John Michael Talbot - 'Only in God'

My Heart is Ready

My heart is ready, Yes! My heart is ready!

like a desert I am parched. My soul of sand

soaking up the rain at once is dry again, and

the inner fount of life is rank and deadly.

In such abysmal straits, remind the self

that we are loved, for all our self-despair;

that Jesus Christ has sought us out, that care

will open up the inner streams of health.

God’s love is real and God’s affection never spent.

So, be watered, tended; be refreshed, this Lent.

Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims1 sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. 2 Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

Celebration

“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities

or in the country gather together to one place, and

the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the

prophets are read, as long as time permits; then,

when the reader has ceased, the president verbally

instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as

we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the assent, saying Amen;”

 ...Justin Martyr

In book 18 of the Antiquities, 63-64, the text of Josephus Flavius as we have it

today says:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is lawful to call him a man, for he was a performer of wonderful deeds, a teacher of such men as are happy to accept the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again on the third day, as the prophets of God had foretold these and ten thousand other wonders about him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.'   

E.E.CUMMINGS

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings:

and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from the no

of allnothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I Gaze On You in the Sanctuary

Psalm 63 

¹ O God, you are my God, 
       earnestly I seek you; 
       my soul thirsts for you, 
       my body longs for you, 
       in a dry and weary land 
       where there is no water.

 ² I have seen you in the sanctuary 
       and beheld your power and your glory.
 ³ Because your love is better than life, 
       my lips will glorify you.
 ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, 
       and in your name I will lift up my hands.
 ⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; 
       with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
 ⁶ On my bed I remember you; 
       I think of you through the watches of the night.
 ⁷ Because you are my help, 
       I sing in the shadow of your wings.
 ⁸ My soul clings to you; 
       your right hand upholds me.

Dying to Ourselves

"If we have died with him, we shall also live with him" (2 Tim 2:11).

"It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth" (St. Ignatius of Antioch).

"My desire is to depart and be with Christ" (Phil 1:23).

"There is living water in me that says within, ‘Come to the Father'" (St. Ignatius of Antioch).

 "In order to see God, I must die" (St. Teresa of Avila).

"I am not dying, I am entering life" (St. Theresa of Lisieux).

A Prayer for Justice

            

                                                         Lord, may justice flow like a river
                                                    reaching barren lands and sun scorched

                                                                           deserts

Where people feel forgotten and hopeless

Let your water of life

Comfort them

Where children lie abandoned or abused

Let your water of life

Protect them 
Where communities suffer at the hands of prejudice

Let your water of life

Shield them 

Lord, we ask for a mighty downpour of grace from Heaven 
May your sons and daughters hear your voice
May we live as you lead us to live
Go as you bid us to go
Serve as you inspire us to serve
Give as you teach us to giveUntil the earth is covered with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea
Amen

Eccles (Sir) 1:1-10 All wisdom is from the Lord and it is his own for ever.   When I take time out and look around Lord, what a beautiful creation you have given us.   I am amazed at the miracles of nature and the vastness of the vision which has produced this wonderful earth.  The human mind seems puny and ineffectual against the backdrop of the infinite intelligence that underlies its changes and progressions.   And yet you have shared some of that wisdom with the human race. If only we drew on it more often and loved you more deeply in order to receive it.

The Quest

High, hollowed in green

Above the rocks of reason

Lies the crater lake

Whose ice the dreamer breaks

To find a summer season.

‘She will plunge like a plummet down

Far into hungry tides’

They cry, but as the sea climbs to a lunar magnet

So the dreamer pursues

The lake where love resides....

The Potential Within

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light: a being.

And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I CAN! 

CELTIC SPIRITUALITY

http://sacredspace.ie/en/celtic-spirituality/

St. Patrick's Breastplate

This prayer is often called "St. Patrick's Breastplate" because it seeks God's protection in a world of both tangible and invisible dangers. Though Patrick of Ireland lived more than 1500 years ago his prayer asking that God himself would cover him is just as relevant today.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through the confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the Judgment Day.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of demons,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

ST. PATRICK APOSTLE TO IRELAND

Feastday: March 17Patron of Ireland
b. 387 d.461

St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world's most popular saints.

Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 461.

Along with St. Nicholas and St. Valentine, the secular world shares our love of these saints. This is also a day when everyone's Irish.

There are many legends and stories of St. Patrick, but this is his story.

Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies.

As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.

During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote

"The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same." "I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain."

Patrick's captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family.

He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him "We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more."

He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.

Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived inIreland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.

Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick's message.

Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well).

Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for 40 years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461.

He died at Saul, where he had built the first church.

Why a shamrock?

Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.

In His Footsteps:

Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God should be a shining example to each of us. He feared nothing, not even death, so complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission.

St. Patrick

Mystery is a Beckoning Word

Knowing God

One evening a grandfather took his little son fishing.  The little boy started asking all the questions that a young child will ask.  Where does the sun go when it goes down?  Do the fish feel the hook when they are caught?  Why do they eat worms when they could eat something much nicer?  His grandfather did his best to answer all his questions and then told him that he could only ask one more question.  The little boy thought for a long while and at last he said, “Did you ever see God?”  The old man looked up at the evening sky as the sun melted away into crimson, yellow and orange and he looked at his little grandchild whom he loved so very much and he said, “Nowadays son, it seems as though I see nothing else but God.”

To know God is the perennial quest of all the major world religions.  Judaism honours the God who is One, who cannot be seen and whose back only Moses was blessed to glimpse.  Islam worships the God who is great, who is uniquely God and whose prophet is Muhammad.  Christians seek to know the God who has made himself known to the world in a unique way in Jesus Christ.   There are those too, who though they do not belong to a particular faith tradition, strive to know God after their own fashion.  It is the ultimate question all of us ask at some stage – “Is there a God and how can I come to know this God?”

In the tradition of Christianity theologians and mystics have sought to explore and express the implications of such questions.  Holy people of great mind and intellect have struggled to show that it is possible for us to have knowledge of God albeit that we ‘see through a glass’ darkly, as St. Paul puts it.   Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of all theologians, assures us that we can know God through God’s effects – creation and the whole realm of being, but direct knowledge of God will only be possible after death, when we are caught up in the mystery of the beatific vision i.e. we will see God face to face.  Aquinas tells us that we cannot say what God is, only what God is not. Anything we attribute to God – God is more not like that than he is like that.  When we speak of God we use language in an analogous way – when we say God is Love or God is compassionate, we speak of love and compassion but not as we know them in the finite (limited?) experience of mere creatures.

In recent times a rediscovery of the lives and insights of the mystics has been taking place.   We hear and read about courses such as ‘the way of the mystic’ or ‘the mystical journey’.  Some of these men and women are familiar to us – St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Liseux and Julian of Norwich.   Each of these great mystics describes their attempt to know and love God as the goal of their whole lives.  There is a kind of knowledge of God which is possible through religious or mystical experience.  This is always a grace or a gift of God and cannot be manufactured or produced by human effort. 

There are other mystics, lesser known to popular devotion, who nonetheless have had an enormous effect on western mysticism and the effort to acquire knowledge of God. Pseudo-Dionysius is one such figure.  Writings by this mysterious contemplative have shaped and formed the Christian mystical understanding in a manner unsurpassed by any other of the great mystics.  Leaving questions of his identity aside, it was Pseudo Dionysius that introduced the idea of ‘dark knowledge’ of God or more commonly, the apophatic way.  Also known as negative theology or the way of unknowing, this approach teaches that knowledge and experience of God is to be sought by putting aside all images, ideas, concepts and systems of theological explanation so that one can come to God in a state of  greatest poverty and openness to the Mystery that is God.   The English author of The Cloud of Unknowing, the German Dominican Meister Eckhart and the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross are some examples of this tradition.

On the other hand there are mystics such as Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and Walter Hilton who represent the kataphatic approach.  This entails an active pursuit of knowledge of God through structured prayer and a sense of the familiarity and nearness of God.  Walter Hilton wrote, “Do you want to find your Lord and God?  Then go down to the hospitals, to the sick and bedridden and there you will find him.”

People today have become more open to the possibility of religious experience.  There is even a ‘laboratory’ or study centre for religious experience in Wales.  In the present religious climate we tend to reflect more on our own personal experience and to value it.   We have moved from the experience of authority to the authority of experience.  It is possible to believe that there is a ‘mysticism’ that is accessible to all and not available only to particular special individuals.  There are always problems and difficulties with the way mystics use language.  We are normally accustomed to using language in an ‘informational’ way – to convey knowledge and accurate observation. The mystics use language in a ‘transformational’ way.  This means that they are trying to give the reader a taste or a flavour – an actual experience, albeit limited - of what they have experienced which very often goes beyond normal elucidation and again, draws us into the Mystery of God.

The ability to see God in all things as the grandfather in the opening story had acquired, is something we can grow into with the passing of the years.  It is what often convinces people that there must be a God – “…that all of this could not have come about simply by chance”.  Others prefer to express the intimacy and the inextricable loving presence of God in all creation as “God seeing all things through us.”    This can help us to remember that there is a knowledge that comes from love which opens up all kinds of new horizons to us and beckons us ever deeper into the mystery that is God.

Give the Work to God

“ Let God work in you, give the work to God, and have peace. Don't worry if He works through your nature or above your nature, because both are His, nature and grace.”

Hold Your Tongue

One of the hermits said, "When first we used to meet each other in the assembly and talk of what was helpful to our soul, we were always withdrawn more from the things of sense and we ascended to the heavenly places.  But now when we meet, we spend our time in gossip, and so we drag each other down."

The Desert Fathers - Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Feasting and Fasting

    · Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling in them.

    · Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of life.

    · Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

    · Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.



    · Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.

    · Fast from anger; feast on patience.

    · Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

    · Fast from worry; feast on divine order.



    · Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.

    · Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.

    · Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.

    · Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.



    · Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.

    · Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.

    · Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.

    · Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.



    · Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.

    · Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.

    · Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

    · Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that sustains.



 William Arthur Ward

Journeying in the Wilderness

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted^[a] by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
 ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[b]”
 ⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
   “‘He will command his angels concerning you, 
   and they will lift you up in their hands, 
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’^[c]”
 ⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’^[d]”
 ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
 ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’^[e]”
 ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.