Image & Spirit

2010-01-08T05:13:00.000-05:00

Image & Spirit is taking a break.

Enjoy the archives and stay connected to Art and ECVA

at www.ecva.org and Episcopal Cafe's Art Blog

Epiphany

2010-01-06T18:24:00.000-05:00

The world recognizes the heavenly in this tiny Child. And the Child recognizes the people of God in them. This is not a Christian child only; this Child belongs to the world.

Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year: the spiraling adventure of the spiritual life

Image: Chiefs Come From the East to See Jesus by John Giuliani

We're Following The Star, 6

2010-01-06T17:37:00.006-05:00

David:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

......
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

T. S. Eliot
from The Four Quartets

Image: Table of the Magi by David Orth

Jim:

I think my epiphany is 61 years in the making ...a very very slow epiphany: The star is family ...the star is old friends (like Jesus and Mary) ...the star is new friends (like David and Robin) ...the star is love. LOVE!

Image: La Sagrada Familia - The Sacred (or Holy) Family by James Mangum

Robin:

just saying so

sometimes makes all

the difference

the star is always there

to be followed to be

watched

just saying so

reminds us

commits us

Image: Just Saying So by C. Robin Janning

Overcome By Light

2010-01-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

Christmas—the light that shone upon a manger—was also, the ancients knew, the light that led them on beyond it as well. If God is truly with us, has been manifested among us, companions us as we go, knows our pains and our hopes, then life is not a dark forest from which there is no exit. It is a darkness, however dark, that is always overcome by light.

Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year

Image: Photograph "Afternoon River" by The Rev. Scott Fisher

We're Following The Star, 5

2010-01-01T10:45:00.001-05:00

Christmas now. It’s not just one star, but many stars. Too many stars to count. It is a great light pulsing, beaming from every direction. Light for the Christmas that is born in every heart …in every dawn that pushes away the darkness.

David:

Jim:

Robin:

A new year arrives during these twelve days of Christmas, bearing a spark that promises enough light for all ...however and in whichever direction we travel.

I Saw Visions

2009-12-31T11:18:00.001-05:00

“while I was among the exiles” Ezekiel (1:1) wrote
“the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.”

we must rebuild
our small habits and
inclinations to include
each morning’s nativity
each evening’s stars
and heavenly choirs
seen even in exile
from the portal
of a heart opened
so wide so deep
so far

Image: As I Saw the Living Creatures by Dan RiiS Grife

An Illuminated Joy

2009-12-26T08:29:00.004-05:00

Video: Jan Richardson (art and animation) and Garrison Doles (singer songwriter)

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T01:00:00.002-05:00

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1: 4-5

Image: Mary Gives Birth to Jesus by John Giuliani

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T06:00:00.002-05:00

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2.19)

Over the previous nine months, Mary has entertained an archangel, said yes to becoming the mother of the Son of God, made the journey to visit Elizabeth, and lifted up a song of hope that has endured across centuries. She has waited with Elizabeth, made the journey back home, and traveled with her husband Joseph to Bethlehem to be included in the registration ordered by Emperor Augustus. She has labored to give birth to her son, enfolded him in strips of cloth, laid him in a manger, and welcomed those who came to marvel at what had come to pass.

Luke tells us that in response to their amazement, Mary treasures these words in her heart. Luke’s description conjures an image of a woman who, amid the tumult of angels and signs and visitors and miracles, holds all these happenings in a place of stillness. Among the memories of nine months of adventures she never could have imagined, Mary embodies a sense of wonder that is quiet and deep and wise.

Words: Jan Richardson at The Advent Door: “Revisiting The Secret Room”

Image: “Mary Treasures All These Words” by C. Robin Janning

Advent, Day 25

2009-12-23T06:00:00.003-05:00

Dear God, the troubles of our world have left many of us speechless. We don’t know how, in the numbness around jobs lost, illnesses we don’t have the resources to cure, a planet imperiled by the accumulated effects of our greed, and the seemingly endless presence of war and violence, to say our prayers. We are lighting candles, though – in our Advent wreaths, quietly, in side chapels of our churches, in our rooms where no one else but You can see. The candle flame is our prayer, wordless but filled with meaning, with petition, hope, and faith. And the candle flame is your answer to our prayer. You lighten our darkness, O Lord. Amen

Words: The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Eighth Bishop of California

Image: Georges de La Tour

Advent, Day 24

2009-12-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

Now all the woods are sleeping
through fields the shadows creeping
and cities pause to rest
Let us, as night is falling
on God our maker calling
sing praise to God who loves us best.

The radiant sun has vanished
its golden rays are banished
from deepening skies of night
But, Christ, the sun of gladness,
dispelling all our sadness
shines in our hearts with warmest light.

Now all the heavenly splendor
breaks forth in starlight tender
from myriad worlds unknown
And we, this marvel seeing,
forget our selfish being
and know a beauty not our own.

Words: Paul Gerhardt (17thC)

Image: Photograph "Hidden Advent Angels" by The Rev. Scott Fisher

Advent, Day 23

2009-12-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

“Burning/all night long/Burning/at the gates of dawn
Singing/near and far/Singing/to raise the morning star.”

Words: Bruce Cockburn

Image: Benedictus by Jan Richardson

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Day 22

2009-12-20T09:02:00.000-05:00

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. [Luke 3:5-6]

Image: photograph by Diane Walker

We're Following The Star, 4

2009-12-19T17:50:00.003-05:00

David:

I feel a little out of touch again

And exhausted and wind burned
But now I feel well on down the road …

So (whispering softly to the gentle,
Frightened bird of our fluttering hearts),
Be still, and know the
vast varied darknesses of God.

Do not flinch from any Truth
breathing out whatever breath.

Jim:

Epiphany: A Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.

Advent began on my birthday this year. The next day, November 30, Robin, David, and I began “following the star.” Today, December 13, my epiphany arrived with the first line of Robin’s poem: “It’s about Mary.” What should have been obvious to me for many years became obvious. My art has always been about Mary.

I have painted her and carved her hundreds of times. With and without the Christ child. Each time my art takes me away from her, she calls me back. Her image calms me; comforts me. Despite all my doubts about so-called traditional religion, her hold on me has never loosened.

I was a psychology major in college, but came to believe all of it was a crock. Except for the theory of the mother-son dynamic. I was not close to my mother, or should I say, she was not close to me. So, I suppose that Mary became my surrogate mother. I was raised in the Catholic church and began attending Catholic school when I was five. So I saw Mary a lot. At a most impressionable age and during a most trying time, I saw her almost daily. The incredible statues, paintings, stained glass windows. She always had a beatific smile…just for me.

So today I will start my new carving. A giant cypress knee in which I can already see Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms. It is going to be a good day.

Robin:

it’s about Mary
right now
this star we follow
about finding
the transformation
point where
we say yes
like she said
yes

Advent, Day 21

2009-12-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced

The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.

Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace

In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
"Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream

For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking."

Words: "O Oriens" by Malcolm Guite

Image: Estuary by Roger Hutchison

Thanks to Diane Walker who introduced me to the poetry of Malcolm Guite.

Advent, Day 20

2009-12-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,

Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

Words: Advent by Thomas Merton, written in 1946

Image: Annunciation (Detail) by Ruth Councell

Advent, Day 19

2009-12-17T05:26:00.001-05:00

Unexpected and mysterious is the
gentle Word of grace.
Ever-loving and sustaining is the
peace of God’s embrace.
If we falter in our courage and
we doubt what we have known,
God is faithful to console us as a
mother tends her own.

In a momentary meeting of eternity and time.
Mary learned that she would carry
both the mortal and divine.
Then she learned of God’s compassion,
of Elizabeth’s great joy,
And she ran to greet the woman
who would recognize her boy.

We are called to ponder myst’ry
and await the coming Christ,
To embody God’s compassion
for each fragile human life.
God is with us in our longing
to bring healing to the earth,
While we watch with joy and
wonder for the promised Savior’s birth.

Words: a hymn by Jeannette M. Lindholm titled "Unexpected and Mysterious," which appears in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006)

Image: "Incubation," the first panel in an eight-piece work titled "Tabula Rasa" by Linda Witte Henke

Advent, Day 18

2009-12-16T04:22:00.000-05:00

"... Call it
the thin, thin place
where the veil
gives way.

Or call it this:
the path we make
when we go deep
and deeper still
into the dark
and look behind to see
the way has been lit
by our rejoicing."

Words and Image: From As on a Day of Festival by Jan Richardson

Advent, Day 17

2009-12-15T04:16:00.000-05:00

"This Mary is the woman of the land. She is sister to the poor and the mother of compassion and healing for all those who live on the edges of life, walking the roads on the outskirts of the cities, living in slums, favelas, tenements, and the neighborhoods [where] no one ever wants to get caught having to raise their children. . . . She is barefoot upon the earth; her presence causes roses to bloom in December and the birds to sing wildly and the land to bring forth its seed and bread for those desperate for daily sustenance (still more than 85 percent of the earth) and freedom. She can be a spider, as in the Native American tradition, who follows a trail home bringing light to the people, silent, unnoticed, so small and so able to steal the light from those who will not share it with others. She is the symbol of the small earth, inconsequential except to God, found with all those who live faithfully in situations of darkness, despair, lack and need, yet powerful in their very weakness and numbers."

Words: Megan McKenna in "Spiritual Writings on Mary" by Mary Ford Grabowsky

Image: Secrets of Czestochowa's Madonna by Gerard Di Falco

Advent, Day 16

2009-12-14T05:33:00.001-05:00

As we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ Jesus in a new way this Advent, let us also receive those around us in a new way. Let us see and know that God wants to transform and make new even the most impossible situations in our lives. Let us look and see Christ Jesus in those around us who have caused us heartache and pain. As God draws near we are given the strength to see others in a new way. And truly then, the world as we now it will pass away, and all things will be made new.

Words: From an Advent sermon by The Rt. Rev. Carol Joy Gallagher

Image: "The Annunciation" by The Rev. James Curtis

Third Sunday of Advent, Day 15

2009-12-13T06:00:00.002-05:00

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

[Philippians 4:4-5]

Image: Sunrise on the Yukon River, by The Rev. Scott Fisher

Advent, Day 14

2009-12-12T11:53:00.002-05:00

"Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word." Hebrews 1:1-3

Image: Familiar Grace: Routine that Frees the Heart by Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, 2009: This assemblage-painting is made from interior house-paint and synthetic laundry bag. Daily grace, as I see it, is bright, colorful, reliable -- and radiant, too, as suggested by the light reflecting off the laundry bag -- different, depending upon the time of day. It represents household grace, the kind of ordinary loving that supports families in ways that often go undetected, but that honor the dailiness of God's constant, graceful embrace.

Advent, Day 13

2009-12-11T16:35:00.000-05:00

"...there is a way of being and knowing that is grounded in timing I did not create. There is a way of being and knowing that dimly remembers that waiting in hope is an attitude of faith.

Waiting in silence, creating space for steadfast love to grow within, may be the most essential practice of all. It is in many ways the spirit of Advent, that time of the Christian liturgical year when we practice the waiting of gestation and hoping, of trusting in new life not yet fully known.

Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and author, remarked that life is a perpetual Advent. He sensed that in that waiting, trust began to grow. Trust in God, trust in the Holy One who is beyond all that is created and is the source of all things, seen and unseen. Trusting and waiting allow the loving-kindness that is the essence of God’s own Life to grow in us, and to bear fruit that we never expected."

Words: The Rev. Mary C. Earle in Waiting in Silence.

Image: Photography by Diane Walker

We're Following The Star, 3

2009-12-10T19:38:00.003-05:00

David:

I woke up from one those nightmares that come out of “nowhere”. I knew it had something to do with Following the Star – or rather Not Following the Star – which is in fact where I have to start.

I live on ten acres. There is no development in sight. But when I walked out into the front yard of my dream, there were some one hundred No Trespassing signs marking a convoluted circle around the house. Some developer had come in the night and staked out a ridiculous new property line for me and clearly they were flaunting this barrier and putting it in my face. A row of yellow signs divided my driveway in two, they left me a patch of grass outside the front door. On one side of the house the signs were staked right up to the foundation line. I was stunned. I imagine if I had gone back in the house, I would have found the signs in there, too – blocking my way to the bathroom.

Last time I reflected on this journey, I managed to get out of my cave and make it up into the starlit view from the tower. Now I’m back down on ground level and opening my front door. Maybe I was ready to start out on a journey. Maybe I was just letting out the cat. Regardless, some developer is out there blocking my way, blocking my view, and advertising their claim on me. I pulled out a couple of signs and threw them down, but it would not be that easy. Something inside knows the signs are mine – I allowed them to be there – I am ‘the developer’. I live in this world of illusion and preoccupation with myself. I’m terrified of getting old, or loosing the studio, or the house, of not affording my friend-wife’s medications, or having my art dry up from the inside. I’ve allowed Netflix and caffeine into my space (again) to make their claims and set me down on the couch-of-my-life. These are all the low-level comfort/addictions of a typical middle class life – and the unconscious fear of the unknown that goes along with it. The dream is sign – a sign made up of signs. I’m not being clever, I’m just getting it.

The Three Wise Men, the Kings of the Orient, represent a kind of inner soul bravery of spirit, a curiosity that trespasses barriers, an expansive outlook, a search for our Origin that leads out into far flung territories, something that follows a Star. This is all rung out of us here in the West – in the West-of-our-lives – doesn’t matter if you are reading this in China – we all have a ‘West’ – a place of safety and drunkenness with safety. A place in the self with a lot of very human preoccupations and No Trespassing signs. The signs and barriers are there - even when we don’t see them - especially when we don’t see them.

Who is it that follows a Star? I know what follows a pop song, a pretty woman, the warmth of the sun. But who or what follows a Star? What travels in the night sharing the road with thieves and vampires? Who were these stargazers from the east who seemed to know something, who set out from their high towers, who crossed borders at will? We domesticate them in crèches, Christmas plays, gold foil, and colorful robes. But they remind me that not all who seek the Child, who carry word of the Child, are churched, catechized, circumcised, or circumspect.

I roll over and put my feet on the cold floor. The cat wants out.

Image: Wounded Bird Table by David Orth

Jim:

Advent = Arrival

Arrivals, by definition, are momentary states. They last an instant. Arrivals are both ethereal and ephemeral. A letter arrives. A child arrives. A Christ child arrives. We try to find ways to hang on them. We read letters over and over. We take photographs and make scrapbooks of and for our children. We go to church, we pray, we celebrate Christmas.

This has always been my struggle. Trying to stay in the moment. I am always looking ahead. To the next project; the next adventure. When my first child was born, my wife and I looked forward to his arrival. For different reasons, I’m pretty sure. But, when he was born she was able to stay in the moment. To hold him and…just love him.

I was already looking down the road. To when he would be able to talk to me. Start laughing at my corny jokes. When he would first play t-ball. When he would bring home his first girlfriend. Would I be afraid when he got hurt or became ill?

I did the same with my first daughter when she was born. Amazed at actually having a baby girl. Amazed at how it all happened. Then, with the arrival, the looking ahead. And the same with my last two daughters. They’re all grown now. Wonderful adults. It went by too fast, while I was thinking about the future. My wife enjoyed and savored every moment with them. She still does. We’re divorced now.

The advent of Advent brings it all home. This trip with Robin and David will be a rather melancholy one. Not in a bad way. It has made me actually stop and look back on a wonderful life. I am allowing myself to be nostalgic.

I love the Nativity story. How Christ’s arrival was foretold. How men, the powerful and the meek, followed a star. His arrival was over in a moment. But His story will live forever. It would be nice if we could hold onto it for the entire year. I wonder if Jesus minds that we take Him for granted sometimes?

My thoughts are scattered now. All the pictures in my head are a bit out of focus. Robin and David, my path has not become clear. No star yet. But, I am looking forward to this trip. A new destination lies ahead. A new arrival.

Image: Following The Star, by James Mangum

Robin:

daylight hours
the star leads more
indirectly
now I trace its
path its rising
and falling
in the faces and
places around me…

Image: Dancing Through Shadows by C. Robin Janning

Advent, Day 12

2009-12-10T06:04:00.000-05:00

"Mary is, in a certain sense, the community which is my Mother. It is her love that has brought us here and keeps the community together. It is her love I have known out under the cedars, and working in the fields and singing in choir. It is her love that has made me desire solitude, and she will fulfill that desire. She is my solitude and she is here. It seems I have to keep finding it out over and over again. "

Words: Thomas Merton [Journals 3:26]

Image: Navaho Madonna by John Giuliani

Advent, Day 11

2009-12-09T06:08:00.001-05:00

God of the watching ones,
give us Your benediction.

God of the waiting ones,
give us Your good word for our souls.

God of the watching ones,
the waiting ones,
the slow and suffering ones,
give us Your benediction,
Your good word for our souls,
that we might rest.

God of the watching ones,
the waiting ones,
the slow and suffering ones,
and of the angels in heaven,
and of the child in the womb,
give us Your benediction,
Your good word for our souls,
that we might rest and rise
in the kindness of Your company.

Words: An evening prayer for blessing during Advent. From Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community.

Image: Grace by Jenna Higgins

Advent, Day 10

2009-12-08T06:04:00.004-05:00

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;

he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed;

the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.

He has mercy on those who fear him,

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm

and has scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones

and lifting up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,

to remember his promise of mercy,

The promise made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

Words: Magnificat in Common Worship

Image: "Annunciation (Mary Had a Baby)" by Caroline Coolidge Brown

Advent, Day 9

2009-12-07T06:08:00.003-05:00

They manifest a nature's sublimity. That is why Gabriel is represented with wings. Not that angels have wings, but that you may know that they leave the heights and the most elevated dwelling to approach human nature. Accordingly, the wings attributed to these powers have no other meaning than to indicate the sublimity of their nature.

Words: St. John Chrysostom (widely attributed)

Image: St Gabriel. 12th-century mosaic from the Byzantine part of La Martorana, also known as Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio in Palermo, Sicily. © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

Thank you: Ellie Findlay at "Does Not Wisdom Call"

Second Sunday Of Advent, Day 8

2009-12-06T12:27:00.002-05:00

"Love of self, love of neighbors, and love of God are the foundational stones of the world's religions. Spiraling out from the core of our being, our other loves are also cobblestones on the spiritual path: love of family, of partner, of friends, of community, of animals, of nature, of country, of things, of hobbies, of work. Love is not something that you just fall into, as the romantic songs suggest. Love is a spiritual practice. You can get better at it over time."

Words: The spiritual practice of love, at Spirituality & Practice

Image: Midnight Watch by Fred Machetanz

Advent, Day 7

2009-12-05T05:53:00.001-05:00

You hollow us out, God,
so that we may carry you,
and you endlessly fill us
only to be emptied again.

Make smooth our inward spaces
and sturdy,
that we may hold you
with less resistance
and bear you
with deeper grace.

Words: from Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas by Jan L. Richardson (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1998)

Image: Psalm 46:10 by Linda Witte Henke

Advent, Day 6

2009-12-04T05:55:00.000-05:00

“God’s presence can be symbolized in various ways. Figures of speech and images invite the imagining of God’s nearness. In one dramatic instance God is wondrously and mysteriously present to Moses in a transfigured bush. The bush burns without burning up. It is ever-living while ever-giving in its flames of light and life. Yet, striking as the image is, this is still only a sign. The essence of the divine life, the source of all creation, remains beyond the world of human seeing. God’s presence is figuratively hinted. Holiness and inexhaustible power and life are alluded to, while the Divine continues to transcend creaturely ways of knowing—of being able to say, Now I know that I have seen God. I have seen the beauty and grandeur of God.”

Words: From “Day by day: loving God more dearly ©2009 by Frederick Borsh.

Image: Asimus Dominì - God's Breath, by Lucy Janjigian

Advent, Day 5

2009-12-03T06:31:00.003-05:00

"Whenever we offer a blessing, it is an intimate act that acknowledges that we are connected with another and that we desire the wholeness of that person—or that place, or whatever it is that we are blessing. A blessing is a reminder that God has not designed us to live by our own devices: we are bound together with one another and with all of creation, and we are called to work for the well-being of those whom we share this life with—and those who will follow. Offering a blessing is an act of profound hope. In blessing one another, we recognize and ally ourselves with the presence of God who is ever working to bring about the healing of the world."

Words: Jan Richardson in A Path of Blessing at The Advent Door

Image: Night and Day We Pray for You by Jan Richardson

Advent Message From The Presiding Bishop

2009-12-02T18:16:00.001-05:00

We're Following The Star, 2

2009-12-02T10:57:00.003-05:00

David:

I spent an hour yesterday sloshing through a vast scrap yard looking for a headlight for my van. It was pretty much a scene out of Mad Max – Mad Max after a long Midwestern drizzle. The sun and the mud were in my eyes and I couldn’t see any stars – biblical or otherwise. The day before yesterday I had hit a deer on the road – no way to miss it. It ran off and I hope it is ok, but it knocked out my headlamp and put me in a fresh funk – a simmering mix of guilt, anger, and distress. Not a big rolling boil – not my style – just a simmer. But still I’ve definitely got something cooking. I see that I have been taking little moments like this personally. Seems like there are a lot them lately. So this is the cave in which I begin my journey. I’d love a star, but not sure I can see stars from “here.”

That’s a start actually. Just seeing myself laying here in bed, pinned down at first by self-pity. A kind of straightforward confession without the groveling. Staying here with myself and letting God see me. Fortunately, you don’t have to sit in a particular way to meditate (though sometimes it helps). Staying with it, but somehow no longer “in” it. A star has risen inside me. This for me now is prayer. Not asking God to fix things – that just hasn’t been working for me. But just watching myself lying here things cleared up for a while. Not getting great visions of the Cosmos or the Child. Just some starlight. It illumines the night. Not permanently, but for a while. So now I know there are stars and there are also places from which it is difficult to see them.

So today, the residual starlight is still there. It’s not a pinpoint in the sky. It’s not brilliant. It’s just a sense of a gentle light – a place inside that is not pinned down in a cave. I’m not on the road yet. But today I’m out of the cave and up in the watchtower. It’s better up here. In the starlight.

Image: Watch Tower Urn by David Orth

------------

Jim:

Since we are speaking of kings, Peter King, the sportswriter, has a featurette in each of his Monday Morning Quarterback columns: Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me. I will paraphrase Mr. King with my Factoids of Advent That May Interest Only Me:

Being an English major and a writer, words fascinate me. I have been away from the church, any church, for a long time now. So when we are talking about Advent, I felt a good place for me to start was refreshing myself with the definition. I went to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary and found this:

Main Entry: Ad•vent

Pronunciation: \ˈad-ˌvent, chiefly British -vənt\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin adventus, from Latin, arrival, from advenire

Date: 12th century

1 : the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting

2 a : the coming of Christ at the Incarnation b : second coming

3 not capitalized : a coming into being or use

Two things which I did not know jumped out at me: Advent also means the Second Coming; and it comes from the Latin, adventus, meaning arrival.

So, never one to leave well enough alone, I broke the Latin, adventus, down into it's etymological least common denominators (if that is even a concept). In Latin, ad carries the idea of "in the direction of". And ventus, in Latin, means wind, rumor, or favor. So reassembling the word from its Latin roots, adventus becomes "in the direction of the wind", or "in the direction of a rumor", or "in the direction of favor". Based on the story in Matthew 2: 1-12, any of these definitions of adventus would work quite well, e.g.: 7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

And still, I would not let it go...so I looked up the current colloquial definition of "ad": a public notice...and a definition of "vent": to give often vigorous or emotional expression to ...putting those 2 together kind of works too.

And there you have it: My Factoids of Advent That May Interest Only Me

Image: Star by Jim Mangum

------------

Robin:

it’s not what I’ll take

but what I must leave behind…
oh, look at the moon

I’ll take everything
and just walk slowly

Image: My Blue Moon by C. Robin Janning

Advent, Day 4

2009-12-02T06:14:00.002-05:00

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Guest is on the way.

Angels announce with shouts of mirth,
Him who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.

Word: Two verses of a modern carol first published in The Oxford Book of Carols in 1928, by Eleanor Farjeon

Image: "Ephphatha" by Claudia Smith

"And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened." (Mark 7:34) -- interpreted for this painting to mean: be open to the Holy Spirit and Its boundless love, and you will be filled with Grace. Rejoice in it!

We're Following The Star, 1

2009-12-01T11:23:00.001-05:00

In that innocent moment, fences down and doors unguarded, an idea arrived. Unexpected. Not entirely uninvited. Call it radical or call it risky or call it an interesting quest… We’re following The Star.

“We” is David, Jim, and Robin.

Challenged and inspired by our own internal and external constellations we’re following the star across (neither down, nor up) an Advent path. We bring our own maps and tools and gifts, committing to the journey and to sharing.

These words by Joan Chittester carried the idea and brought us together for this journey.

“…Waiting — that cold, dry period of life when nothing seems to be enough and something else beckons within us — is the grace that Advent comes to bring. It stands before us, within us, pointing to the star for which the wise ones from the East are only icons of ourselves.”

So, as respectfully as we can, we salute those icons and then just as respectfully begin to diverge, branch out, make a trail.

Here we go.

Advent, Day 3

2009-12-01T05:47:00.001-05:00

There is no better time than Advent to turn our heads and hearts around to the true meaning of our lives. Each year we anticipate the coming of the babe in the manger. And each year, we have the opportunity to start again, to learn anew how to best live into the meaning of Christ with us.

Still, there is probably no time of the year when it is more difficult to focus on God than right now. Some of us are old enough to remember earlier times when the anticipation of Advent was possible, without too much intrusion from the gift-giving celebrations of Christmas. But today, the decorations for Christmas go up in the stores even before Thanksgiving, and we usually lose focus on the waiting and anticipation of Advent—before we even got started!

Words: Jon M. Sweeney in "These Days of Waiting on God"

Image: "Descending like a dove" by Sally Brower

Advent, Day 2

2009-11-30T06:14:00.004-05:00

Advent Reflection from The Merton Institute

Merton's Voice:

Last night all I could think of was to give my will entirely to God and desire no light or consolation, but only His will. I chanted the psalms of Lauds thinking how the only thing that matters is the glory of God....[Journals 2:149-150]

The Bible NRSV:

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. [I Thessalonians 3:12]

Prayer:

I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. [Psalm 119:48]

Seen Above: "Fear Not" by Ruth Councell

First Sunday Of Advent, Day 1

2009-11-29T00:30:00.012-05:00

Advent Reflection from The Merton Institute

Merton's Voice:

I give myself completely to God-He draws me more and more to that. I cannot know what lies ahead for me, for us, but more and more I realize God wants me to put myself in His hands, and let Him take me through the things that are to come.... [Journal 2:145]

The Bible (NRSV):

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the House of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the Land. [Jeremiah 33:14-15]

Prayer
The mighty one, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. [Psalm 50:1]

Seen Above:

PSALM 19: A unique contemporary interpretation of the beloved psalm, "The Song to The Choirmaster," also the oft-heard words prior to a sermon, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight."

Created by Roz Dimon working in collaboration with Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, Click HERE to participate in this multimedia event.

I Am Humbled

2009-11-28T09:41:00.002-05:00

Words & Image: Jeanelle McCall

O Maker Of Worlds

2009-11-21T23:13:00.002-05:00

O Maker of Worlds beyond us,
help us to live in the world we know
in peace with one another,
a kaleidoscope of nations,
a patchwork quilt of ways and wills
that rise from the depths of cultures
created by Your love.
Open us to the richness
of one another's vision
and the good we can accomplish
when we share one another's views.
We pray this prayer of unity and peace
in the hope of Shalom
Amen

Words: Sister Miriam Therese Winter

Image: The Rev. Scott Fisher

What Is Our Mission?

2009-11-18T05:49:00.003-05:00

“We participate in trying to heal this world.
That’s what we’re here for.”

Words: The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori in an address here.

Image: Processional Cross by David Orth

Charter For Compassion

2009-11-12T16:23:00.001-05:00

Learn about the Charter for Compassion HERE.

All Lovely Forms

2009-11-11T16:44:00.004-05:00

"Formless, all lovely forms declare his loveliness;
holy, no holiness of earth can his express.
Lo, he is Lord of all. Creation speaks his praise,
and everywhere above, below, his will obeys."

Words: From Praise To The Living God Medieval Jewish liturgy (in today's Daily Prayer)

Image: Photograph by The Rev. Scott Fisher (Afternoon Sun in the Willows)

I Touch Light

2009-11-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

"We are not human beings on a spiritual journey.
We are spiritual beings on a human journey."

Words: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Image: Barbara Desrosiers

The Splintered Cedar

2009-11-07T15:13:00.004-05:00

The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars,
Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
-Psalm 29:5

Cedars symbolize worldly majesty and beauty – and sometimes even pride. In antiquity, the cedars of Lebanon were prized above all other trees. Their wood was fine, strong and wonderfully scented. Cedar wood was the top choice for building any temple or palace, and it fetched a premium price.

When snow falls, cedars turn their branches towards heaven. This enables them to sustain the weight of the snow for a long time. Plus, because of their great flexibility, cedars rarely splinter.

This piece depicts the powerful effect of God's voice on the prideful cedar, as described in the psalm. Nothing is left of its majesty and beauty but splinters. The splinters are arranged in concentric circles to reflect both the precision of God's word and the idea that the splintering is a result of something like a sound wave. The lovely scent that hovers above the splinters reminds us that, while the cedars may be destroyed, the aftermath of that destruction is a bringing about of God’s Kingdom.

As cedars can be splintered by God's voice, so prideful man can be humbled by His Word and His action in the world – leaving behind only the sweet fragrance of Christ-like humility.

Words and Image: Installation with cedar mulch and wood splinters, Gerda Liebmann

Spiritual Light

2009-11-04T05:38:00.000-05:00

As every bird's nest begins to sing
in the green leafing out light of Spring,
As pale, sulfur-winged butterflies play
and yellowing dandelions are gay,
I see new joy in these morning skies
as sun rubs its rosy waking eyes;
As earth and heaven wildly embrace
in all the wildflowers of your grace,
I keep on turning from place to place
like a sunflower towards your face.

Words and Image by Paul Trachtman

Soul Silence

2009-11-03T06:09:00.001-05:00

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.

Words: Thomas Merton. Thoughts in Solitude (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1956): 80-81.

Image: A. R. Pinkus, Waterfalls in Maui

Our Sacred Duty

2009-10-31T20:13:00.005-04:00

"The duty of the artist is to send light
into the darkness of men’s souls."

Words: Vasily Kandinsky
Image: Photo by Diane Walker

Be The Change

2009-10-28T17:31:00.004-04:00

Video by Kat Edmonson.

Creativity

2009-10-26T00:48:00.005-04:00

Creativity becomes possible
insofar as man can forget
his limitations and his selfhood
and lose himself in abandonment
to the immense creative power
of a love too great to be seen or comprehended.

Words: Thomas Merton
Image: Photograph by Diane Walker

We Proclaim The Interconnectedness

2009-10-20T12:42:00.001-04:00

We mean peacefully to weave our own strand into the web of life as it exists here and now in our neck of the woods. We repudiate the dualism—and the myriad forms of power-over that it spawned—which has pervaded our human culture for so long. Instead, we proclaim the interconnectedness of all beings and claim being for all manifestations of creation. We claim our authentic voice as self-reflective beings—we have something to say about how we shall live on the Earth.

Words: From The Bluestone Manifesto by the Community of the Holy Spirit

Image: Photograph by C. Robin Janning

I Will Question You

2009-10-16T07:31:00.002-04:00

Then the Lord answered Job out of
the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of waters may cover you?
Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,
or given understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods cling together
Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in their covert?
Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?

Job 38, 1-3 and 34-41. NRSV

Image: Photograph by Robert Epley

Give Thanks

2009-10-11T08:17:00.004-04:00

Found this video thanks to Sarah Eagle Heart (TEC Program Officer for Native American/Indigenous Ministries).

Video is by Teddy Orii (Redsun).

Compose Yourself

2009-10-10T08:33:00.001-04:00

Composition communicates, and "...even though the conscious foundations of this idea may have originated in the sculptures and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome and later in the Renaissance, this concept is really rooted in something more primitive. It is rooted in the very nature of how we perceive and respond to the light, space and shapes of the universe around us. It is because of this that abstract art can speak to us through the universal language of light, shape, color, line and space. Abstract art is essentially visual music."

Words: Bill Buchman in "About Abstract Painting"

Image: Just Beyond by Bill Buchman

Seek Ye First

2009-10-08T11:55:00.003-04:00

O bless this people, Lord, who seek their own face
under the mask and can hardly recognize it ...

O bless this people that breaks its bond ...

And with them, all the peoples of Europe,
All the peoples of Asia,
All the peoples of Africa,
All the peoples of America,
Who sweat blood and sufferings.

And see in the midst of these millions of waves,
The sea swell of the heads of my people.
And grand to their warm hands that they may clasp
The earth in a girdle of brotherly hands,
Beneath the rainbow of thy peace.

Words: by Leopold Sedar Senghor* in An African Prayer Book, Selections and with Introductions by Desmond Tutu.

*noted French poet and essayist, president of Senegal, West Africa, in the 1960s.

Image: "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God," Found-Object Assemblage by Roberta Karstetter

Go Find It

2009-10-06T13:22:00.001-04:00

" ...God has spread a whole lot of spirit around out there, and we don’t always recognize it. We’re supposed to go find it and figure out how to bless it and join it, and keep spreading it around."

Words: The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori: Sermon at Closing Eucharist of Montana Diocesan Convention; Holy Spirit, Missoula, Proper 21B

Image: "The Blessing Cross" by C. Robin Janning

Kyrie

2009-10-05T06:23:00.002-04:00

Recognition

2009-09-30T22:25:00.002-04:00

Standing here, at the heart of matter,
I long for stillness,
All too aware that when I am shaken,
The rest of those whose lives I touch
Are profoundly rattled and stirred.

And so I seek that centered calm I feel
When I connect with You
And though I know it flows through me
To many other lives –
Some part of me still wonders
if it might be perceived as selfish,
To reach for that oxygen mask,
And put it on my own face first,
And so, enguilted, I neither delegate,
Nor ask for help;
Only give; make no time to receive,
and fail to find my link with You,
But churn instead in ceaseless busy-ness,
drowning in this chaotic sea
Of people, plans, and promises I’ve made.

Were I to pause and listen to the waves,
I’d hear your essence,
A lifeline’s slap across the water.
And if I were to stop and take a breath,
I’d feel your love
In the warm and liquid wash of a morning shower,
Or flowing o’er my hands in the kitchen sink;
In the delicate scent of a candle,
Or shampooing my daughter’s hair;
In the taste of fresh fall-ripened corn
Or a leftover grape, unpacked from yesterday’s lunch;
In the music of a chance-heard song on the radio of my car,
While driving in to work;
In the colorful splash of autumn's first leaves,
Or the twinkling spark in a friend or lover’s eye:
Each calls me home to you
If I but pay attention.

Remind me, Lord, to watch for you;
To create a space where thought will not intrude –
If only for a moment –
So I might hear and see; taste, smell, and even touch
The sounds and sights; the flavor, scent and feel
Of You.

Words and Image by Diane Walker

Do You See?

2009-09-28T04:11:00.001-04:00

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

Well worth a visit to Episcopal Cafe, the image above and a few words about contemplation.

Image: Untitled, by D. Davis. As seen in the "Los Angeles Visual Preludes 2009," presented to The General Convention of The Episcopal Church, July 2009, in Anaheim. The Rev. Gabriel Ferrer, Producer.

Humility

2009-09-27T22:41:00.000-04:00

"Humility can also mean ... a profound recognition of the limits of what we 'know.' Such humility requires a real caution about generalizing what we think we know of others' situations. Such humility also requires a deep awareness of how our biographies affect our knowledge and biases.

Our gender, culture, ethnicity, and personal and collective histories all profoundly shape how we know and what we know, and in ways that are often difficult to bring to consciousness. Humility calls us, then, to a deep appreciation for and openness to others' realities and to new revelations."

Words: Howard Zehr, The Little Book of Contemplative Photography
Image: Diane Walker

Perfect Peace

2009-09-22T18:08:00.002-04:00

"Where is silence? Where is solitude? Where is love?

Ultimately, these cannot be found anywhere except in the ground of our own being. There in the silent depths, there is no more distinction between the I and the Not-I. There is perfect peace, because we are grounded in infinite creative and redemptive Love."

Words: Thomas Merton. Love and Living. Naomi Burton Stone and Br. Patrick Hart, editors (Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 1979): 20.

Image: Woodblock by Connie Butler

The Sound of Solitude

2009-09-20T12:40:00.001-04:00

Wake up
and feel the sound of solitude
playing its melody
Harmonizing with the dance of your new life
Play them softly
Play them loud
Be the player
Be the listener
Be awake
Be aware
Be.

Words and Image by Joyce Wycoff

Sky Declares

2009-09-19T10:15:00.003-04:00

The heavens tell God’s glory,
       and His handiwork sky declares.
Day to day breathes utterance
       and night to night pronounces knowledge.
There is no utterance and there no words,
       their voice is never heard.
Through all the earth their voice goes out,
       to the world’s edge, their words.
For the sun He set up a tent in them –
       and he like a groom from his canopy comes,
              exults like a warrior running his course.
From the ends of the heavens his going out
       And his circuit to their ends,
              And nothing can hide from his heat.

Words: Psalm 19:2–7 from The Book of Psalms: a translation with commentary, by Robert Alter

Image: Simonsons Meadow by Robert Epley

For Angels

2009-09-17T16:50:00.000-04:00

Spirited light! on the edge
of the Presence your yearning
burns in the secret darkness,
O angels, insatiably
into God’s gaze.

Words: Hildegard of Bingen

Image: "Knowing Lights" by C. Robin Janning

Keeping Our Balance

2009-09-13T18:13:00.002-04:00

"Rabbi Simcha Bunam, one of the great Hasidic masters taught that each of us should have a scrap of paper in each one of our pockets. Upon one scrap of paper should be written the words taken from the Talmud: Bishvili nivra ha’olam – The world was created for my sake (Sanhedrin 37a) and on the other scrap of paper should be the words from Genesis (18:27), V’anochi afar va’ayfehr, – I am but dust and ashes."

"... Rabbi Bunam teaches us balance – balance between extreme humility which could literally leave us in the dust, and extreme ego-centrism which could lead us to believe we are the center of the universe. We live with this paradox: even though we will perish, the world was created for us. The idea that the world was created for us must underscore the questions that we pose to ourselves about our lives. For if we believe that the world was created for us, then we are charged with making a difference in this world."

Words: From Kol Nidre 5767, by Rabbi Susan Leider

Image: Blue Music by Virginia Wieringa

Hail Mary

2009-09-08T11:00:00.001-04:00

"They say it's your birthday...
I'm glad it's your birthday

Happy birthday to you."

Words: Birthday Lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Image: Theotokos by Carole Baker (This image, though not a true icon in the canonical sense, nods to the rich tradition of iconography and was completed as part of her masters thesis. The research leading to the piece explored the role images of Mary played in the development of the Church's Christological doctrines.)

Vocation

2009-09-07T08:35:00.003-04:00

"The vocation for you is the one in which your deep gladness and the world's deep need meet -- something that not only makes you happy but that the world needs to have done."

Words: Frederick Buechner

Image: Woodblock by Connie Butler

A Blessing

2009-09-06T08:25:00.003-04:00

For a blessing upon all human labor, and for the right use of the riches of creation, that the world may be freed from poverty, famine, and disaster, we pray to you, O Lord.

Image: Sun Dancer by Marty G. Two Bulls, Sr. (The Sun Dance is performed to "magnify the prayers of the people.")

Words: From the Book of Common Prayer, Form V, Prayers of the People, page 390

ECVA Imaging Ubuntu

2009-08-31T21:25:00.003-04:00

"The very act of self-differentiation is itself the beauty of Ubuntu. You cannot know you are unique or beautiful or intelligent without the reference point of a community in which such attributes become intelligible."

Words: The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle in Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me, Seabury Books, 2009

Image: From the newest ECVA Exhibition, Art As Public Narrative: ECVA Imaging Ubuntu, Diane Walker, Curator; exhibition title page features the art of Lucy Janjigian.

James: The Letter To The Scattered

2009-08-28T19:34:00.018-04:00

Graphic novel translation by The Rev. Earnest Graham, III

Wounds of Light

2009-08-27T09:32:00.005-04:00

Just as darkness brings rest and release,
so the dawn brings awakening and renewal.
Each day, the dawn unveils the mystery of this universe.
Dawn is the ultimate surprise;
it awakens us to the immense "thereness" of nature.
The wonderful subtle color of the universe
arises to clothe everything.
This is captured in a phrase from William Blake:
"Colours are the wounds of light."

Words by John O'Dohohue from his book, Anam Cara.
Image by Diane Walker

Flowers Of The Field

2009-08-25T17:10:00.003-04:00

as for man, his days are like grass,

he flourishes like a flower of the field

Psalm 103:15

Image: Thread-Painting by Jeanelle McCall

Live Your Life

2009-08-24T16:50:00.001-04:00

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, you rejoice and the world cries." — Cree saying

Image: "Silere" photograph by Dan Hardison

For all who work, worry, or weep

2009-08-24T13:00:00.004-04:00

Gracious Mary
we ask your blessings,
place our hands in yours
where His hands also lay
and ask for your tender care:
Hold those who work, or worry, or weep this day
as gently as you held your son;
shield and guide them on their way.

Words and image by Diane Walker

Wondering

2009-08-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

"Great are the deeds of the Lord,
Discovered by all who desire them."

Words: Psalm 111 : 2

from The Book of Psalms: a translation with commentary, by Robert Alter

Image: Wondering—Just Wondering, by Robert Epley

The gift of contemplation

2009-08-21T11:22:00.004-04:00

Standing together in majestic isolation,
rooted and stripped,
we face into the desert
and spin the breath of spirit
into hope,
fueling the world.

Words and image by Diane Walker

Signposts

2009-08-20T11:15:00.005-04:00

Do not discard them,
those moments and decisions
you now judge with disdain;
View them with compassion
for choices made along the way
by your less-wise self;
think of them as signposts
from your unreflected life.

Words and image by Diane Walker

Merton on Creativity

2009-08-10T21:28:00.005-04:00

Creativity becomes possible insofar as man can forget his limitations and his selfhood and lose himself in abandonment to the immense creative power of a love too great to be seen or comprehended.

Words: Thomas Merton, "Theology of Creativity"

Image: Diane Walker

Soft Summer Dream

2009-08-08T07:52:00.003-04:00

"With the grandeur and opportunity for growth that resides within the ocean of our authentic self, it is surprising that we spend most of our waking life with a focus on the external world. How much richer our life would be if we gave equal time to the internal reality. This realm is always available to us if we are willing to be quiet and attentive long enough to visit it."

Words: Joyce Rupp in Open the Door: A Journey to the True Self

Image: Gene Black

Presence And Joy

2009-08-02T09:43:00.006-04:00

"Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit."

Words: Psalm 51:12-13

Image: The Rev. Scott Fisher, Evening Sky at Chena River

The Garden of Hope

2009-07-29T16:40:00.004-04:00

Gardening is always an act of hope:
not just the hope
that at the end
there will be flowers to brighten a day
or produce to share,
but also hope that there will be rain, and sun;
fertile soil, and strength to weed;
productive seeds; no nasty infestations...
and most of all, the hope --
or perhaps that is belief, not hope --
that we'll be there at the harvest,
on our knees and thankful
for the feel of fruit, or flowers in our hands.

What seeds are you sowing today?
What harvest do you anticipate?
Have you the steadfastness to water,
the time to weed,
the courage to thin, or to transplant as needed?
And who will be there at the end,
to bring in the ripe and the lush,
to feast on that immeasurable bounty?

Words and image by Diane Walker

Longing

2009-07-28T16:02:00.003-04:00

And on those days,
when all seems flat and bleak,
too dry to breathe,
too hot to move
and I sag under the weight
of my own internal sky,
am I not like you?

Do I not long
for love to fall into place,
for some discriminating cloud
to drift down round my shoulders
enfolding with its whisper of cool and damp,
its promise of rain to come,
of water -- somewhere --
in this parched desert of a life?

Words and Image by Diane Walker

Prayer

2009-07-27T11:27:00.002-04:00

Prayer
is the breath of the soul,
the life energy of the spirit.
It is the story of the interplay
between God and me.
It is the link
between the inner and outer life.

There is no formula for it beyond the need
to nourish it with both words and silence.

The prayer of words is simply meant
to fill our minds and thoughts
with an awareness of the nature of God
and the attitudes of soul needed
to immerse ourselves in the God-life
until we melt into the presence of God within.

There the great silence of God becomes
the central, major focus of our lives,
the anchor of our hearts,
the stabilizer that carries us
through all the moments of life
on a straight course directly to the heart of God.

Words: Joan Chittister from The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer (Twenty-Third Publications)

Image: Red Maple and Russian Sage by C. Robin Janning

Genesis

2009-07-26T20:55:00.002-04:00

“Both favor and folly are part of the human condition. Heart cries, however, can always be the genesis of healing.”

Words: Charles R. Ringma in The Seeking Heart: A Journey with Henry Nouwen

Image: Morning Meditation by Barbara Desrosiers

The Unseeable

2009-07-25T09:30:00.004-04:00

"I want to make poems while thinking of
the bread of heaven and the
cup of astonishment; let them be

songs in which nothing is neglected,
not a hope, not a promise. I want to make poems
that look into the earth and the heavens
and see the unseeable."

Words by Mary Oliver from "Everything"
in "New and Selected Poems"

Image: "Trinity" by James Mangum

Mother

2009-07-22T17:41:00.003-04:00

your hands, your arms
your heart which bears
still the imprint of my own

Image: "Memorial to My Mother" by Connie Butler, bronze sculpture.

Music Of The Spheres 1

2009-07-21T08:19:00.004-04:00

in circles, the poetry of light
wraps itself with spirit to
become music

Seen above: "Music of the Spheres 1" by Virginia Wieringa

It's Over

2009-07-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

General Convention is over. We've been reminded and advised; we've been refreshed and energized. We've laughed, we've prayed, and we've danced.

Now, the work begins; it continues. Day in, day out. Breathing in, breathing out.

Image: Photograph by A. R. Pinkus

10 Minutes

2009-07-17T10:15:00.008-04:00

"In the Name of God
Our Creator
Our Redeemer
and Our Sanctifier
Amen

I have 10 minutes.
I have 10 minutes to save the earth..."

So began the address given by Bishop Steven Charleston at the General Convention Eucharist on July 15, 2009. His impassioned and prophetic words must taken into our minds, our hearts, and our hands.

You can read portions of the address and see it at EpiscopalLife Online.

"This is our moment, this is our time, this is our call and under an anointing of the spirit of God we will not fail in that call, but be in the vanguard of a change that will resound around the world full of hope and grace to renew humanity itself through the hope and power of Jesus in whose name I have preached and in whose name I have prayed."

Words: Bishop Steven Charleston

Seen above: Bishop Steven Charleston addresses General Convention Eucharist, GC Media Hub 09's photostream, 7/15/09 Duane Dale.

You Are There

2009-07-16T15:02:00.004-04:00

"I know because you are there that I am here.
The stretching arm of cognition
in a lightning flash,
joining together a million eons of distance,
joining together birth and death,
joining together the known and the knower."

Words: Thich Nhat Hanh from Non-Duality

Image: Diane Walker

The Ubuntu Reredos

2009-07-15T10:02:00.006-04:00

"Before time began, the invisible world rested in the eternal. With the creation of our world, time and space began. Every stone, bush, raindrop, star, mountain, and flower has its origin in the invisible world. That is where the first sighting of each of us occurred. We emerged from the folds of time, each an intense mixture of visible and invisible." John O'Donohue, in To Bless the Space Between Us.

The altar space at General Convention in Anaheim is transformed daily by the work and spirit of ECVA President Mel Ahlborn, Producer of The Ubuntu Reredos (a digital altarpiece created for this 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church). This reredos is a symphony of images that offers a co-mingling of visual bread and wine—where the gift evolved is always more than the bread and wine.

Seen above: Convention Eucharist on Sunday July 12, 2009, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori presiding.

Reminder

2009-07-14T15:34:00.003-04:00

the greeting the mingling flowing highly visible
Spirit moving quietly invisible

for some reason,
General Convention
reminds me of baptism

Image: "Baptism" by Roger Hutchison

Trip To Memory

2009-07-13T12:04:00.005-04:00

long ago
down a dirt road
in a New Mexico ghost town
falling down church
falling down life

from self-inflicted wounds
so much collateral damage
a child’s hot tears
a wife’s withering dreams
a husband’s blind regret

a heart was carved
in the tilting wooden cross
broken heart?
sacred heart?
hard to tell

now I see it again
that old adobe church
the tilting, splintered cross
mirage? dream?
hard to tell

the weathered heart remains
and from this distance casts light
where other hearts have healed
on this long and winding journey
this redeeming trip
to Memory.

Words and Image by James Mangum and C. Robin Janning

Full Of Grace

2009-07-12T11:00:00.006-04:00

“I invite you into a new way of seeing Mary. We must recapture and reclaim Mary and see her for what she is… an active agent that moves through us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

Words: Bishop Steven Charleston from an article by Nan Ross, in The (Episcopal Life) Daily, Issue 4, page 13.

Image: "Mothering Arms" by C. Robin Janning

At The Eucharist

2009-07-11T10:45:00.004-04:00

"Here at the Eucharist we state who we are and where and why. We give voice to our hunger and helplessness; we name death, in us and around us; we give thanks that we are called from emptiness to life, and our own true names are spoken by the Word. May this gathering be a sign of life in the face of death, a declaration of who we are in Jesus and with one another, in the heart of God the Holy Trinity: chosen friends who, miraculously, know something of that God's longing for what has been made."

Words: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers a mediation and expresses gratitude to Convention during the July 9, 2009 Eucharist at the Episcopal Church's 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California. A video stream will be available on-demand at the Media Hub. The complete text of the meditation is HERE.

Image: Photos seen above by Alex Dyer (top, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivers meditation at July 9th Eucharist; bottom: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams exchanges The Peace with a woman in a wheelchair).

Images courtesy of Episcopal Life Online

Artists At The General Convention

2009-07-11T09:09:00.005-04:00

Artists help set mood for worship in Anaheim.

Image: "Afternoon Radiance," a pastel by Paula Vukmanic

An Artist's Connection

2009-07-09T12:28:00.013-04:00

artists often show
their understanding of unity and divinity
by expressing their connection with mother earth...

Seen above: "Reflection" by James Mangum

Winter In July

2009-07-07T06:02:00.002-04:00

Spring time is birth time,
the time of quickening –
summer is the time of growth,
of fullness –
autumn sees maturity,
ripeness, and passing –
and winter is death.
— George W. Jones

Last Fall while attending the last game of the soccer season for the daughter of friends, we met another fourteen-year-old girl who was a friend of a member of the team. Her name was Sarah.

Talking with Sarah off and on during the game, we learned that she did not play sports – a bit clumsy, she loved music and was taking piano lessons, her family were going to Disney World in a couple of weeks. She was pretty and bright, but also polite, well-mannered, and courteous – traits that are often hard to find with today’s youths. I found myself thinking, what a wonderful girl this was and how we could use more young people like Sarah.

After the game ended and we were walking to the car, we learned that Sarah had an inoperable brain tumor. She had perhaps six-months to live. My heart sank. After that day, we would occasionally receive updates on Sarah as her health declined. On July 2, Sarah died. I only met her the one time, yet the sorrow was great. Here was a young girl on the threshold of life’s summer, and now she was gone.

In George Jones’ complete poem, he speaks of how our lives mirror the seasons. His focus is on those of “venerable age” who have reached their winter years. So, what of those whose winter comes too soon?

There was a young man named David that George Jones had known since David was a child at the mission church where Jones was the priest. He thought the world of David, but David was suddenly stricken with an illness and died. Jones was heartbroken. As he described it, “It seems that all the flowers in Sherwood’s valley withered when David died, that all strength turned to weakness.” He later told the following story.

“In the Mission garden, Florence was cutting roses after David died. There she pondered, as perhaps at sometimes do all, why often the fairest of the young must die – as our David or sweet little ones. Many wonder why David had to die at 23, the best boy, the best young man the Mission has nurtured.

“Florence though, how she loved all the roses, how she gathered those spent and withered and old into her basket and as cherished things rather than trash, tenderly put them away. But she further thought how in selecting roses for God’s altars and shrines and glory, she selected the fairest most perfect buds. When the Mission folk heard her story many better understood how God, Who loves us all and gathers all at last, reached into His Mission Garden and gathered David, so young, so fair, into His bosom for His glory.”

Sarah’s seasons have ended, her morning of song has come, and it is time to begin life anew.

Words and Image by Dan Hardison

Working Together

2009-07-06T17:11:00.003-04:00

Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. We are free beings and sons and daughters of God. This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in His creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others, by choosing the truth. To put it better, we are even called to share with God the work of creating the truth of our identity. ...To work out our own identity in God, which the Bible calls "working out our salvation," is a labor that requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. It demands close attention to reality at every moment, and great fidelity to God as He reveals Himself, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation.

Words: Thomas Merton. New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions Press, 1961): 32.

Image: "St. Francis" by James Mangum