prayers by the lake redux…

Men can do me no evil as long as I bear no wound.

I saw two caves, one of which gave off an echo, while the other was dumb. Many curious children visited the former, incessantly engaged in shouting matches with the cave. But visitors quickly left the other cave, because it gave them no echo in return.

If my soul is wounded, every worldly evil will resound within it. And people will laugh at me, and will bear more and more strongly on me with their shouting.

But evil-speaking people will not really harm me, if my tongue has forgotten how to form evil words.

Nor will external malice sadden me, if there is no malice in my heart to resound like a goatskin drum.

Nor shall I be able to respond to wrath with wrath if the lair of wrath within me has been vacated and there is nothing to be aroused.

Nor will human passions titillate me if the passions within me have been turned to ashes.

Nor will the untruthfulness of friends sadden me if I have chosen Thee for my friend.

Nor can the injustice of the world overwhelm me if injustice has been banished from my thoughts.

Nor will the deceitful spirits of worldly pleasure, honor and power delude me, if my soul is like a spotless bride, who receives only the Holy Spirit and yearns for Him alone.

Men cannot send anyone off to hell unless that person sends himself, nor can men hoist anyone up on their shoulders to the throne of God, unless that person elevates himself.

If my soul has no open windows, no mud can be thrown into it.

Let all nature rise up against me; it can do nothing to me except a single thing — to become as soon as possible the grave of my body.

Every worldly crop is covered with manure, so that it will sprout as soon as possible and grow better. If my soul were, alas, to abandon its virginity and receive the seed of this world into itself, then it would also have to accept the manure that the world casts on its fields.

But I call upon Thee day and night: “Come, dwell in my soul and close all the places where my enemies can enter. Make the cavern of my soul empty and dumb, so that no one from the world will desire to enter it.”

O my soul, my only care, be on guard and learn to distinguish between the voices that smite your ears. Once you hear the voice of your Lord, abandon your dumbness and echo it with all your strength.

O my soul, thou cavern of eternity, never allow temporal thieves to enter into thee and kindle their fire within thee. Be dumb when they shout at you. Stay still when they bang on you, and patiently await your Master — for He will truly come.

the great divorce…

[random quotes of goodness]

There’s something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on.

But there’s also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is.

And if it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what ye call the lower passions. It is a stronger angel, and therefore, when it falls, a fiercer devil.

——–

‘You mean,’ said the Tragedian, ‘you mean – you did not love me truly in the old days.’

Only in a poor sort of way,’ she answered. ‘I have asked you to forgive me. There was a little real love in it. But what we called love down there was mostly the craving to be loved. In the main I loved you for my own sake: because I needed you.’

‘And now!’ said the Tragedian with a hackneyed gesture of despair. ‘Now, you need me no more?’

‘But of course not!’ said the Lady; and her smile made me wonder how [the phantom] could refrain from crying out with joy.

‘What needs could I have,’ she said, ‘now that I have all? I am full now, not empty. I am in Love Himself, not lonely. Strong, not weak. You shall be the same. Come and see. We shall have no need for one another now: we can begin to love truly.’

help me to sing…

Ye souls, who are bound unto Canaan, Come, join in and help me to sing

The praises of my loving Jesus, My Prophet, my Priest and my King.

His name is most sweetly melodious,

‘Twill help you most swiftly to move,

While Jesus Himself is the leader, We’re bound by the cords of His love.

“help me to sing” [traditional sacred harp]

lay your burdens down…

the world can distract us from God in our prayers. but when we are worried about something and unable to encounter God in silence, we often try mistakenly to put our worry out of our mind, as if it were a barrier between us and God. we think it wrong that anything else could claim our attention when we are in the presence of God.

i thing that often we could encounter God by sharing our worry with him instead of trying to push it aside. we ought to present it to God in detail but with precision and sobriety. we should present it as  a mother brings a child to a doctor she trusts. we should say to God, “this is all i can talk about to you at the moment. you who know everything look at my problem, understand it with you own understanding.”

when we have thus offered a person or a situation to God, we should be able to become detached from it. this requires faith and the ease with which we can detach ourselves from a care, is the measure of our faith. if we can say, “Lord now i have told you everything, my heart is peaceful and i can rest in you. ” if our heart is really at peace, if our mind is really freed from worrying, then our faith is complete. we have laid our burden at God’s feet and now he is carrying it on his broad shoulders.

let us be encouraged by the story of the monk who was praying for his neighbors and who gradually lost consciousness of the earth because he became so wrapped up in God and who then found all his neighbors again in God.

it should show us how easy it is to encounter God when we are troubled, if we offer him our troubles in true charity, not in selfishness. for he is the God of history, he created us, he became man in the fullest and most painful, richest and poorest sense of the word to save us and bring us to him. by our prayer of compassion, we should be as involved in the human situation, as Christ was by his incarnation. we should engage in action which supports our prayer and makes it truthful. prayer without action is a lie.

this is the fundamental nature of intercession.

walking to martha’s vineyard…

And the ocean smells like lilacs in late August–how
is that.

The light there muted (silver) as remembered light.

Do you have any children?

No, lucky for them.

Bad things happen when you get hands, dolphin.

Can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing?

There is no down or up in space or in the womb.

If they’d stabbed me to death on the day I was born, it
would have been an act of mercy.

Like the light the last room, the windowless room at the 
end, must look out on. Gold-tinged, blue

vapor trail breaking up now like the white line you see,
after driving all day, when your eyes close;

vapor trail breaking up now between huge clouds resembling
a kind of Mt. Rushmore of your parents’ faces.

And these untraveled windy back roads here–cotton
leaves blowing past me, in the long blue
horizontal light–

if I am on an island, how is it they go on forever.

This sky like an infinite tenderness, I have caught
glimpses of that, often, so often, and never yet have
I described it, I can’t, somehow, I never will.

How is it that I didn’t spend my whole life being happy, loving
other human beings’ faces.

And wave after wave, the ocean smells like lilacs in
late August.

-mr franz wright

though dead…

though dead,

i live when i gaze on You;

posessing You, though poor,

i am forever rich,

more wealthy than any ruler.

eating and drinking You,

clothing myself in You from day to day,

i shall be filled with blessings and delight

beyond all telling.

-st symeon the new

…

everything is for man

to love Christ and all the other

problems are taken care of.

-elder porphyrious

come, my breathe and my life…

we are weak Lord,

do not allow us to fall

under the weight of misfortunes.

give strength to our hearts

and imbue us with hope,

so that despair may not defeat our spirits-

and God be merciful to us sinners.

amen.

-st theophan

woods

When despair for the world grows in me 

I go and lie down where the wood-drake rests in it’s beauty by the water and the blue 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 waters and feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. 
And, for a time, I rest in the peace of the world… 

And I’m free… 

-mr berry

how was it…

The earth trembled; its foundations
shook like silt; the sun, chagrined,
fled the scene, and every mundane
element scattered in retreat. The day
became the night: for light could not endure
the image of the Master hanging on a tree.
All creation was astonished, perplexed
and stammering, What new mystery is this?
The Judge is judged, and yet He holds his peace;
the Invisible One is utterly exposed, and yet
is not ashamed; the Incomprehensible is grasped,
and will not turn indignant; the Immensity
is circumscribed, and acquiesces; the absolutely
Unattainable suffers, and yet does not avenge;
the Immortal dies, and utters not a word;
the Celestial is pressed into the earthen grave,
and He endures! What new mystery is this?
The whole creation, I say, was astonished;
but, when our Lord stood up in Hades—
trampling death underfoot, subduing
the strong one, setting every captive free—
then all creation saw clearly that for its sake
the Judge was condemned, et cetera.
For our Lord, even when He deigned
to be born, was condemned in order
that He might show mercy, was bound
that He might loose, was seized
that He might release, suffered
that He might show compassion, died
that He might give life, was laid in the grave
that He might rise, might raise.

-scott cairns