Wondering

"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

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

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

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

"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

"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

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

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

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

“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

"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

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

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

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

"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

"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

"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

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

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

“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

"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

Artists help set mood for worship in Anaheim.

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

An Artist's Connection

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

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

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

Asking The Blessing Of Light

In the glare of neon times,
Let our eyes not be worn
By surfaces that shine
With hunger made attractive.

That our thoughts may be true light,
Finding their way into words
Whhich have the weight of shadow
To hold the layers of truth.

That we never place our trust
In minds claimed by empty light,
Where one-sided certainties
Are driven by false desire.

Words from "For Light" by John O'Donohue,
in To Bless the Space Between Us.

Image by The Rev. Scott Fisher

Consequences

Once you plant this seed,
do not expect
some other tree to grow:
each action bears its own unique fruit;
creates its own legacy.
Reach out to me,
and I will bloom in you.


Words and image by Diane Walker

Gift

My rock, my sacred place,
absorbs my prayer - my gift to life.
Rock too, as all creation does,
gifts back - opens, breaks -
and yielding itself broken and inwardly exposed,
offers its hidden treasure
as prayerful gift of beauty.

Words and Image by Brother Anthony-Francis, Hermit
All Rights Reserved.

Breaking Locks

“… To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.”

Words: John O’Donohue in “To Bless the
Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, 2008

Image: Gary E. Smith (Photographer)
C. Robin Janning (Painter)

The seedy center of things

Look closely:
that darkness you sense
at the center of your being --
the stuff you build
a thousand fragile walls around,
hoping one will hold --
it's not a solid mass,
or writhing with snakes:
it's just a mass of seeds,
waiting to be born in you,
hoping for attention
-- a little sunlight, a little water --
eager to burst into glorious flower,
to stretch out petals of startling joy
and flutter in the breeze.
Take your pick; Grab one! Plant it NOW!


Words and image by Diane Walker

Collaborative Art

The image shown above is a collaboration between a photographer and a painter. While the mechanics of how a collaboration might proceed are many and varied, it seems that what is absolutely required is the ability to see beyond the individual heart and into the universal heart. When this happens, what is born of collaboration will be art that speaks more than one language.

Infinite possibilities exist. Which means nearly an infinite number of chance collaborations never happen. To me, it makes those that do happen...and that do work magically and wondrously...infinitely special.

Words and image by James Mangum (photographer)
and C. Robin Janning (painter)

A Radiant Oneness

We gather around
this table you set
and feel the spirit move like wind.

We float suspended
on the wine-dark sea,
holding hands and circling round,
synchronized swimmers in fluid motion,
each life a pattern,
detected only from above.

Fed by your color,
nurtured by your light
we breathe in the delicate perfume of oneness.

Words and image by Diane Walker

The Disappeared

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

The Disappeared, an exhibition from The North Dakota Museum of Art (curated by Laurel Reuter) is introduced this week at Episcopal Cafe.

The work above, by Luis Gonzáles Palma, was given to the North Dakota Museum of Art in honor of Elizabeth Hampsten, a long-time professor of English at the University of North Dakota, who has dedicated her life to human rights and to preserving the life stories of little-known women. She has translated key human rights books from Spanish into English. Among them are Uruguay Nunca Mas: Human Rights Violations, 1972 - 1985, and, most recently, Truck of Fools by Carlos Liscano.

In this 1997 diptych, Empty Shirt, also by Luis Gonzáles Palma, one frame contains the frontal image of a Mayan woman, the second, an empty white shirt which stands in for the disappeared husband.

Read more here.

Images: Luis Gonzáles Palma

Last Night In Alaska

... the people, the place
joined to celebrate Eucharist
and light at Eagle Summit

Image: Bruce Gadwah, St. Matthew's, Fairbanks

Summer Solstice

"Solstice" by Roger Hutchison

From gratefulness.org

Summer Solstice: The northern polar axis of the earth tilted most sunwards marks the advent of summer and long days of sunlight. Like the earth, may we bow before the spiritual sun, so that we are bathed always in its transformative light.



From George Harrison

"Here Comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes"



From Robert Louis Stevenson

"Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad He,
through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes."



From The Rev. Scott Fisher

Thou who first placed us in a Garden, and who calls to us from an Easter garden, hear our prayer for, like the plants and flowers of the Earth, we seek Light. Thou, who speaks from Mountains and who walks with us through Lonesome valleys, at this turning of the Earth, we give you thanks for the Gift of Light, seen and unseen, and pray your Company until we come to that Country where there is no darkness at all. In your Name Lord Jesus, who reminded us that WE are the Light of the World, we do pray. Amen.

Photograph by The Rev. Scott Fisher

Mercy

I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name.
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms’ self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.

Words: Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

Image: Nuestra Senora del Carmen by James Mangum

Flavoring Eternity

From a drop of rain,
an ocean will emerge.
From one small seed
an entire vineyard grows.
From a grain of yeast
generations will be fed
with the risen bread.

In just this way,
that tiny glimpse you have of hope,
the smile you share,
the cheek you turn,
the wrong that you forgive,
or choose not to avenge:
each speck of love
you toss like spice
into the dish of life
enriches all,
giving each
the flavor of eternity.

Words and image by Diane Walker

Borderless World

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

This week at Episcopal Cafe, the Art Blog features the work of artists and spouses Chuck Hoffman and Peg Carlson-Hoffman, who work side-by-side on the same canvas.

Image: Borderless World by Chuck Hoffman and Peg Carlson-Hoffman

Beyond

Though you cannot hear the water or the wind,
you know they do not cease to exist.
And when the light is dying, you’re aware
that with the dawn the sun will rise again.
And though you cannot touch the air,
its spirit never fails to fill your lungs.
Just so, in that neverland beyond the stillness
where sight and sound
and breath and touch abate,
I wait for you with arms outstretched,
laden with unimaginable gifts.


Words and image by Diane Walker

Seeing As Blessing

"May you recognize in your life the
presence, power, and light of your soul.

May you realize that you are never alone,
that your soul in its brightness and
belonging connects you intimately
with the rhythm of
the universe."

Words by John O'Donohue, in Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Image: Photograph by Helen Belencan

Who Does She Think She Is?

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

This week at Episcopal Cafe, Art Blog editor, Mel Ahlborn provides more than one answer to this post's question. Read it all HERE.

And to answer Mel's question: "Can You Name 5 Women Artists?" just take a look (right-hand column) at the list of our Contributors.

Click on the image above (a poster for the film) to go to the interactive "Who Does She Think She Is?" web site.

See?

O Divine Artist,
whose brush creates for us
this perfect blush of burgundy,
these shades of green;
inscribing a delicate calligraphy
of light and shadow,
balanced each to each
as if to say: "See?"
Even a shadow can be beautiful;
even a tiny patch of sunlight
can reveal a moment of pure joy...

Let your divine artistry echo in us,
that what we paint or draw,
sing, play or dance --
with pigment, voice, or instrument;
through body, pen or camera --
that each uniquely rendered song of dark and light,
of shadow, shade and flame,
may allow some fortunate observer
to see the spark of divinity that ignites us all.

Words & Image by Diane Walker

Ashes, Stones, and Flowers

In Memory of All Victims of War and Terrorism

For vibrant lives suddenly
and shamelessly sacrificed,
we lift up the ashes of our loss,
O Source of Life.

For the lives that continue,
haunted forever by the pain of absence,
we lift up the ashes of our remorse,
O Wellspring of Compassion.

For the conflagration of flames and nightmare
images forever seared into our memories,
we lift up the ashes of our pain,
O Breathing Spirit of the World.

For the charred visions of peace
and the dry taste of fear,
we lift up the ashes of our grief,
O Infinite.

For all the deaths that have been justified by turning
the love of God or country into fanatical arrogance,
we lift up the ashes of our shame,
O God.

As we cast these ashes into the
troubled water of our times,
Transforming One,

hear our plea that by your power they
will make fertile the soil of our future and
by your mercy nourish the seeds of peace.

For the ways humanity pursues violence
rather than understanding,
we lift up the stones of our anger,
O Breathing Spirit of the World.

For the ways we allow national, religious and
ethnic boundaries to circumscribe our compassion,
we lift up the stones of our hardness,
O Wellspring of Compassion.

For our addiction to weapons and the ways of
militarism we lift up the stones of our fear,
O Source of Life.

For the ways we cast blame and create enemies
we lift up the stones of our self-righteousness,
O God.

As we cast these stones into this ancient river,
Transforming One, hear our plea:

Just as water wears away the hardest of stones,
so too may the power of your compassion soften
the hardness of our hearts and draw us into a future
of justice and peace.

For sowing seeds of justice to blossom into harmony,
we cast these flowers into the river,
O Source of Peace.

For seeing clearly the many rainbow
colors of humanity and earth,
we cast these flowers into the river,
O Infinite.

For calling us to life beyond our grieving,
we cast these flowers into the river,
O Breathing Spirit of the World.

As we cast these flowers into this ancient river,
Transforming One, hear our plea:

Just as water births life in a desert and gives
hope to the wounded, so too may the power of
your nurturing renew our commitment to peace.

Words by Rev. Patricia Pearce, Pastor of Tabernacle United Church, Philadelphia, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of The Shalom Center

Image: photograph by C. Robin Janning

Thread This Needle

If you would thread this needle --
pass through to the other side,
that we might stitch our life together --

You must first interweave
your own strands:
gather up your disparate parts,
bind them together as an act of love;
make of them
a single
solid
rope of oneness.

Any loose ends,
any frayed connections
will surely prohibit entry
through this narrow gate.

Words and Image by Diane Walker

Speaking His Own Name

"Unless He utters Himself in you, and speaks His own name in the center of your soul, you will no more know Him than a stone knows the ground upon which it rests in its inertia."

Words: Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation: 39.

Image: Viola by Ruth Councell

Refuge From This Love

I pulled a thorn from the fence of His garden,
and it has not stopped working its way into my heart.

One morning a little of His wine
turned my heart into a lion hunter.

It’s right that this separation He helped me feel
lurks like a monster within my heart.
Yet heaven’s wild and unbroken colt
was trained by the hand of His love.
Though reason is learned and has its honors,
it pawned its cap and robes for a cup of love.

Many hearts have sought refuge from this love,
but it drags and pulls them to its own refuge.

Words: Mevlâna Jalâluddîn, "The Pull of Love" in The Pocket Rumi, Translated by Kabir Helminski. (Shambhala, 2001) Read more here.

Image: Photography by Diane Walker

Our Story

We encourage and affirm creativity
in ourselves and in all persons.

Our mission of Unity calls us
to contemplate and express through the arts
A deeper awareness of our communion
with God and all creation.

We affirm the power and prophecy of the arts
and believe them to be an important ministry
for hope and healing in this critical moment.
of world transformation.

Words: VISION STATEMENT FOR MINISTRY OF THE ARTS, Sisters of St. Joseph in La Grange Park, IL

Image: Mary Southard, CSJ