Mystic Monday ~ how about some Ignatius

“Go forth and set the world on fire.” 

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Mystical Mondays ~ Hope sermon: The Alpha and Omega

an amazing commission
by Wayne Stratz

I started...

THE HOPE OF LOVING

by: Meister Eckhart 
Transl. Daniel Ladinksky

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?

I think it is the hope of loving,
 or being loved.

I am inside our booth and I tell a stranger that Hope is my favorite word.  He asks why.  My answer was because it is the opposite of despair, maybe my true answer is… I know despair.

Meister Eckhart 
continues

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey 
to find its source, and how the moon wept
 without her lover’s 
warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither 
like fields if someone close
 does not rain their 
kindness 
upon 
us.

I ended...

I don’t know how I unfolded into a man of hope, but it sure did help to stop believing in a God who keeps lists of sins and waits to throw it into my face.  Seeking out positive people sure does help.  Reading Frederick Buechner may have been key.  I will end with his words, from his sermon about hope: 

"I think it is hope that lies at our hearts and hope that finally brings us all here [into the church].  Hope that in spite of all the devastating evidence to the contrary, the ground we stand on is holy ground because Christ walked here and walks here still.  Hope that we are known, each one of us, by name, and that out of the burning moments of our lives he will call us by our names to the lives he would have us live and the selves he would have us become.  Hope that into the secret grief and pain and bewilderment of each of us and of our world he will come at last to heal and to save." (81)

Mystical Mondays ~ may Kabir take you back to a fond memory

I remember being fed by strangers as I bicycled by myself far from home. It was in campgrounds after being alone on the road all day. Did they know that three decades later I would think of them when I read...

THE PAST'S LIPS ARE NOT DECEASED

Why not look at the beauty that your
memory holds,

so nourishing that light can be.

The past's lips are not
deceased.

Let them comfort you
if they
can.

Kabir

Mystical Mondays ~ some thoughts on Wisdom

My time at Wernersville has introduced me to Lady Wisdom, and inspired my Sophia spiral design

Wisdom is there to bring us awe each and every moment of the day. I hope to be awed at least daily if not each moment. Maybe one day I will be so wise to live within the constant flow of awesome moments.

Last night it happened within a drum solo


WHEREVER YOU MAY LOOK

Wisdom is
so kind and wise
that wherever you may look
you can learn something
About God.

Why
would not
the omnipresent
teach that
way?

St. Catherine of Siena

Hafiz on our 20th

on our 20th anniversary

Last night I took the photo above and a break from Mystical Mondays.

Mosaic Woman and I were out and about celebrating our 20th anniversary.

But we did not take a break from our nightly habit of reading a translation by Daniel Ladinsky and the last poem by Hafiz ended this way ...

"I am made whole by your life. Each soul,

each soul completes

me."

and here we are on the day we got married

Mystical Monday, Hafiz and what he never heard the sun say

photo by Wayne Stratz
UCC cemetery
Wernersville, PA

 
at the end of the day, do you celebrate what created awe in your waking hours?  How about today, what happened?

as for me. I sat back and watched a horticulture student, who would never be placed in my physics class, do what any good scientist would do... play with lab materials and examine what happened.

The Sun Never Says

Even

after

all this time

the sun never says to the Earth,

"You owe me."

Look

what happens

with a love like that--

it lights the whole

world.

by Hafiz

from:

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Mystical Mondays: entering the world of Hafiz

a striped rose that blesses my
unfolding years

How have you been encouraged?  

Can you imagine not being called to bloom with the roses?

Do you know I hope to see it?

How Did The Rose?

How

did the Rose

ever open its heart

and give to this world all of its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light against its being,

otherwise we all remain too

frightened.

by Hafiz

from:

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Mystical Mondays ~ Darkness causes a deep ache

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Here is to the light of God...

Otherwise The Darkness

I 
have a cause.
We need those don't we?
Otherwise the darkness and the cold gets in
and everything starts to ache.


My Soul has a purpose
to love;


if I
do not fulfill
my heart's vocation
I suffer.

Meister Eckhart

Mystical Mondays ~ Breathe With Wisdom

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

from Capax Universi

...

The Earth Inhales God, why

should we not do

the same

...

Meister Eckhart

Collaboration mosaic by
Margaret Almon and Wayne Stratz 

Mystical Mondays: On the Road to Compassion

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

15 years or so ago I took a Myers Briggs test and scored low on most things.  I guess I tended to be on the fence in defining myself at the edges where I would have earned points.  My lowest score was in compassion, which if I recall correctly was a "zero." 


I was on the verge of entering the world of the mystics, who drew out maps on which my life has unfolded.  I think for the better...

Ask Anything

"Ask Anything,"

My Lord said to me.

And my mind and heart thought deeply

for a second,

then replied with just one word,

"When?"

God's arms then opened up and I entered myself.

I entered Myself when I entered 

Christ.

And having learned compassion I

allowed my soul

to stay.

Meister Eckhart

Mystical Mondays: a hope for true joy

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

700 years or so ago, Meister Eckhart wondered about something.  So the question I have is this...   if worship does not bring us joy, are we at the right place?  

An Image That Makes Them Sad

How long will grown men and women in this world
keep drawing in their coloring books
an image of God that
makes them
Sad?.

Meister Eckhart

Mystical Monday--- as I pack for Silence

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

As I reviewed the last seven love poems, this one leapt out at me.  It expands what I see my role in a universe that unfolds.  If this is true, being aware of it unfolding is not the only key, but I also have a role in helping it to unfold.

and with that thought I prepare for a bit of silence myself and leave you with this,

may it help the unfolding that is happening inside our hearts.

Expands His Being

All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.

Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps
in our
souls.

Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.

All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.

Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;

I need to be silent
for a while,

worlds are forming
in my heart.

Meister Eckhart

Mystical Mondays, say hello to Meister Eckhart

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Who has looked into your eyes this day?

                     ... Whose ears have you touched?

                                    ... Sit back and imagine God freeing you after a day of hard work and

                                        many worries with love that

                                                                makes you laugh.

Love Does That

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,

because love does
 that.

Love frees.

Meister Eckhart

Mystical Mondays: Rumi's Hope for Us

Translations by Daniel Ladinsky

What do you need to remove for yourself?  sit back and imagine God saying this to you...

I Guess You Won't Mind

Great lions can find peace in a cage.
but we should only do that
as a last
resort.

So those bars I see that restrain your wings,
I guess you won’t mind

if I pry them

open. 

Rumi