Prodigal return, confession of mortality...(2002)
by Peter Menkin

Flesh, that yields
to time. Soul entreats
my failures not noticed
in return to God
with open heart.

Stricken with failures
of being away from You.

Exercise:
What's known, you are merciful.
What's known, Christ prayed.
What's known, the cup.

Allow my unbelief
become belief; strengthen us.
We are prodigal; I am.

Report: Homily outlining prelude to Lent for San Francisco Roman Catholics by Archbishop George H. Niederauer
by Peter Menkin

In a neat Homily given as a prelude to Lent on the World Day of Prayer for the Sick at St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco, a theme of “…we need each other…” was knit, offering a statement about Christ about, “Many Americans pride themselves on being rugged individualists, on being able to ‘go it alone.’”


Archbishop George H. Niederauer is commenting about the condition of humanity and specifically Americans and their relationships with one another, especially with the sick, in how we as human beings whether sick or well, “…need to be needed.”

Setting out on what this writer has called a neat Homily (as in compact and well said), the Lenten Season which began Ash Wednesday (February 17, 2010), is applied to the World Day of Prayer for the Sick. Quoting the Gospel of the Bible, the Archbishop gives his listener Jesus Christ’s words that speak on relationships, a Roman Catholic and Christian concern: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

What have these words of Jesus’ to do with us, how does the Archbishop say these words are relevant in their counterculture way to the St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco event of February where a congregation of 300 showed up where the Archbishop was principal celebrant at Holy Communion? For this is how the Roman Catholic Church began Lent in prelude this year, this is how the newspaper Catholic San Francisco” presented on its front page the full text of the Homily that celebrated, “…as a special occasion for growth, with an attitude of listening, reflection, and effective commitment in the face of the great mystery of pain and illness…” this religious season of the year.

The explanation is based on a concern with the Gospel messages found in the Magnificat this year 2010 for the Lenten season, so the Church offers as emphasis for the season of Christian penitence.

Apparently, mindfulness and caring for others in relationship is nuanced as part of the Lenten journey, traditionally noted for abstinence solely. So how does all of this come to Lent and its prelude day celebration the World Day of Prayer to the sick? “Jesus Christ comes to us in the hungry, the stranger, the sick person, so that we can love and serve him in them.” Archbishop Niederauer goes on to tell his pastoral message:

…Christ comes to those in need through us; he loves them and serves them through us, if we let him do so…

In its compact way, spare in word but powerful in Christian message for Roman Catholics and likely as well Christians in general or even citizens of San Francisco’s Bay Area who may not be religious or Roman Catholic, the Homily preaches a clear if startling social message. Speaking rhetorically, Archbishop George H. Niederauer as Homilist, seems to reflect in his message a preaching like St. Paul’s: “I preach nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” His rhetorical question is posed to the fallen Roman Catholic, the believer, and mankind in general, for his is an appeal as well as admonition in this revolution of values proclamation set by Jesus Christ:

“Is this not merely a vague, spiritually romantic thought? No, to make it very real and down to earth, the Church sets before us, front and center, the life, suffering death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…”

More so, this Homily for the sick is meant as comfort and comforting.

For the sake of clarity, the Archbishop says in the Cathedral Mass, “…in honor of our Lady of Lourdes…hosted by the Order of Malta Western Association, USA, based in San Francisco,” a doctrinal statement understood easily, and tells those who will listen to him the reality of Christ in the life of Roman Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church:

Make no mistake: Christians are not in love with suffering—we do not glamorize, romanticize it or seek it out. However, neither do we run from it, nor do we interpret it as a sign of God’s anger or rejection. Because the Son of God became human with us in Jesus Christ, and embraced everything about being human, including suffering and death, and through his very suffering, death and resurrection merited forgiveness of sins and eternal life for us—because of his saving action, every human experience except sin has meaning and purpose and value in Christ.

Calling the Gospel reading of the day a “moral revolution.” He says, “Consider the social revolution in values as Mary prays: “God has thrown down the rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.” The Magnificat goes on with Mary saying: The hungry God has filled with good things, the rich he has sent empty away.”

Unfolding in the silence and sound...(2002)
poem by Peter Menkin

Came to Lent

this season

with fear of the Lord

and weakness.

Asked of Christ,

that the moon will not strike

at night, nor when lost among

strangers cause me adversity of pain.

I am Yours,

You are mine. Abide

in You.

Exercises:Making room for silence,

the sound of life;

listening as penance

these weeks. Long time.

Intimate moments in people's talk, their voices

about Triune God mystery

mark the weeks. Barren depths

of sin reveal themselves.

This is unfolding.

Finding Myself in Brethren, in Lent 2000
poem by Peter Menkin

Where my self-forgettingLove is hid,

I know

In my clinging to the Christ,

In the cleft of the rock

I am unto you all hearts

Are open, no secrets hid.

I fathom on in my mortal

Weakness seeking the heart

Again to witness my faith

Knowing you are all--a Word.

New life is granted us, the me

Of being in the following--

The master to the body

that is him, incarnate,

heavenly Church.

Forgive my wretched masks, my

Deceptions, my strengths of

Bone, pride, and many wishes.

Complete me in prayer, and as

A swift arrow, hear me, Lord.

My life; I come.

Reflection on Poetic Wellspring
a poem
by Peter Menkin
revise 2009, from 2001

Introduction: "Anglican Poetry as a Spiritual Path" with Pamela Cranston held in October 2001 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Belvedere, CA USA (north of San Francisco) was a wonderful, memorable meeting and talk which I remember in this poem I wrote. This is the final revise on it, 8 years later, posted at the end of this Peter Menkin blog entry. First, other poems by poets better known than this aspiring poet.

We have women Priests in The Episcopal Church USA, and the poet Pamela Cranston is one of them. Her work is sometimes published in the American "Anglican Theological Review," and I have one of her books. I've posted one of her poems at the end of this entry, and noted it as hers from the very good workbook that was party to the talk. This poem by her titled, "Searching for Nova Albion" is from an unpublished mansucript, Carriers of Strange Fire, copyrighted 2001.

The Priest Zoila Schoenbrun, my friend, put the talk together at the Church where she served, before her retirement. Because Lent is coming, and the Annunciation March 25, here this poem by Luci Shaw for the moment:

Virgin
by Luci Shaw

As if until that moment
nothing real
had happened since Creation

As if outside the world were empty
so that she and he were all
there was--he mover, she moved upon

As if her submission were the most
dynamic of all works: as if
no one had ever said Yes like that

As if one day the sun had no place
in all the universe to pour its gold
but her small room

Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard says that, "Luci Shaw gives us faith in writing at its most revelatory...a passionate embrace of creation's radiance."

Luci Shaw, born 1928, is but one poet in the "book" of poets Mother Pamela put together. Here is The Rev. Pamela Lee Cranston from the same "book."

Searching for Nova Albion
by Pamela Cranston

Today I went westering,
like Sir Francis Drake,
along the boulevard
that bore his name.

I drove past burger joints and bookstores,
theaters and boutiques,
past remnant groves of redwood trees
rapt in contemplation,
past oyster beds bubbling by Tomales Bay,
past depressed dairies sailing on the open moor,
Ghost ships splintered by the muscling mist,
to the furthest curb of Marin County.

Drake’s Beach lay fourteen miles out:
shafts of sunlight washed
the white curdled cliffs
leaving its yellow softness there.
I rinsed my eyes
and tried to see how Drake
would have seen this sandstone land.

And did his feet in ancient times
walk upon this pleasant strand?

Surely he saw the greedy gulls—
their feet like pink rubber spatulas;
saw ribbons of kelp lying in clumps
of tangled brown mops;
the lonesome pelican bobbing on the waves—
a tiny submarine, periscope up;
the Chinese calligraphy
of sandpiper tracks;
and the walls of green glass rising
in the sea’s silent elevator,
brimming towards thunder.

Except, there were more of them.

Let me be clear.
I am not like Francis Drake,
that merry rogue explorer—
his spirits addicted to high adventure.
I am like the earnest chaplain, Mr. Fletcher,
more tentative and bookish,
seasick below deck,
nervously thumbing his Prayerbook,
praying for dry land,
as one would for rain.


I tend to seek safe passage,
wherever I go.


But who can stand to see
the stripping of Albion’s beauty?
Who is willing to be the last
to hear a curlew sing?

Why I post the poem on Nova Albion here is I live in Marin County, in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco, CA USA, and I think it tells so well of the area--the poem does. Thank you Pamela. Wonderful poem!

These credits for this poem "...Albion..."
Searching For Nova Albion, in The Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 83, No. 4, pgs. 821-2, Fall 2001.

The poetry gathering was an area event, and people from the entire Bay Area of Episcopal Churchgoers were invited. I don't think we had more than ten participants. I was one, and this is the poem I wrote about the morning event.

Reflection on Poetic Wellspring
By Peter Menkin
February 19, 2009


We reflect in words.
We reflect on poetry
and God, and faith in this room
at Church. The morning light
is remarkable here.

The colors of the room
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.

The words in their rhythm,
in their depth,
in their resonance move us.

How we are in slumber is noticed during awakening,
and being more alive in the eternal
we grasp time together.

So these poetic lines illuminated
with morning hours and friendship
bring life to sensibilities aesthetic.

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.

This sacred place is special, for we
expect the Holy and religiously spiritual
by its place and purpose.

Do we poets not add to praise
and recognition of Christ? Yes.
Holy Spirit of the Season, come,
hear our words.

The season is changing at the end of Pentecost,
knowing the risen Lord.
This is song of the poems,
in the attention of those present,
in the hour of joint concentration.
It is that we are new renewed.

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.

Images: Middle images from this place:

http://imageandspirit.blogspot.com/

That is, "Image & Spirit," a blog part of Episcopal Church Visual Arts Network.
The third image: Jeanelle McCall, all rights reserved. This address: http://imageandspirit.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-21T07%3A55%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=25
Title of work: "Voice Within."

Second image title: "Honoring the Dark." These notes from the posting on "Image & Spirit." Photo by Jan Neal. The photograph above honors the dark and oddly served to examine my shadow's fascination with this image of what looks like a monster - actually a cicada - perched on the head of the blessed Mother Mary statue who stands guard at the entrance of my garden. Read about the symbolism of the cicada, to include its Christian symbolism and enjoy the irony of this image captured by my shadow at The Sacred and the Profane. The entry is found here:
http://imageandspirit.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-21T07%3A55%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=25

The Sacred and Profane is found here:
http://digitalartadvocate.squarespace.com/studio-journal/category/nature





First picture by Rick White of Mill Valley, CA USA showing Mount Tamalpias. Rick's notes on the photograph: On a daily walk along Corte Madera Creek I'm never without my Nikon. This day, stopping to admire Mt. Tamalpais' profile, I impulsively lay down face-forward into a patch of dandelions, so to catch the setting sun shining through this seed-pod's perfect globe.

Last image, a gathering of people at Church. I've lost the reference to it for a credit, my apologies.

Compilation (for Lent)

by Peter Menkin

My confession is lifted up, and my mind is aware

that I am before God and man

seeking forgiveness--

The Lord be in your heart and upon your lips...

Do you notice the first thing said:

by his great mercy forgive you all your offenses...

For the failures of the body, the sins of the person,

and restore you in the perfect peace of the Church...

One says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness...

For with my tongue I have said,

in my heart I have faulted,

with my body I have done for my corruptible flesh has brought me to sin.

May God in his love enlighten your heart...

Bring me to the light, take me from the dark,

as I cannot remember all my sins,

those forgotten and out of mind.

My meditation on my evil, my sweetness of good,

these I bring to you heavy laden.

--Peter Menkin

A compilation from "The Book of Common Prayer," these words remind one of, "The Reconciliation of a Penitent, Form Two," found on page 449.

I have Ash Wednesday on my mind this night. A solemn service, I note these words from The Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gifts that we are given everlasing life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

On Monday evenings at 5 pm I go to my church in Mill Valley, California USA and there I pray what is called Evening Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer is used in this daily office, as it is for Ash Wednesday. Many times when I lead the prayers, I begin Monday's with this:

The Lord bless us and keep us. Amen.
The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us. Amen.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. Amen.

I think of the above prayer for Lent, as I do in all the seasons. But it takes on another dimension for Lent, for God does love us and turns us towards him, sometimes without our knowing or being able to turn ourselves.

This afternoon I began thinking, what poem shall I write. The poem following this brief introduction came to mind and this is how it wrote itself, first draft.


Portents say more Winter days

Cold weather here, California.
Ash Wednesday is coming,
the Groundhog failed to show.
The portents say more winter,
and so in the cold days--
with their rain--I will go
to be marked as Christ's.

This pilgrimage has begun
for me, before the Tuesday
before the Wednesday. Look
and I do for season by season
I follow the poor, chaste Christ.

I continue on my journey.

Peter Menkin


The seasons help me in my own life, and in living the life of faith. Sometimes I find an acquaintance or neighbor who thinks Christmas is the most important, uplifting, cheery and special season of all. I disagree, for I think it is Easter. Nonetheless, my neighbor in this case is missing the "holidays," and the "celebration" since Epiphany follows Christmas. Which is where we still are this night as I write these words.

I have a new cat for Epiphany, and though I am tempted to name her Epiphany for it is in that season I adopted her, her name is Tascha. She is a Russian Blue pet who lived with Mary Dee Rickard in Lincoln, California USA from the age of 5 months when she was originally rescued by Mary Dee.

I adopted her officially from Pedigree Plus Cat Rescue in Northern California and on the day of a heavy rain, the day after the big winter 2007 storm of January 4, 2008, brought her home. I write this to tell you of my new one year old cat, and also to say she is a reminder to me of Epiphany 2007 when I was learning about Christ again, and began more frequent prayers for animals. Animals are God's creatures, and in my Church we have a special day when one may bring ones pet and have him or her blessed.

I hope you like my new poem. And if you'd like to see pictures of Tascha, the Cat, go to http://www.flickr.com and search on my name "Peter Menkin" to see the many snapshots of my new pet. I think you'll like the captions, too.

Here I'll share with you some more of the wonderful and beautiful words of the Ash Wednesday service, as I know it. I've edited this a little for meaning by selecting just this quotation in its entirety.

The celebrant says:
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

A poem and a prayer about being Prodigal

I am sure you are familiar with the prodigal son. A story as much about the son who wastes part of his life, and then returns to the father who is good and kind. Who forgives him and celebrates his return. This is a story about God's promise and His goodness. There is also the brother, who is surprised by the brother's return and resents the celebration and acceptance after his brother's prodigal life.

"A Call to the Lord's Table"
by Peter Menkin

This lost sheep needs to
be taken home again, Lord.
In music I and we call you.
In song we sing a beckoning.
Play on piano, organ, voice.

Facing God
and facing
ourselves:
the unknown
Shadow

When Lent comes we face God and examine ourselves, turning towards the shadow side which is that side of us that has fears, hungers, selfish desires, even desires like aggression and hatefulness. What thoughts go through one's mind. There is also the darkness of life, the unknown that is out there, the fear of what is beyond the campfire. Sounds like a cliche, but we all know it. This poem talks in its brief words about that darkness, and even the Shadow that is in our self.

What darkness...
by Peter Menkin

What is, enter into
the darkness place;
what blackness ahead.
Light torches, flames
bright. Across the water
there is light--we know.

Coming back to the Lord in Lent...
by Peter Menkin

Quiet, listening to the silence
this Lent, aware of the largeness
of God, the short life of man and woman.
We frail creatures, loved as part of creation,

return to the Lord this season.
This is a great thing, and part of the Church
year--refreshing in its way,
but a road that is taken while observingon its route

the winter rain, the bare trees,
other days the light--the daily day offers time.
It is a surrounding

experience, penitence. Ever even so small an offer,
there is the reminder that we have time
to come back. To turn, to turn, to turn.

Poem about Lent unfolding during the season...

Each Lent has been different. This year my penitential practices are light. A friend of mine, who is in her eighties, suggests a light Lent. It is her opinion that various things will come to mind during the season. I think she is right. For my reflection, I am reading "Lent with Evelyn Underhill" edited by G.P. Mellick Belshaw (publisher, Morehouse Publishing).

This is a second edition, not the first. In one reading, not typical of most of them, she names the "Seven Roads to Hell": Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust. These are enough to think about for that one day's exercise.

This poem is almost four years old, and I post it here on this blog to give it an opportunity to express some of my temperament, and perhaps the temperament of others, during this season. It is about how thinking and feeling about matters in Lent can unfold during the Lenten season. It is also about how a person can find him or herself unfolding, as did I that year.

Unfolding in the silence and sound...
by Peter Menkin

Came to Lent
this season
with fear of the Lord
and weakness. Asked of Christ,

that the moon will not strike
at night, nor else when lost among
strangers cause me adversity of pain.I am Yours,
You are mine. I abidein You.

Exercises:Making room for silence,
the sound of life;
listening as penance
these weeks. Long time.

Intimate moments in people's talk, their voices
about Triune God mystery
mark the weeks. Barren depths
of sin reveal themselves.
This is unfolding.

To turn, to turn, to turn in Lent...

What I have noticed this winter, as we near spring, is bare trees. Recently, they remind me of the spareness of Lent and its beauty. Here is a new poem about this Lent.

Coming back to the Lord in Lent...
by Peter Menkin

Quiet, listening to the silence
this Lent, aware of the largeness
of God, the short life of man and woman.

We frail creatures, loved as part of creation,
return to the Lord this season.
This is a great thing, and part of the Church year--
refreshing in its way, but a road that is taken while observing
on its route the winter rain, the bare trees,

other days the light--
the daily day offers time. It is a surrounding
experience, penitence. Ever even so small an offer,
there is the reminder that we have time
to come back. To turn, to turn, to turn.

Repenting and coming back to the Lord in Lent...Imaginary Churchgoer's story...a poem...

Welcome to another in my imaginary group of Churchgoers. For a moment, consider this middle aged woman in Lent who during her lifetime, repented of acts and other matters during this season to return to the Lord. The funny thing about this intelligent woman, our imaginary Churchgoer, is that she also liked Buddhism. Nonetheless, she was a regular Churchgoer. Here is a poem for the beginning of Lent:

Grief at Lenten season...
by Peter Menkin, Feb, 2002

The season days lengthen,
light lasting longer, griefcame to Lisa.
She kept the precepts,and the practices
of the calendar, but only God

knew of her reason to wear
no makeup, adornments,ear rings.
But one level of her penance,
for before God in Christs
he married and divorced,
offering to the Almighty
penance.Seeking forgiveness

and reconciliation she
now acknowleges private sorrow,
wound of the wounded
self.
Abased, but dust and ashes.

Tomorrow she starts opening
her heart, opening her heart,
revealing her heart in Spirit.
Ash Wednesday.
Lent is a balm; its mystery
communicated by devotion
and religious living.

Looking forward to Easter
hymns,to sing,
joy. So soon to reach out
in loss that is human failing
forgiven.
We seek to enter your gates,
Lord.