the religious life

 Love, Meditation, Poetry, Practices, Prayer, Spiritual Formation  4 Responses »
Mar 092012
 

from Lenten meditations

Oh you who live the religious life,
if you persevere a time may come
when you finally realize
that all your performance of ritual,
all your prayer and meditation,
all your sacrifices and alms,
all your fasting and service,
have not of themselves
washed away your sinfulness,
made you a better person,
or endeared you more to God.
You will see that none of it
has brought more healing
to your wounded heart
or light to your searching mind,
let alone to the world around you.

If you do not fight or flee this realization,
you may yet come to see
why it is that others before you
have continued in these ways,
as if poets writing poems soon forgotten,
dancers dancing when no one else watches,
or whistlers whistling without thought.
Perhaps then will you begin to know
the true depths of cleansing,
virtue, endearment, healing, and illumination
that were there all along,
already flowing in and through you
and all the world.

A Lenten Prayer

 Contemplation, Love, Meditation, Poetry, Prayer  No Responses »
Feb 292012
 

Many Christians began Lent last week with Ash Wednesday, but today is the beginning of Lent on the Julian or Orthodox calendar.  Traditionally, it is a 40-day period of more intense prayer, penitence, abstinence, fasting, and alms before celebrating the resurrection of Christ at Easter.  It is a fitting time to remember our communion with every child of God, many of whom suffer and sacrifice much more than others. Please join me in this prayer.


Sophia, Divine Wisdom, our Holy Mother,
when we crave comforts and luxuries,
help us remember all those
whose craving is for health, peace, and liberty.

Christ, Divine Word, our Holy Shepherd,
when we give of our wealth in alms,
help us remember all those
whose alms are their own flesh and blood.

Abba, Divine Will, our Holy Father,
when we hunger for food we do not need,
help us remember all those
whose hunger is not chosen.

Almighty God, Divine Trinity, our Holy Unity,
when in prayer we sit alone with You,
help us remember all those
whose prayer is to not be alone. Amen.

Agape

You Who Silently Moves

 Contemplation, Meditation, Poetry, Practices, Prayer  2 Responses »
Jan 282012
 

…Holy Sophia,
……You who silently moves
………upon the primordial deep,
…………Who communes with the One
……………in every moment of creation,
………………Whom Solomon the Wise
…………………praises as the grace most desired,
……………………O Paraclete and Pentecostal Fire
………………………I open myself to You.

Precious mystical Spirit,
a mere puff of Your hallowed breath
clears away the clouds and dust
from my unsettled mind
so that the dark shining stillness
ever possessing my soul
may better reflect You,
the Unspotted Mirror,
the Peace that Passes Understanding,
the Eternally Virgin Womb
upon Whom the Will casts Itself,
and within Whom the Word
is ever born anew.

A Prayer for Spiritual Nourishment

 Contemplation, Love, Poetry, Prayer  1 Response »
Aug 192011
 

Dear friends, I hope you will join me in this prayer from time to time.

O Great Mystery,
O Divine Lover we seek without understanding,
O Love that transcends all sense and reason,
we open our hearts and minds to You now,
here in this moment, as though little chicks
opening their mouths for nourishment
delivered to them by a good mother and father.

We don’t really know how or why You feed us,
but we know that we live and we long for this;
and whether it is fear, faith, hope, or joy that moves us,
here we are crying out for You before all things,
You who is at once the food and the One who feeds.

O Unfathomable Truth,
moved by You we pour out our faith, hope and love
for our brothers and sisters, Your children,
who thirst and hunger for You.
Bless us all by accepting this offering
and delivering it to their hearts and minds
so that we may all feel Your mysterious presence,
so that we may all more fully know You,
our Light and Life, Love Itself,
the very Spirit of our souls,
the essential Mind of our minds,
the central passion that stirs all our desires.

Here our words fail us, O Ineffable One;
there are no images, no sounds we can cling to,
no emotions or sensations that capture You,
and so we simply relax and let them all go,
sitting right here, right now, attuned to the silence
in which all our words arise and depart,
attuned to the stillness in which all our feelings move,
attuned to the darkness in which all our images
flash into and out of being,
attuned to the mysterious realm within us
that gives birth to all, and is the nest and parent of all,
attuned to You.

Let us simply rest in this for a while
without expectation,
simply open and willing to receive
whatever may come as a sign of Your love,
even if it seems to be nothing at all
but this silence, this stillness, this darkness itself,
this seeming emptiness that is nonetheless
the source and the home of all that is.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

Also posted at:  http://chuckdunning.blog.com/2011/11/30/a-prayer-for-spiritual-nourishment/

Out of the Desert?

 Love, Poetry  12 Responses »
Jul 132011
 

My last post was back in April, and some of you have been kind enough to reach out to me in the meantime, and I’m grateful for the kindness.   I left off with Part Three of “Alone in the Wilderness”, intending to write a concluding Part Four, but ran squarely into a good case of writer’s block on the whole topic.  So, I decided to just let it sit and wait for inspiration.  The inspiration that came wasn’t to write that fourth part, but to write three mystical poems.  If you look hard enough, you might even find some relevance to certain themes of the “Alone” series.   In any case, I just might be back in action.

My Star

Cherished One
all my love and my passion,
all my desire and my dreams,
all my screams are for you.

The flow and the catching of this breath,
the pulse and the rushing of this blood,
the shake and the bending of these knees,
the clasp and the trembling of these hands,
are all moved by the burning of this fire for you.

As the great cup of the heavens
revolves around the Northern Star,
so all my thoughts and feelings
revolve around none other than you,
O precious light of my nights.

Though my sight of you may be obscured
by distance, mist, or the glare of the sun,
you are the constant one,
the light in the eye of my heart,
my most beloved One,
my star.

Fountain of My Bliss

O Dearest One,
O sweetness who sets my heart aflow,
all too well you know
the halting and faltering of my fears.

You know my weakness and my tears
amid the world’s rules for sharing love,
for keeping what is below
apart from what is above,
and how the hesitations of my soul
keep me so sadly removed
from pouring out all I have in truth
so that all may know my devotion
and hear my songs of adoration
for you who is more filled with splendor
than I could ever imagine or render.

Still your arms remain open for me,
and your soft cheek receives
the simple offering of  my kiss.
O I am so grateful just for this,
my Cherished One,
the fountain of my bliss.

This Foolish Heart Beats

sometimes it seems
as though you hide from me,
my Beloved,
as though only by chance I catch
but a glimpse of your shadow,
a few sounds in a fading echo,
a whiff of your perfume,
or a fleeting moment
of sensing your touch,
and for this much
I am thankful
and often content

yet other times I fret
through troubled days and nights,
feeling a distance I do not want,
an abyss between us,
a vacancy that is the stretching out
of a deep dark chasm within,
where all too easily
my doubts and fears pour in

so at times,
in the madness of all or nothing,
I have tried to pretend
that all my feelings for you
aren’t what they seem to be,
that even my awe,
my adoration and affection
are only the infatuations
of a romantic imagination,
and that my hopes and sense
of intimate connection with you
are merely the vain dreams
and delusions of a fool

if I am such a fool
then it is my only wisdom to accept it,
uncertain of all but the mystery of you,
my Cherished One,
and even in the darkest depths of this truth
I find my love for you still burns,
and so it shall continue,
perhaps even longer
than this foolish heart beats

These and other poems by me can be seen at The Incomplete Works…

A Meditation on Prisms

 Love, Meditation, Poetry, Theology, Christology, Sophiology  22 Responses »
Jan 212011
 

Mysterious Source, may this analogy be faithful in following the light of love back to You.

It is as though within the infinite fertile blackness of Your womb You condense the quintessence of being into the single brilliant ray that is the light of love, and this ray You direct into and through the principle of becoming.  In this way, all possible possibilities manifest as the interconnected emanations of Your immanence.  So too does each seemingly separate beam not only stream forth uniquely, but also shines as an unerring beacon leading back through the principle of becoming and the ray of love to the quintessence of being, and thus to the primal unity of You.

All creation is a fractalization, myriad reflections mirrored in extension, in and of this process.

So it must also be with the light of consciousness and the principles of religion, science, philosophy, and art – each a prism in the Soul of Humanity receiving the light of Spirit – all pouring forth unique yet interconnected rays that manifest more of Your immanence while also providing the countless paths of love leading back to Your unity in darkness, silence, and mysterious transcendence.

Old Prayers for a New Year

 Love, Meditation, Poetry, Prayer  No Responses »
Dec 302010
 

This Yearning Itself

Today, Mysterious Lord,
for you pours out this pining.
It is a sweet grieving.

As though for a dear father
who has left this world,
or a lost first love,
your memory haunts me.

Reaching out to embrace you
these arms enfold emptiness
and wrap themselves
back upon this burning heart.

Yet here you are
in this very melancholy,
the darkness in waiting,
and the longing light,
this yearning itself.

Tree and Mountain

The tree meditates
and its leaves grow
youthfully green,
dance in summer winds,
age in noble red and gold,
and then fall
to leave the silvery limbs
outstretched in prayer.

And so may this meditation be
the chant,
the song,
the liturgy,
the ecstatic act of living,
of life flowering through me,
of being lived.

The mountain meditates
and gathers snow,
pours down streams
of tears of joy,
reveals veins
of precious beauty,
and opens it dark eyes
of timeless depths.

And so may this meditation be
the breath,
the silence,
the stillness,
the wonderful fact of mystery,
of mystery flowing through me,
of being mystified.

O mysterious Life,
O living Mystery,
Let me be Thy meditation.

My Bright Little One

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Matthew 19:14

my bright little one,
in your face shines pure joy
for the voyage you have joined

your sparkling eyes,
open wide, clear and deep,
welcome all the wonder of this life,
brimming with the simple strength, love and poise
of knowing beyond words
the indwelling, upwelling, outpouring Spirit

show me the way to let you shine through,
not only when in silence I turn within
to sit alone with you,
but always and everywhere, for everyone

you are my heart,
so let my face be yours,
my bright little one

May you know the blessings of
Faith,
Hope,
and Love
in 2011.

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