthur Poulin paints contemplative works, as he describes them. These shown here are selected from his many paintings. Father Arthur lives and works at Incarnation Monastery, Berkeley, CA USA--study house of Camaldolese monks located near the Graduate Theological Union, and University of California's North Gate. This description of his paintings, from I. wolk Gallery in St. Helena, California USA: Father Poulin's paintings have been acquired extensively by people here inthe US and abroad. Many of his commissioned works hang in churches here in California.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Reflection on Communion
by Peter Menkin
A reflection given at Church of Our Saviour, posted because it discusses as part of its body two poems of mine.
A reflection on the Eucharist as central part of my worship experience:
A way of Communion, certain Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley, California
Wednesday Eucharist, April 23, 2008
John 15: 1-8
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
Peter Menkin
April 22, 2008
As I reflect on our reading today, one that is so meaningful to me as an Oblate of the Episcopal Church, and as a Parishioner, I consider my deep relationship with Christ. This reading about the vine encourages me to enter into Communion, a central means of faith for me, the Eucharist.
I am fortunate, I am encouraged as an Oblate and Episcopalian, to enter into regular Communion, receiving the body and blood of Christ on Sundays, and also in my religious work of offering the Eucharist as a Lay Minister. Sometimes, if one includes Wednesday Eucharist, as today, I have the opportunity of receiving the Eucharist more than three times a week—even four.
The late well known Catholic Priest, Teilhard de Chardin wrote about the Eucharist as a presence in the universe. This famous theological thinker may be known to you. He considered Eucharist a universal and mystical experience in which we as members of the Church live and are –as in being-- as a result of our participation. Here is a poem I wrote about this wonderful religious teacher, as I have experienced the Communion essence. I find writing poetry a way of faith practice, and that I find this act of Communion by body and blood a way of staying with Christ. This poem is set in Lent.
Engaged in Le Milieu Divine
Lent... (2002) by Peter Menkin
In the habitat zone
where I know God’s presence
I recognize the outer darkness-- transfigure is the
season’s introduction to Le Milieu Divine.
Precarious habitation, there is the greater world where Christ is loci,
even in travails ordinary, extraordinary.
We are of substance existence,
created believing--seeking.
Fill my half-heartedness; unbend me.
Before my trials of devil and insidious evil--the darkness.
You are center point even of my despair, of love,
inside me, outside entering transformation.
May I show penitence, everlasting one adored.
Lent begins.
A common theme in all my poetry is reverence for the Eucharist. It is fact for me. Eucharist is central to worship and I consider it at the same time a focus on Christ, as we are encouraged in this reading from John. John is a “mystical” writer of Gospel, and the good news is that we are part of his ministry, as an evangelical, and of course members of the body of Christ.
Because the poem I’ve offered is about Lent, I wanted to share with you another, one about Easter. Another theme of season that I practice as my discipline of religious life. Receiving Easter, is part of the year, to keep Easter in mind as we look forward to it during the year. We are an Easter people, and we share in the risen Christ, and in the Eucharist. Communion is a journey.
Easter Sweetness
By Peter Menkin
To delight in the Paradise
of Easter; it is the Lord's.
The Christ!
Alleluia!
Oh, speak in the night, a conversation
of the spirit, a complaint, a plea.
It is the Lord’s will, a renewal
For humankind. Celebrate in the fullness
Of living.
Do so in the Church at prayer,
Meditating on the day, ones failings,
Surprises—opening to God.
So one speaks, listens, waits
And lives in the knowledge of Easter,
Its seasonal presence. This divine gift.
So may we rest in thee, in aloneness.
We rest in thee, together our love in emotion and soul
binds us joyfully -- thank you
for the morrow in the bringing
of the quickening spirit, a
millennium of blessings in color,
in shadow, in light, early morning.
There is God, our beloved
He calls us.
At the end of the poem, which is posted as an audio reading on our Church website, I say “There is God, our beloved/He calls us.” The reading does remind us that Christ is available to us in spirit, in love, for Christ is a representation and a door to God, and our God --as is Christ,-- is love, and loving. He calls us. So the Eucharist does, too. So the reading reminds me.
I find I can rest in Communion, in the love that is Eucharist, in Christ. “We rest in thee, together our love in emotion and soul/binds us joyfully…” my poem reads. This is a quickening spirit. What a wonderful term, “…quickening spirit…” For us Communion undergirds our life in Christ.
This reading is from, “An Anthology of Christian Devotion: Holy Communion, “ compiled by Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. I commend it to anyone here, and it is available in our Church library.
“It is not only for the individual that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper has a central, living, mystic meaning, but for the whole community, the whole Church, yes, for all mankind. For here the divine mingles with the human, the terrestrial, here in the Eucharist praise and sacrifice are offered to the Lord for the whole world and by the whole world…and the whole cosmos is hereby potently ennobled and sanctified in that earthly elements of wine and bread become the glorified body and blood of the Son of God. That is why the idea of all creation is assembled in spirit around the Eucharistic altar so constantly recurs in the old liturgies of the East. For through Him, through His death, and through the glorification of His risen body, here mystically represented, creation partakes of the glory of redemption…
“This communion of the soul with God is not a dialogue, but a mighty harmony of many tones, a great organism, a powerful kingdom, a comprehensive brotherhood, a Church of God into which the individual is caught up as a member of the whole body, and which expands and grows into the infinite until it embraces, not only all mankind but the whole creation, the whole cosmos, in a kingdom of eternal life. It is a cosmic, an oecumenical conception.” --Nicholas Arseniew
If I may make a recommendation, again, as it has been recommended to me, I say enter into the Communion service in as full and complete a way on any Sunday as you can. Or at any time.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Easter Sweetness: A Poem
by Peter Menkin
(I have wondered on this poem, considering how sweet it is and how much like an icon of Mary, or a painting of Christ being brought down from the Cross. Sweet it is, and I hope the sweetness of it is something you as reader will find a strength.)
To delight in the Paradise
of Easter; it is the Lord's.
The Christ!
Alleluia!
Oh, speak in the night, a conversation
of the spirit, a complaint, a plea.
It is the Lord’s will, a renewal
For humankind. Celebrate in the fullness
Of living.
Do so in the Church at prayer,
Meditating on the day, ones failings,
Surprises—opening to God.
So one speaks, listens, waits
And lives in the knowledge of Easter,
Its seasonal presence. This divine gift.
So may we rest in thee, in aloneness.
We rest in thee, together our love in emotion and soul
One fascinating fact about Easter that is telling, is the wonderful role women play in the Easter story. I wanted to emphasize this wonder, so this poem.
Easter Poem
By Peter Menkin
Sharing The Year Long Vigil, Awake--Easter.
The empty tomb, surprised Mary, who,
greeted by an angel of illumined white light,
looked for Him.
Desperate love,
where have you taken Him?
The gardener is asked.
I wonder is the gardener He.
I have met women, who,
today,
wait and go to visit the tomb discovering
He is risen.
These women meet Easter, glory,
third day joy of happiness.
Theirs is vigil, awake.
We share this mystery--love.
These are some of the searches that have led people to my web page, different from this blog. The web page is a personal web page. It has something about me, and poems. Here are the searches: easter poems for church; religious easter poems; easter vigil poems; spiritual easter poems; easter promise poetry; the empty tomb poem. How do I know what people search on leading to my web page? There is a service that gives me statistics on my web pages, and the searches listed this month of April, 2007 are the ones about Easter quoted above.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Last poem of Easter, a return to the first of Easter... This simpler poem tells of Easter Vigil, at this end of the Easter Season, after the Ascension, a return to the beginnings of the Easter of this year. Now five years old, I rediscovered this older poem on my computer from 2001. Originally posted on the Atlantic Monthly Writer's Workshop website, it appears here unchanged from that original post. It seems it was a good poem from the start. I hope you like it.
Thursday's vigil, night time by Peter Menkin - Apr 13, 2001 We await
in vigil
a mysterypromise.
A surprise
of one in three,
eternityopens its gates.
The cross,
the tomb,
sorrow allows
ecstacyof kindness
for He is not
here, the angel
tells. Easter word.
We stretch our
arms out to you.
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;
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.
"...(O)ur hearts are opened wide with a sweetness of love that is beyond words." RB
Today this Easter Wednesday something a little different. A poem posted twice, the same one. Each is a little different. The first is the newest version and incorporates a quotation from The Rule of Saint Benedict. The second version is not so much older than the first. It written just the day previous on Tuesday, another beautiful Spring day here in Northern California across the Golden Gate Bridge in the small city where I live. Note that in the second, the earlier of the two versions, there is a line about Christ and the Spirit in the blood giving life. Not so in the first one.
Embrace of God (2)
by Peter Menkin The heart yearns,
wishes for warmth, finds opening
to the Lord. "With tears and the attention
of heart..." this divine love sustains life. More.
In the secret of the self, within the psyche,
we yearn for knowledge with self recognition of existence,
Christ does feed us. More. The beyond
calls; mankind discovers something uniquely
greater than the mysteries that Intrigue senses and thoughts."
...(O)ur hearts are opened wide
with a sweetness of love
that is beyond words."
Easter reveals to us this greater than,
this renewal of the good, exploding with eternal might
there is love greater everlasting
gift unforgettable recognized with prayer. More.
With a knowledge of expanded eternity beyondthe measure of imagination--
the gasp of surrender.
Promise that tells us God
Embraces the spirit of mankind.
Embrace of God (1)
by Peter Menkin The heart yearns,
wishes for warmth, finds opening
to the Lord. A deeper thing,
like the blood that courses through the body
this divine love sustains life. More.
In the secret of the self, within the psyche,
we yearn for knowledge: recognition of existence,
Christ does feed us. More. The beyondcalls;
mankind discovers something uniquely
greater than senses and thoughts.
Easter reveals to us this greater than,
this renewal of the good, exploding with eternal might.
There is love greater, everlasting.
Gift unforgettable recognized in prayer. More.
With apperception--
the gasp of surrender.
Promise that tells us God
embraces the spirit of mankind.
In the poem, the word "apperception" means to recognize, to have an inner sense (without self consciousness), an awareness. That is almost the dictionary definition, more the second definition of the word.
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