On the Creation by John of the Cross with commentary by Peggy

A bride who will love you
My Son
I want to give you
Who, because of her great value,
Deserves to share your company
And eat bread at our table
(This one I too eat at)
So she can know
The Good I have in you
And so she can rejoice with me
In your grace and full beauty.

I am grateful,
Father,
Said the Son
And I will show my shining
To the bride you gave me
So she can see by its radiance
How great my Father is
And how the being I possess
Streams to me from Your being.
I will hold her in my arms
And she will burn in your love
And with eternal delight
She will exalt Your goodness.

My thoughts:

This beautiful writing of John of the Cross (16th cent Carmelite and good friend of Teresa of Avila) is a paraphrase of John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son (Jesus the Christ), that whoever believes in Him (understands and practices the 'mind of Christ' following the example of Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life.

"Who, because of her great value,
Deserves to share your company
And eat bread at our table..."

For God so loved the world (her great value)...that God brought an eternal relationship of procreative beauty and mutual dependence between the seen and the unseen, bringing forth a creation "table," an everlasting cycle of self-sustaining ecological nourishment, that creation ("she") could know the "Good" the Christ and "rejoice with me in your grace and full beauty." That He gave His only Son...

Whoever believes in Him will not perish...
"Said the Son (The Christ and Jesus by his annointing as The Christ), I will show my shining (that I am of God) to the bride" (creation) "so she can see by its radiance...how the being (human form Jesus) I possess streams to me from Your being (God)...she will burn in your love with eternal delight..."

But have everlasting life...

"She will exalt Your goodness." Creation wil be lifted into the embrace of the Christ, who is all Goodness from God.

Some will say, the church is the Bride of Christ, but that is simply the beginning of one movement of the awareness of humanity (the Christians) on behalf of creation toward the divine reality that we are one with Source.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Psalm 20

Eternal and Immortal One,
You have been our refuge in all generations.

Before the mountain were brought forth,
before You had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting,
You are the Alpha and Omega.

When our days on Earth are ended,
You welcome us home to your Heart,
to the City of Light,
where time is eternal and days are not numbered.

You gather those who love You
as friends returning from a long journey,
giving rest to their souls.
You annoint them with the balm of understanding,
healing wounds of the past.

For our days on Earth are a mystery, a searching for You,
a yearning for the great Mystery to make itself known.
The years pass and soon the Harvest is at hand,
a time to reap the fruit of one's life.

Who has lived with integrity?
Who will reflect the Light?
Who can bear the radiant beams of Love?

Who have reverenced the Counselor,
and opened their hearts to the Spirit of Truth?
Teach us, O Beloved, to honor each day
that we may have a heart of wisdom.

Awaken us, O Holy One! Too long have we been asleep!
Have mercy on your people!
Help us to wait in Silence listening for your Word,
Strengthen us with courage to face the fears within.

O, that we might be converted in our hearts and walk together in peace and harmony!
Let your Word be known to the nations,
your Glory to our children's children.

Let the grace and gentleness of the Holy Spirit be upon us,
guiding our feet upon paths of love;
Increase the Light within us-
O Beloved, hear our prayer!

Amen

~from Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill

“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi

"Whoever we may be, whatever religion we belong to - when we pray and our prayers come from the deepest of our hearts, a transformation takes place and we find ourselves "Beyond right and wrong." We experience the immense power of deep spirituality whenever we chant/sing together even as each prays in their own tradition/tongue." Singers message from BEYOND -Buddhist and Christian prayers.

The reason for Taize in a word is reconciliation toward a universal goal of PEACE. Reconciliation means to “sit with again.” Or be returned to…. from Latin reconciliāre to bring together again, from re- + conciliāre to make friendly, conciliate.

Three times a day, the bells ring an invitation to prayer through the tiny town of Taizé, in the rolling country-side of the burgundy region of France. At the monastery, monks and visiting pilgrims stop their activities to come together in the spacious, candle-lit Church of the Reconciliation for an hour of meditation.

It was 1940 when Reformed Swiss Protestant, Brother Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche arrived in Taizé by bicycle to establish a refugee camp. He and his sister ministered to war refugees and underpriviledged of all nationalities and ethnicities. Br Roger understood all of humanity to be reconciled to God through Christ and that doing God’s work meant loving and accepting everyone into the community.

After the war, the ecumenical monastic community of Taizé took shape, as men of all religious traditions joined with Brother Roger to promote reconciliation and unity through denominational diversity. In 1952 Br Roger wrote his rule of community solidifying the unity of the Brothers in an ethic of prayer, work and hospitality -“the essential that makes the common life possible.” In his rule Br Roger wrote: “It is Christ Himself whom we receive in our guest. Let us learn to welcome.”

Reconciliation does not mean you agree to do things my way. Reconciliation means we agree to respect the way we both think and practice. Reconciliation is always unifying, never exclusionary. Reconciliation honors diversity. Diversity is an inherent characteristic of life – in fact the more diverse life is, the greater the potential to sustain life. You have all heard of hybrid vigor – the more diverse the genetic pool, the less likely for mutations that lead to anomalies. The more diverse our thoughts, the greater our creativity. The more diverse our food sources, the greater chance that all will be fed. Reconciliation understands the need for diverse life and calls it into wholeness together. One people, one planet.

Taize is all about honoring diversity, living a Christ-centered ethic which puts love ahead of all else – love which does not discriminate, but offers itself to everyone, a fountain of living water for all who come to drink.

In Harmony is a trio of local Kansas City women who are bringing the hospitality and contemplative peace of Taizé prayer to churches and organizations seeking such quiet times for reflection. In Harmony’s Taizé services are written for liturgical seasons or on scriptural themes for missions groups, retreats, church and community events. In Harmony’s mission is to promote and foster unity in diversity through contemplative prayer practice and provide assistance to those in need through the allocation of proceeds to local charitable organizations

At the heart of Taizé is the unquenchable longing for reconciliation on earth, the truest prayer of all sacred traditions. It is the work and hope of In Harmony that the peace of Taizé prayer will be translated through the lives of its participants and those they encounter mip'nei tikkun ha-olam ("for the sake of the repair of the world").

This is the message of Taize - unity in diversity. "Whoever we may be, whatever religion we belong to - when we pray and our prayers come from the deepest of our hearts, a transformation takes place and we find ourselves "Beyond right and wrong." WE experience the immense power of deep spirituality whenever we chant/sing together even as each prays in their own tradition/tongue." Singers message from BEYOND -Buddhist and Christian prayers.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

The Artistry of Conscience - adapted from The Wisdom Way of Knowing, by Cynthia Bourgeault

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Conscience in the wisdom way of knowing is not an ethical term, although an ethic certainly flows from conscience. Conscience is the active spirit of consciousness. It is "the heart's own ability to see the divine hologram in any situation, no matter how obscured, and to move spontaneously and without regard for its personal well-being in alignment with that divine wholeness." CB

With a purified eye of the heart, one can move into emotional tension with compassion, shifting the energy through the quality of one's own aliveness. Like St Frances of Assisi, you embrace the leper standing before you with his begging bowl, because the eye of your heart tells you that only that embrace will restore the image of God in the brokenness. Or like Jesus, you are willing to go to the cross rather than meet violence with violence.

"Conscience (acting out of higher consciousness) is the pearl of great price; it is the both supreme realization and the instrument of visionary seeing. It is the capacity always and everywhere to see the whole of God yearning to become manifest in all our human beings and doings, like the full of the moon faintly present behind the crescent. With the awakening of this eye, you no longer see Wisdom, you become Wisdom. You become a channel of God's peace, and the greatest of all artists as you dance with the "the love that moves the stars and the sun." CB

Simultaneously Nothing - Everything

When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom.

When I see I am everything, that is love.

And between these two, my life flows." Nisargadatta Maharaj

About the photo....

Reprinted from Daily Galaxy...Stephen Hawkings great discovery was that the mysterious regions in space we call black holes radiate heat through quantum effects. Hawking has said that "black holes are not really black after all: they glow like a hot body, and the smaller they are, the more they glow." Hawking's famous theory says that the temperature of a black hole varies inversely to its mass. Is that something? or nothing? or both?

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/





Creation (cont) - Redemption

If humanity knows who they are as Godly, spiritual beings, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

The creation story written in Genesis was written following the exodus, the freeing of Israel from Egypt. Thus, it is a story of new life as a function of liberation from suffering and slavery. The exodus story is also a story of redemption, as God’s providence was, for the 3rd time historically, extended to the Israelites in covenant at Sinai. God asked for a promise of faithfulness from the people in this covenant, binding both parties to equally engage the promise. God has proven loyalty and love and asks for the people to return this commitment. He tells them who they are: “…the chosen, the priestly, the holy ones.” God’s essence is revealed as the people realize their Godliness (this is salvation), the covenant is agreed upon and sealed with a meal (the sharing of life) and a sign (the Sabbath) – a day of simply being one with God.

If we go back in time, the covenant at Sinai was preceded by two other covenants, the first was with Noah after “40 years” of flooding destroyed the land, God promised to restore and retain creation to Noah and Noah’s family. The second covenant was with Abraham, to whom God promised grace and everlasting faithfulness and that he should be “The Father of All Nations.” And now, we are here at Sinai, the people are bound in covenant; the people are redeemed or rebound to God as God’s people. These covenants become simultaneously increasingly specific with respect to the relationship of the parties and increasingly collective/inclusive with respect to humanity. We can also see that out of each of these covenants something or someone or some people are redeemed and something new is created: a new creation, an extended family, a community of priests – chosen and holy. As creation evolves, as humanity evolves, so does the understanding of the relationship between humans and God evolve.

Finally, the covenant agreement repeats itself through the sacrifice of Jesus, who, once again presents the people with an image of who they are respective to God, and this time it is love. Jesus completes the circle of the realization of what it means to be holy, which is to be people of love; to be priestly, which is to understand your relationship with God in love and to extend that to each other. And, most importantly, this is what it means to be truly human, as Jesus was; and Godly, which is loving and holy. If humanity knows who they are as Godly, spiritual beings, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. They will be redeemed and renewed at the very same time. With the mind and heart of Christ, humanity will be redeemed and reborn – the new creation.

© Peggy Beatty 2010

Photograph: http://www.missouriskies.org/ Taken near Conception MO.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Psalm 90: In the morning, fill us with your love."