Pearls of Wisdom- Who Needs #Buddha 2

The spiritual seeker is often also a great reader. The ancient tradition of seeking out a spiritual teacher or guide and placing oneself under their authority has, in large part, been replaced by an omnivorous consumption of books or a visiting of websites (I don't knock this, it might be the reason why you are reading this blog after all.) The Western seekers frequently find their way to classic texts like the Gita, the Dhammapada, the Tao Te Ching or the Tibetan Book of the Dead. More often though people find pleasure in reading collections of pithy wisdom sayings or wisdom stories. Here Sufi Islam, through writers like Rumi, joins the field along with Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Christianity does not, are at least should not though some fundamentalists might disagree, deny that wisdom and truth can be indeed perceived if only in glimpses and flashes in these texts. What practically all Christian traditions do assert, though, is that the Bible is the spiritual text above all other spiritual texts and that every other spiritual writing is at best an auxiliary to it. St Benedict put it this way-
For what page or what utterance 
of the divinely inspired books of the Old and New Testaments 
is not a most unerring rule for human life? 
Rule of Benedict, Chapter 73

And here we have a problem. Many may indeed pick up the Sacred Scriptures seeking insight but will, like I once did, soon put them down again as being way too full of Angry God and not full enough of Hippy Jesus. Not only this but the jumble of formats- Histories, Laws, Prophecies, Poetry, Gospels, Letters and so on is confusing and daunting. The legacy too of the "Reformation" is that many of us start from the assumption that all the equipment we need to understand the text is the ability to read since every man or woman is qualified to be their own Pope. The fallacy in that argument should be apparent as soon as it is stated. Unless we are historians and lawyers and poets and textual critics how could we expect to grasp the complexity of this interwoven fabric composed and compiled over centuries? Catholics at least are urged to read the Scriptures "with the mind of the Church" which is to say that there have been 2000 years of reflection and commentary on these texts and we should be aware of the fruits of that while we read. This is less daunting than it sounds, study Bibles, like the Navarre Bible series or the little Christian Community Bible (Downloadable), contain brief (-ish) notes alongside the text summarising the content of these commentaries.

Seekers might wonder why it is necessary to take such trouble when all these pearls of wisdom from the East are so straightforward and readily to hand. But appearances are deceptive. What is presented is pre-digested, broken down into McNugget sized chunks and taken out of its context. Those who do read full Eastern works like the Gita discover that they have their own problems which have the same dimensions as our Angry God issues. Arjuna, for example, being urged by Krishna to kill people rather than abstain from violence. We can skate over this because, as I said in the first part, we view Eastern Religion from a distance and can carry the baggage of their history more lightly than that of our own. Nonetheless the problems are there and they are real. If our spiritual hunger is content to be fed with de-contextualised feelgood quotes then we can mine the Bible for them just as easily as any other text so wherein lies the superiority of the East apart from our ability to ignore its 'hard sayings' and difficult texts?

 As I mentioned in the first part one major draw of the Eastern approach is the practice of meditation. There are two methods of using Scripture which, with the help of God's grace, can bring about the kind of states or spiritual experiences which will confer that limpid peaceful clarity and insight that the seeker is thirsting for. One is the use of the Psalms which is too large a subject for now, I hope to address it in a future blog, the other is Lectio Divina a contemplative reading of Scripture. There is a certain amount of confusion when considering this subject because although the word meditation is used frequently in Catholic discourse in this area it traditionally means a different thing from that ascribed to it by the East. Here it has referred to thinking deeply there it has referred to an emptying of the mind. Lectio is a method which is open to being used in either way or in both. Meditation, meaning thought, can lead to Contemplation which means reflecting in the sense that a mirror or still waters reflect.

Guigo the Carthusian wrote what may be the classic exposition of the technique in his The Ladder of Four Rungs  It contains this handy summary-

Understand now what the four staves of this ladder are, each in turn. Reading, Lesson, is busily looking on Holy Scripture with all one's will and wit. Meditation is a studious insearching with the mind to know what was before concealed through desiring proper skill. Prayer is a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid what is evil. Contemplation is the lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness and savour. Reading seeks, meditation finds, prayer asks, contemplation feels.

Here, indeed, we might feel the lack of a personal Spiritual Director since some passages are more apt to Lectio than others. People trying the technique for the first time would be well advised to seek advice either from a trusted guide or from a good book or website dealing with the subject. And, too, they should bear in mind the advice to read the Scriptures 'with the mind of the Church.' Having said which some of the less obvious passages can lead into the deepest meditation (in either sense) precisely because their meaning makes less immediate impact on the discursive part of our minds. The gentle little Book of Ruth, for example, might fit into this category.

Again I would make the point that with Christianity we should not allow our familiarity with what we suppose it to be to breed contempt and to counter-pose against it a less contaminated Eastern Wisdom. The East is not so pure and the West not so massively flawed as we might at first assume. And finally I will leave you with the words of Guerric of Igny

Search the Scriptures. For you are not mistaken in thinking that you find life in them.....From these gardens the Bridegroom will lead you, if I be not mistaken, into others where rest is more hidden and enjoyment more blessed and beauty more wonderful. When you are absorbed in his praises with accents of exultation and thanksgiving, he will take you into his wonderful tenting place, into the very house of God, into the unapproachable light in which he dwells, where he feeds, where he lies down at midday. 


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Who needs #Buddha?

How the Mystic Heart of Christianity has been hiding in plain sight

At one time or another many Westerners, myself included, have rejected Christianity and looked for answers to our spiritual needs in the wisdom of the East. The clear market leader here is Buddhism in many and various forms. The Hindu tradition around the Bhagavad Gita also has its Western niche audience. There is too a thriving trend for mix-and-match a la carte Eastern spirituality where consumers buy into the ideas that stroke their spiritual erogenous zones while ignoring any inconvenient ballast that accompanies them. The then Cardinal Ratzinger once suggested that European Catholics who converted to Buddhism were guilty of a kind of spiritual auto-eroticism a statement which sounds harsh but, like Buddhism itself, has a distinct portion of truth contained within itself.

My purpose here is not to criticise these major world faiths. The Catholic Church, in the document Nostra Aetate , recognises that these ways of seeking God are not without glimpses and flashes of Him who cannot be hid. No, my business here is to suggest that we are often too eager to discard a Christian faith which contains within itself precisely those elements which we most like about the Eastern faiths and moreover does so in a far more incarnated ie fully human sense. In part also this easy abandonment of our own historic faith is assisted by Christianity itself hiding its mystical light under a bushel. An added attraction about the Eastern faiths is that by looking at them from a distance we are not bothered by the vulgarisation of them in actual Eastern societies or by the abundant failings of their practitioners and these perhaps are the very things that distance us from Christianity. We in the West get the refined essence of Buddhism and the dirty washing of Christianity.

One of the biggest selling points of the Eastern traditions is the habit of meditation. The clearing of the mind from cluttering thoughts, feelings and distractions so that an inner light, a tranquil crystal clear lake, a pure lotus blossom or whatever other metaphor of choice springs to mind can manifest itself and we can enter into a personal zone of peace. In this state we can encounter the Reality which underlies the bewildering, deceiving surface aspects of our lives and our selves and so become Real in all that we are and do. This is a worthy project but few who embark upon it consider for even a nano-second that by far and away the most popular form of meditation in the West is the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is, perhaps, in this meditative format that we come up most clearly against the incarnate and disincarnate contrast between the two modes of spirituality. In the Rosary the mind is indeed emptied of clutter. This is done to focus upon Jesus and Mary and the God who intervenes directly in human history thereby strengthening our relationship with Him. Other historic Christian meditative approaches have a similar sort of focus. The Orthodox Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart, popularised in the wonderful little book The Way of a Pilgrim, the single word focussed upon in the Cloud of Unknowing, the dry, barren desert St John of the Cross writes about in The Dark Night of the Soul. Each of these, all of these, in some way or another encourages us to leave behind the distractions and delusions of the everyday world to centre ourselves on that which, or rather whom, is the very centre and cause of our own being and all being.

The aim of Eastern meditation, be it self, Self, Overself, Atman, Nirvana, is ultimately impersonal or even a simple nothingness. That of the Christian is profoundly personal, it is all about relationship. For the Western seeker after inner peace who picks up a smattering of Buddhism or Vedanta this is all hypothetical. What they want is what works, what offers the sand for the white dove to sleep in. Often they turn to the East because it offers a series of techniques which promise to deliver the goods and which they have never found to be on offer in Christianity. Yet when it comes to the simple mechanics of it all the techniques that the West uses are in many respects more or less identical to those of the East. But the West holds them as a well kept secret and the East proclaims them from the housetops. In part this is a necessary consequence of the fundamentally different approach between a faith which is missionary and active and sees its raison d'etre precisely to be incarnated in the hurly burly of daily life and ones which see withdrawal and a passive fatalism as more suited to their genius. In this sense Christian meditation is viewed as a process by which one recharges ones batteries before returning to the fray rather than as an end in itself. Which is more or less exactly what Westerners who turn East want it for too and did they but know that it was there they might turn to it instead.

Its not all about technique though. Whilst both Eastern and Western approaches promise an inner calm, a rest for the restless heart, a way of renewal, a discovery of meaning the Christians does so not on on the basis of an ever increasing spiritual athleticism leading to the winning of a spiritual gold medal. Rather the basis for success is a surrendering, a clearing the way to enable the Grace of God, the still small voice, to speak clearly to us. It is not a technique which transforms us it is a gift. The Christian way claims to be superior, I personally believe that it is so having experienced something of both, but the proof is purely experimental. My only suggestion are these, the Church should make more widely available the treasures of mystic spirituality she possesses and people from a Christian background should not be quite so eager to throw out the baptised baby with the admittedly grubby bathwater.

End of Part One

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Conceited Hearts and an Immaculate One

51 He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
Luke 1:51


The concept of 'heart' plays a prominent role in the opening chapters of St Luke's Gospel account. Most Catholic attention is focussed on those references which show our Lady as a contemplative-
But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. (Lk 2:19)
 And his mother kept all these words in her heart. (Lk 2:51)

Its first appearance though is in the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people. (Lk 1:17)

It is also applied to those Judeans who heard the events surrounding the birth of St John the Baptist
And all they that had heard them laid them up in their heart
(Lk 1:66)

Indeed, the only time that the concept is used negatively is by our Lady in the quote that begins this reflection from her Magnificat. In this, as you might expect, Mary has a sound basis in Jewish scripture and tradition-

16 Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth:

17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

18 A heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief,

19 A deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.

Proverbs 6

What is meant by heart is something like what we might mean by 'mind' but incorporating within it feelings and emotions. That is, reason plays a prominent part in it but not an exclusive one. These words of the Blessed Virgin have been translated in various ways each giving a slightly different take on the same thing-
Arrogant thoughts (Common English Bible)
Scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts (English Standard Version)
the imagination of their hearts. (Authorised Version)
those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. (New International Version)
The proud in mind and heart (The Voice)
And so on and so forth.

So, we have arrogance, pride, conceit and imagination each of which is deemed apt to describe the inner workings of those whom our Lady contrasts with the humble ones whom God delights to honour. This has a resonance with the Messianic Psalm 2
Why do the heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing? (Psalms 2:1 AV
The point here, which Mary above all others is qualified to make, is that in some sense 'humility' means the same thing as 'truth'. In understanding herself as being fragile and vulnerable and dependant upon the mercy of God, subject to an innumerable number of hazards of nature and man's design, any one of which could strike her down in an instant, the Virgin recognises the absolute truth about her status as a human. By contrast those who believe themselves capable of making the will of God and the inescapable facts about our limitations subject to their own will and power are making false assumptions about themselves. And these assumptions proceed from an arrogance, a pride, that imagines things about themselves which are entirely untrue.

One of the delusions of our own age is the notion of autonomy. Each person is considered to be a wholly independent unit who should only concede to limitations on that independence, if they concede them at all, entirely by their own free and unconstrained choice. And if these limitations become irksome then they should be equally free to revoke the concession whenever they want. In many ways it is an attractive image. It is also, as it happens, a conceit of the heart. From the moment of conception onward we are not independent or autonomous nor is there any reason why we should be. We are dependant upon others and other become dependant upon us. Even the language of 'rights' where we demand this or that right as a freedom that necessarily flows from our position as a citizen tacitly acknowledges that the achievement of each right for each individual always flows from other individuals fulfilling a duty or discharging an obligation.

To exercise a wise human freedom we must always begin, as the Mother of God began, by acknowledging the basic truth about ourselves. Here humility is not an affectation nor a conscious attempt to be virtuous, though it is the virtue above all other virtues, it is a simple recognition that we are limited and dependant. This is not to advocate timidity it is to say that we should do all that we can do but to accept that in order to achieve all that we can achieve we must act on the realistic acceptance that all true success depends more upon others than upon self. And all true rejoicing must be in the benefits that all our successes confer upon others.

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Disappearing into darkness

22 These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. 
Deuteronomy 5

10 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord,11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

12 Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

1/3 Kings 8

Idols are visible. They attract our senses and stimulate them. An invisible idol would make little sense. Surrounded by nations of idolaters the children of Israel worshipped an invisible God whose inmost sanctuary was behind a veil and whose presence was manifested by thick darkness. It can be discouraging to see obscurity when you look for clarity, to find that all your senses have become functionless. It is no surprise that the history of Israel consists mostly in a falling away from the One who is hidden from us and a falling towards those idols who caress the senses. The surprising thing, perhaps, is the faithfulness of the Father who never stops trying to win back the love of His children by one means or another.

Modern folk who have little desire to overtly worship anything find the attraction to idolatry as incomprehensible as the attraction toward the God of Israel and wander what all the fuss is about. They are happy to tolerate either, meaning they are contemptuous about both. It must be a vain God or gods who constantly demand praise and sacrifice and a credulous person who responds willingly they reason. The crucial point, easily missed here, though revolves precisely around the appeal to the senses. There was not a competition between various cultic deities each offering the same basic goods like McDonald's or Burger King. This was people choosing to follow a way that promised to give sensuous fulfilment now or to obey a law which demanded a high ethical standard and which could only be complied with through a programme of self discipline. And all this for a God who was hidden from sight in thick darkness. At this stage of revelation there was not even the promise of heaven and the resurrection to act as an incentive.

The nature of the different ways is given dramatic point in the Book of Daniel. The King of Babylon, a city emblematic of licentiousness, arrogance and luxurious living sets up an image of gold, emblematic of wealth, and commands all to worship it. Three young Jewish men refuse, preferring instead to offer their praise to the invisible God of Israel who is even more invisible than usual since His Temple has been destroyed and His people taken captive. They say simply
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Daniel 3

The final clause being the crucial one. They believe their God to be all powerful and the one true God and therefore they cannot fathom His purposes, He is obscure to them, nonetheless they will put their lives at risk rather than deny Him because He is God and the golden image is just a golden image.

So, the division between idolaters and worshippers of the God who is hidden exists as much in the West today as it did in the Middle East 3000 and more years ago. The modern idols of the materialist, consumerist, celebrity obsessed world are no less potent and no less worshipped because they do not get called gods. And ultimately, since each of these idols feeds our sensual appetites, what we worship is ourselves since it is the fulfilment our greedy desire for pleasure which will, we hope, be the outcome of our fervent acts of worship. Unless that is we turn the eyes of our hearts to the One who dwells in thick darkness, who spoke and then said no more.

And why should we strain our eyes for what we cannot see or listen for what will not speak? Because we desire heaven? Because we fear hell? Well, perhaps, but neither of these are the deepest reason. It is not said that God created the cloud which obscures Him. Maybe, indeed, there is no cloud, the darkness is of our own fashioning. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, said
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness
Matthew 6

If God disappears into darkness it is not because He is dark but because we are. The reason we have for seeking Him and no other is that only thus can we transform our darkness into His light or, rather, can we allow ourselves to be liberated from a dark kingdom and transported into the realm of light in which, and in which only, we can live and move and have our being in happiness and joy all the days of our lives.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
 2 Corinthians 3
 


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Running down the beard

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
    when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil upon the head,
    running down upon the beard,
upon the beard of Aaron,
    running down on the collar of his robes!
2
Psalm 133


29 and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.

Matthew 27


The psalm is a Song of Ascent, sung by pilgrims on their way to Zion to rejoice together in one of the festivals of God. In it David, an ancestor of Jesus, refers back to the first anointing of the first High Priest-
12 And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to consecrate him.
Leviticus 8:12

It is a joyous song and brings together three great occasions for happiness among God's people. A remembrance of the past institution of the priestly office to forever offer praise and thanksgiving to the One who rescued His people from slavery and bondage, an enjoyment of the present companionship and love of the pilgrim people and a looking forward to the celebrations in the Holy City before the Tabernacle of the Blessed One. One can easily imagine the caravan of returning exiles or those of the diaspora blending their voices together in the same sort of harmony with which they had blended their lives and their journeys together for many days, perhaps weeks or even months and now the end of all their efforts was in sight.

How different and how radically similar was the anointing of our Lord and Saviour. The blood trickling down His scalp from the cruelly stabbing thorns driven ever deeper by the blows from His mock sceptre. This harmony of mockery from the brotherhood of Roman soldiery. This final anointing of the ultimate High Priest.  

In contemplating this mystery of the Crowning with Thorns we too can see three occasions for happiness since we have a God who can bring good out of evil and great good out of great evil. By His Passion and Death Jesus took up His role as both High Priest and Sacrifice being forever before the Father that we might be forever freed from the penalty rightly due for our sins and our selfishnesses.  We can see that never for  moment in the deepest depths of His passion was Jesus separated in love and tenderness from Mary His suffering Mother. The bonds of love united them so strongly to each other that each felt the suffering of the other. And through Mary we too can be firmly united to our Lord whether He is visible before us or hidden from our sight. Love acknowledges no barriers of time, place or distance. And we can see that at the end of this dreadful journey, through the torment and the Cross awaits the Resurrection and the Ascension, Jesus goes before us and we can rejoice that He will not leave us bereft but extends to us the sure and certain hope that one day we shall accompany Him.

The Song of Ascent on our lips is the one that David sung but it is of David's Son that we think while we sing. And the Zion to which we ascend is a holier mountain and a more pure city. There we will find rest for our souls. 

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October Rosary Haiku

October is the month of the most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mysteries of joy
Of sorrow, light and glory
Mary guides us home

@stevhep #haiku #rosary

Unable to Resist

A Reflection on Ephesians 6:10-18

¹⁰ Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power.

¹¹ Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics.

¹² For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens.

¹³ That is why you must take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.

¹⁴ So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist, and uprightness a breastplate,

¹⁵ wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace

¹⁶ and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to quench the burning arrows of the Evil One.

¹⁷ And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God.

¹⁸ In all your prayer and entreaty keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people,

New Jerusalem Bible

The Apostle, in prison and in chains, writes with a zest and vigour that suggests stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage.

grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power

Here we have, perhaps, a clue to St Paul's freedom of mind and spirit. That which gives him strength is not self reliance. Autonomy only makes us as strong as our weakest point. Reliance on our Saviour God lends us a power whose strength is made perfect in weakness. As David wrote in Psalm 62 Rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my hope. To rest in God alone means to rest in Him and nothing else but Him. It also means that the soul's path to Him is a solitary one. Alone we penetrate His mysteries and find peace. But this is not the end point. The community of two, one God and one believer, is not enough to satisfy infinite Love. It must be productive, it must bear fruits. Rested and refreshed the soul gains strength in the Lord and goes forth with power to do the works which Love imperatively demands.

For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle

 The Ephesians and the Apostle had no shortage of human enemies ranged against them. It would seem that the armies and hosts of Man were drawn up in battle array against the Primitive Church while the Apostle exhorts his squadrons and platoons to form up and face an altogether different foe. But, what is and what seems to be are not always the same. These new Christians were being pointed in the correct direction. We do not wage war against those whom we love and the Ephesians loved all humans. The fight is against the darkness within the enemies of the Church. The ignorance, the fear, the seared consciences, the anger that the reproof of a pure life lived quietly provokes in those who feel impugned by it. The struggle takes the form not of fire against fire, steel against steel but of meekness against strength and of forgiveness against unjust persecution. And in that conflict only those grown strong in the Lord with the strength of His power can stand their ground.

 take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.

Even though you put out everything you yourself have within you, the fruits of your autonomy, you will not be capable of any resistance at all. You will be as a barrier of straw in the path of a tsunami. Reliance on self-power is an insidious temptation to everyone who thinks highly of their own qualities, even their own virtues. But, what have you got that was not given to you ?(1 Corinthians 4:7) No, we are not strong enough in ourselves which is why gifts are offered to us to give us the power that we need. It is the essence of a gift that not only is it freely given it must also be freely received and if we do not choose to receive it then we will not have it. And without the armour of God our only defences are the same ones that have served us so badly and for so long. Do we not grow weary of them and of the defeats they bring with them?

always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it

Having something and using that something do not always go hand in hand. Faith, which is more than an abstract assent to an abstract proposition, is something that cannot be a matter of whimsy if it is to be of service. It must be a constant companion. Moreover it is not an object we carry in order for it (and us with it) to be admired. It is a working instrument. It has purposes to fulfil, ends to achieve, a world to conquer. If in a time of trial, a moment of anguish an ordeal of suffering we forget about our faith then we cannot use it. We cannot conquer with it. We cannot put up any resistance on the evil day.

 keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. 

The Apostle is wise enough to not only suggest to the Ephesian what they should do but also how they should do it. He has laid out a demanding programme. One cannot follow both the path of the world and the Apostolic Christian path. Yet to break from the world, marching to war against principalities and powers is no easy pilgrimage to make. The world has such allurements, the masters of darkness such potency. Keep praying in the Spirit he says. There are many ways to pray and the world and the principalities can infiltrate even, perhaps especially, into this area. False ways of praying and false spirits can and do mislead, often with terrible consequences. St Paul, using his Apostolic authority and experience and that of the universal Church has taught the Ephesians how to pray in the Spirit and how to discern malicious counterfeits of the same. The strength we need we gain from God in prayer when we pray rightly, when we pray continuously, when we humbly submit our methods of prayer to the traditions received in the Church and when we rest in God alone.

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Mercy Surrounds You

Psalm 23

Walk through the shadowed

Valley without fearing death

Mercy surrounds you

Immaculate Heart

Protean love which
Adapts its beautiful self
To meet every need

Hibiscus blossom 
Pointing up, towards the light
Seasonal flourish

Delicate blossom

Jade clusters swaying in breeze

Soft colours soothe sight.

Brooding sky, black wings

Extended, threatening all.

Starlings build their nests.

Lourdes

Underground streamlet

Coursing clear, through living rock.

Springs into the light

Immaculate Mary

Saturated with

Love, as grass with morning dew

Mary's gentle heart

2 Timothy 4:6,7

Near at hand is the

Time of my dissolution 

I have kept the faith

Feast of the Transfiguration

Briefly the veiling 

Flesh is transfigured by light.

For eyes that can see.

Proverbs 8/9:35,36

Who finds Me finds Life

All those who hate me love death

Hurting their own souls

Psalms 149:2

Let the children of

Zion be joyful in their King.

Loving hearts rejoice

Eyes

Windows of the soul

Expressive eyes. See farthest

When looking inward

Rusty leaves falling

In slow light russet showers.

Sun's dappled shadows.

The year fades away

Tints become rich, colours deep

Swallows flee sunward 

Slowly rotating

In a downward fluttering

Autumn's herald leaves

Harshly croaking Crow,

Sits funereally clad, 

Waits for carrion

Feather-like fingers

Of cloud across morning sky.

Pointing to the dawn

Enjoy the failing

Light, delight in passing scenes

Dwell in what endures

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CatholicScot is unwell

This blog has been relatively inactive recently. In part this is because I have had very low levels of energy. I have just been diagnosed with a condition called carotid sinus hypersensitivity which may explain the problem. The plan is for me to have a cardiac pacemaker inserted which should go some way to alleviating the symptoms. If, God willing, this works then I hope to resume my normal rambling ways here. All prayers will be gratefully received.

Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him. Job 15:3

Barroux Chant

Follow the Divine Office in the Extraordinary Rite day by day, season by season.


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