Julian of Norwich & the Hazelnut

"And in this he showed me something small,  no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed to me, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the love of God.

"It lasts and always will, 

          because God loves it... "

Christmas Meditation

While all things were in quiet silence, And that night was in the midst of her swift course, Thy Almighty Word, O Lord, Leaped down out of thy royal throne.  Alleluia!

When I first watched this remarkable video taking us to the far reaches of the Universe, I thought "What a perfect meditation this is on the great Mystery of Christmas!"

For it gives us a visual perspective of the unimaginable distance that Christ spanned when He came forth from the Father and came into this world.  If the Universe seems vast, it is as nothing compared to how far it would be to travel from the Divine to the Human.  It cannot be measured, yet God did indeed choose this insignificant little planet in a minor solar system in a not too important galaxy, He the Lord and Creator of all.  As we pray in the Divine Office on January 1st, 
O Admirabile Commercium!...... 
O Admirable Exchange!
What is the exchange?  It is a human nature for a divine.  When the Word became flesh, God took on the nature of man.  In doing this He also gave us the wonder that we humans could also become divine.  That is what Christmas means.  O Wonder!

O Living Flame of Love

The Living Flame of Love

St. John of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite
Stanzas the Soul Recites in Intimate Union With God

O living flame of love

That tenderly wounds my soul

In its deepest center! Since

now you are not oppressive,

Now consummate! if it be your will

Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O sweet cautery,

O delightful wound!

O gentle hand! O delicate touch

That tastes of eternal life

And pays every debt!

In killing you changed death to life.

O lamps of fire!

in whose splendors

The deep caverns of feeling,

Once obscure and blind,

Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,

Both warmth and light to their Beloved.

How gently and lovingly

You wake in my heart,

Where in secret you dwell alone;

And in your sweet breathing,

Filled with good and glory,

How tenderly You swell my heart with love.

The Dance of Life

My friend, Jean, has a huge problem with God. “How can there be a God, she asks, “when there is so much suffering in the world?” And cruelest of all, she finds, is the suffering of innocent children. She can’t even bear to watch Nature films, as they may show predator animals pouncing on poor little prey animals. What kind of a world is this? If God is Love, how can he be so cruel? No matter how I tried to answer that question for her by pointing out, for instance, that God’s ways are certainly not our ways, my friend was never satisfied. But can you blame her? My attempt at an answer really was far too small for such a big question.

Then, one day it came to me--not an answer, but a realization. I was watching one of those Nature films, which I happen to love because they always turn my thoughts to the Creator of this marvelous world. It seems to me that if we could learn how to read and understand the secrets nature holds, we would know at the same time many of the secrets of heaven.

In this particular episode a hungry cheetah was in hot pursuit of a terrified gazelle. Each was running for their life, and each had a very different end in view: one asked, will I go hungry? and the other asked, will I escape being eaten? I found myself rooting for the gazelle, urging it to Run! Run! Run for your life! Then I remembered that the cheetah had cubs to feed, and she was hunting for them. She doesn’t always succeed; the gazelle has a fighting chance; but this time the cheetah did bring down her prey. The camera showed the terror in it’s eyes as it went down, and something else as well for just an instant. It is said that at that moment of truth the fallen animal goes into a sort of ecstasy, it goes “out of itself” and feels no pain. I think that must be true, for animals have great wisdom about Life, and maybe on some wordless level my little gazelle understood the mystery I was witnessing and struggling to understand.

As I watched the realization suddenly came to me: it’s all God. In reality there is no hunter and there is no hunted: there is only God. It’s all God. God is in the cheetah, hunting down his prey, and God is in the gazelle, running for her life. It was Life pursuing Life so that Life could continue the Dance of Creation.

Another time I saw this same secret of nature in a DVD documentary on the ocean--The Blue Planet. On the surface the ocean seems like a huge, watery desert, but deep within there is a constant dance going on between the big fish searching vast areas for their food, and the little fish desperately trying to escape being eaten. As I watched, the words of the psalm came to me, “He gives them their food in due season...” And the food He gives, of course, is the little fish. Is it cruel? Does God not love the plankton and little fishes? Once again I saw and realized that it is ALL GOD. If God is Love, then we really can say that it is ALL LOVE. The huge schools of sardines and anchovies form themselves into a swirling ball in their effort to escape the predators. In the middle of the feeding frenzy it is all chaos and heart-stopping escapes. One has to draw back and see it as God must see it: as one great whole. From that vantage, the big picture looks very much like a dance, turning, twisting, circling around and around in a Pas de Deux of Love and Life.

Then I understood that God does not see things in opposition, as we do. When he sees the Hunter and the Hunted He is not seeing either/or, This vs. That. He is seeing the relationship between them that make them one. God does not see things in duality, but only in the wholeness in which all things are. As Thich Nhat Han said so beautifully and so simply, “We all inter-are”. God see everything whole. Each of the myriad life forms that flow from His creative Spirit are manifestations of the One LIFE from which they came forth.

This is not easy for us to see because we are too close to it, we are in it. The sardine, swimming for dear life in a huge school of thousands of other sardines is hardly aware that it is part of a magnificent, eternal dance. This awareness is for humans to have so as to give glory to God. There is a Buddhist saying that comes to mind here: LIFE LIVES ON life. We all eat and are eaten. When we forget this, we cry; when we remember this, we can nourish one another.

So, am I suggesting that the Holocaust is not about Nazis trying to exterminate the Jews? Or that little children with terminal illnesses are simply one life form being exchanged for another? Of course not. In Nature, it has been said, it is not the individual that matters; it is the species. This adage no longer applies when we are speaking of Human Nature. So how does God see us, He who does not see things in duality but in wholeness? Only the mystics are given to see that we are swimming in this Ocean of Life; the rest of us are too close to see ourselves there, for we are IN it. But God does not have that limitation. He sees us as we are, first to last, in the finished product. He sees us as made in His Image and Likeness, He sees us in His Only-begotten Son, in whom he is well-pleased.

When God sees the Holocaust, He sees His Chosen People entering into the Kingdom He has prepared for them from all eternity, having triumphed over evil. When He sees the innocent suffering of children, He looks upon each child with such infinite love and tenderness that their suffering is transformed by the power of Love into beauty. The beheld have become their beholder and they spend all eternity thanking God for giving them such beauty as only His gaze of Love can do. It is only we, in our limited vision, who think we see disaster and ruin when in reality what we are seeing is the Dance of Life, giving glory to God the Father Almighty. In the Heart of God the lion and the lamb, the gazelle and the cheetah lie down together, rejoicing; they have entered the Joy of the Lord. Truly, it is all God.

Role of Women

Recently a young college woman wrote, asking for some input from us which she might use for an honors project on the roles of women in society and family. She sent a list of questions to help her with this. I reflected on this a bit and sent her my answers, hoping they might be of some help. And how about you? How would you answer these questions?

1. What do you think is the role of a woman in life?

The role of woman in life proceeds from her nature. A woman's nature is always all about Life. She conceives, brings forth, and nurtures Life. This life can be in the form of a child, but can also be in all forms of life. Woman is also called to be an equal partner and helper to Man, just as he is to her, and thus they both come to fullness as human beings, made in the Image and Likeness of God.

2. How are we supposed to live as women to be in grace with God according to the bible?

To be 'in grace with God' essentially means to live with and by the divine life in us. A woman achieves this when she is most fully feminine (in Jungian terms), according to her nature. The feminine is a perfection of God; it is most complete when united with it's opposite, which is the masculine--another perfection of God. The ideal model of this is found in Christ, who though He was predominately male, united in Himself all the perfections of both male and female.

3. What do you consider as a bad woman?

I don't consider any woman as 'bad' in herself. She is incomplete insofar as she fails to live up to her true nature.

4. Do you think man and woman are consider the same? why or why not?

Man and woman are the same in that they are equally human beings and children of God. They are different in that they are male and female, and all that that infers.

5. what is the role that God intended for us as women?

Women are given by God the unique role of bringing forth and nurturing life. (See Question #1). Whatever form that takes, a woman must always be generative in order to be fulfilled. For most women, this is achieved in and through a faithful commitment to marriage as wife and mother. Some women fulfill their role as nuns, or teachers, or doctors or nurses, or by devoting themselves to the care of others in some form, and so on.

6. Is sexuality something not accepted by God?

God created the human being as male and female; He created us as sexual beings, and He does not despise anything He has made. Sexual union is holy, and makes us like God from whom all life comes forth. It is only unholy when we pervert it to our own selfish pleasure, having no relation to God who is Love.

7. Whats the importance of being a virgin?

To be a virgin means to be just what you are in yourself, never having been touched, used, or exploited. We speak of it, not just about persons, but even of things, e.g., a virgin forest; virgin snow; virgin olive oil. etc. It denotes something unique and precious, which once lost is gone forever. Sad to say, human virginity is not highly valued by many today. Some even say they are embarrassed to admit they are still virgins--just the opposite of how people thought only a few generations ago.

I believe that this value has been lost because the deepest meaning of sexual union has been lost by many. If intercourse is viewed in a shallow way, meaning nothing, merely for recreation, no commitment, no consequence, no emotional bond, it is no wonder that the integrity of the body as expressed in virginity is not valued.

The Canticle of the Creatures

This is a touching video about a very old dog and some precious old people. Without a word they are comforting one another, with the dog being to the end what dogs truly are: Guardians of Being. The end of this bodily life is the beginning of our entering into the fulness of Life in God. How fitting that our faithful companion dogs be there with us on that last journey to the Further Shore.

As St. Francis of Assisi so beautifully sang:

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Death,

from whose embrace no mortal can escape. ...

Happy those she finds doing your most holy will."

Let us sing with Francis his song of praise to God

for all creation--especially for dogs!

The Canticle of the Creatures

~Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,

All praise is Yours, all glory, honor and blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong;

no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

We praise You, Lord, for all Your creatures,

especially for Brother Sun,

who is the day through whom You give us light.

And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,

of You Most High, he bears your likeness.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,

in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

We praise You, Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air,

fair and stormy, all weather's moods,

by which You cherish all that You have made.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Water,

so useful, humble, precious and pure.

We praise You, Lord, for Brother Fire,

through whom You light the night.

He is beautiful, playful, robust, and strong.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Earth,

who sustains us

with her fruits, colored flowers, and herbs.

We praise You, Lord, for those who pardon,

for love of You bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace,

by You Most High, they will be crowned.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Death,

from whom no-one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in their sins!

Blessed are those that She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm.

We praise and bless You, Lord, and give You thanks,

and serve You in all humility.

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Last Night As I Lay Sleeping

LAST NIGHT AS I LAY SLEEPING

by Antonio Machado

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvelous error!--
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me?
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvelous error!--
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvelous error!--
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept
I dreamt--marvelous error!--
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.

(Translated by Robert Bly)

As you are beginning to see,
Antonio Machado is one of my favorite poets.
This particular poem to me is exquisite.

I see in it the awakening of a great soul

as he realizes, as if in a dream,

the sublime Truth that God is not

a separate Being. GOD IS, and He lives

in the depths of our being.

This seems to me a sister poem to that

of another great Spanish poet, St. John of the Cross,

when he wrote of another night of awakening, saying:

On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings--oh, happy chance!--
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.

(Instead of the "marvelous error" of Machado,

John says, "oh, happy chance!")

The awakening of the soul is gradual,

coming with a progressive awareness,

as with a flower slowly opening out to full bloom.

The first awareness comes as living water,

water which quenches our thirst

and without which no life can be sustained.

It comes bringing new life.

Then, it comes as a beehive,

where all our failing are gathered

from far and near, brought back to the hive

and transformed by grace

into the sweet honey of merciful love.

This is followed by the fiery sun,

bringing light and warmth,

illuminating all our darkness, while at the same time

blinding our eyes with the tears that come

when the inmost depth of our being

has been touched.

The final revelation is expressed

with the fewest words. There is no language

that can adequately describe what it is.

It simply IS, and can only be adored, praised

and loved in silence.

The soul is now fully awake.

La Saeta Serrat Antonio Machado

La Saeta Serrat Antonio Machado

The Spanish are a passionate people--

just look at their poets, their dancers

their music, and above all at their saints.

And no people love the Passion of Jesus

like the Spaniards. Their songs and poems

to the Crucified are like love songs,

so full of longing and the agony of never

being able to love God enough.

Listen to this video, La Saeta Serrat,

and meditate on the words of the poem

by Antonio Machado set to music

and with visuals.

LA SAETA

Dijo una voz popular:
Quin me presta una escalera
para subir al madero
para quitarle los clavos
a Jess el Nazareno?

Oh, la saeta, el cantar
al Cristo de los gitanos
siempre con sangre en las manos,
siempre por desenclavar.

Cantar del pueblo andaluz
que todas las primaveras
anda pidiendo escaleras
para subir a la cruz.

Cantar de la tierra ma
que echa flores
al Jess de la agona
y es la fe de mis mayores.

Oh, no eres t mi cantar
no puedo cantar, ni quiero
a este Jess del madero
sino al que anduvo en la mar!

La Saeta - Antonio Machado Said a voice from town Who can lend me a ladder to climb the cross to take the nails off Jesus of Nazareth? Oh, the arrow, the song to the King of the Gypsy's, forever with bloody hands, ever ready to be taken down the cross! Song of the Andalusian people, that every Spring season go asking for ladders to climb up to the crucified Jesus! A song of my land (town) that throws flowers to the suffering Jesus, and is my elders' faith! Oh no, this is not my song! I cannot sing it, I do not want to sing to the Jesus in the cross but rather to He who walked on water! [Free Translation from blog http://www.mychurch.org/blog/256388/La-Saeta---The-Arrow-by-Antonio-Machado]

Our Mother of Sorrows

The Suffering God

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Friends

Time to sit back and relax for a bit, while

we remember the great blessing we have

in our friends. Enjoy this little video

meditation, and then lift your heart

and mind to the Friend Who dwells

in your heart of hearts.

St. Teresa of Avila wrote and spoke much

on this subject, which she knew so well

from knowing her own heart. She even

spoke of prayer as "a friendly conversation

with One we know loves us." The greatest

friendship of all is the one with Our Lord,

and Teresa saw all other friendships in

the light of that great love.

In The Way of Perfection, Chapter VIII

she writes of the friendships

she wants for her nuns:

"People will tell you

that you do not need such friends,

that God is enough.

But to be with God's friends

is a good way to keep close to Him

and you will always draw great benefit

from being with them.

I know this from experience for,

after God HImself,

it is due to such persons that I am not in hell.

I always wanted to have their prayers

and begged them to pray for me."

May we all be blessed with such friends,

and may we be such friends for

one another.

WHEN WE FIND LOVE

WHEN WE FIND LOVE,

we partake of heavenly bread

and are made strong without labor and toil.

The heavenly bread is Christ,

who came down from heaven

and gave life to the world.

This is the nourishment of angels.

The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and every hour and is thereby made immortal. …When we hear Jesus say, “Ye shall eat and drink at the table of my kingdom,” what do we suppose we shall eat, if not love? Love, rather than food and drink, is sufficient to nourish a person. This is the wine “which maketh glad the heart.” Blessed is the one who partakes of this wine! Licentious people have drunk this wine and become chaste; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty, the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and become wise.

Repentance is given us as grace after grace, for repentance is a second regeneration by God. That of which we have received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift by means of repentance. Repentance is the door of mercy, opened to those who seek it. By this door we enter into the mercy of God, and apart from this entrance we shall not find mercy.

Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually to draw us close in a symbolic way to a knowledge of God’s invisible nature. O name of Jesus, key to all gifts, open up for me the great door to your treasure-house, that I may enter and praise you with the praise that comes from the heart.

O my Hope, pour into my heart the inebriation that consists in the hope of you. O Jesus Christ, the resurrection and light of all worlds, place upon my soul’s head the crown of knowledge of you; open before me all of a sudden the door of mercies, cause the rays of your grace to shine out in my heart.

O Christ, who are covered with light as though with a garment, who for my sake stood naked in front of Pilate, clothe me with that might which you caused to overshadow the saints, whereby they conquered this world of struggle. May your Divinity, Lord, take pleasure in me, and lead me above the world to be with you.

I give praise to your holy Nature, Lord, for you have made my nature a sanctuary for your hiddenness and a tabernacle for your holy mysteries, a place where you can dwell, and a holy temple for your Divinity.

Adapted from Bp. Hilarion Alfeyev’s The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian(Cistercian Studies 175), Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2000.

Paradise is the love of God

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness.

The person who lives in love reaps the fruit of life from God, and while yet in this world, even now breathes the air of the resurrection.

In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised.

Question: When is a person sure of having arrived at purity?

Answer: When that person considers all human beings are good, and no created thing appears impure or defiled. Then a person is truly pure in heart.

Love is sweeter than life.

Sweeter still, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb is the awareness of God whence love is born.

Love is not loath to accept the hardest of deaths for those it loves.

Love is the child of knowledge.

Lord, fill my heart with eternal life.

As for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love. Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful.

That is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.

If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back to his Father?

Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist.

God’s recompense to sinners is that, instead of a just recompense, God rewards them with resurrection.

Abba Willie and Laci

Abba Willie McNamara has found a friend in Laci,

my friend and service dog.

She loves anyone who loves God.

Dogs know.

For more on Abba Willie,

go to http://earthymysticism.com/

St. Isaac the Syrian

Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.

Be crucified, but do not crucify others.

Se slandered, but do not slander others.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity.

Suffer with the sick.

Be afflicted with sinners.

Exult with those who repent.

Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.

Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your body distant from all.

Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.

Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.

And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and accept punishment in their place, do not destroy their character.

The person who is genuinely charitable not only gives charity out of his own possessions, but gladly tolerates injustice from others and forgives them. Whoever lays down his soul for his brother acts generously, rather than the person who demonstrates his generosity by his gifts.

God is not One who requites evil, but who sets evil right.