Release

“At this particular place, what you’re seeing, essentially, is the process that had widened that valley over the last [glacial period]. … What you’re seeing is a landscape still recovering from glaciations. It’s a 15,000-year hangover." 

***Geologist on the Washington mudslides

O Mother Earth,

you still remember 

how the ice cut you

 and never forgot

the rape of your trees

while ignoring

 the houses of the

recent arrivals.

Did you feel the

small tremor 

 from 

the False Pass fault

coming through 

your saturated limbs

that

triggered you to

abandon your

show of strength 

and 

caused you to be

 fully separated 

from your weaknesses.

The First Night

         The worst thing about death must be

          the first night.

--Juan Ramón Jiménez

Before I opened you, Jiménez,

it never occurred to me that day and night

would continue to circle each other in the ring of death,

but now you have me wondering

if there will also be a sun and a moon

and will the dead gather to watch them rise and set

then repair, each soul alone,

to some ghastly equivalent of a bed.

Or will the first night be the only night,

a darkness for which we have no other name?

How feeble our vocabulary in the face of death,

How impossible to write it down.

This is where language will stop,

the horse we have ridden all our lives

rearing up at the edge of a dizzying cliff.

The word that was in the beginning

and the word that was made flesh—

those and all the other words will cease.

Even now, reading you on this trellised porch,

how can I describe a sun that will shine after death?

But it is enough to frighten me

into paying more attention to the world’s day-moon,

to sunlight bright on water

or fragmented in a grove of trees,

and to look more closely here at these small leaves,

these sentinel thorns,

whose employment it is to guard the rose.

  

 Billy Collins

Awake O Sleeper

Ephesians 5:8-14

I don't know

why I am trying

to answer her

rhetorical question

as I cringe from the sight

of the string

of bloody floss.

The bright lights.

The rubber fingers. 

The salty blood.

Maybe it's 

one of the few

times in life when 

one is fully exposed

by their negligence.

And at the end,

I pause at the front desk

to schedule

my next confessional.

The Definition of Sin

Sin is an offense against 

reason, 

truth, 

and right conscience.

It is a failure 

in genuine love for 

God and neighbor 

caused by a 

perverse attachment to certain goods. 

It wounds the nature of man 

and injures human solidarity. 

It has been defined as

an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.

Sin is an offense against God:

 "Against you, you alone, 

have I sinned, and done 

that which is evil in your sight." 

Sin sets itself 

against God's love for us 

and turns our hearts away from it. 

Like the first sin, 

it is disobedience, 

a revolt against God 

through the will to become "like gods,"  

Sin is thus 

"love of oneself even to contempt of God."

In this proud self-exaltation, 

sin is diametrically opposed 

to the obedience of Jesus, 

which achieves our salvation.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

A Pile of Dry Shit

Matthew 5:8 ; Matthew 5:43-44

One day a famous government officer met a highly respected elderly master. 
Being conceited, he wanted to prove that he was the superior person.

As their conversation drew on, he asked the master, 
"Old monk, do you know what I think of you and the things you said?"

The master replied, "I don't care what you think of me. 
You are entitled to have your own opinion."

The officer snorted, "Well, I will tell you what I think anyway. 
In my eyes, you are just like a pile of dry shit!"

The master simply smiled and stayed quiet.

Seeing that his insult had fallen into deaf ears, he asked curiously, "And what do you think of me?"

The master said, "In my eyes, you are just like the Buddha."

Hearing this remark, the officer left happily and bragged to his wife about the incident.

His wife said to him, 
"You conceited fool! 
When a person has a heart 
like a pile of dry shit, 
he sees everyone in that light. 

The elderly master has a heart 
like that of the Buddha, 
and that is why in his eyes, 
everyone, including you, is like the Buddha!"

Countdowns

I

Twelve tribes of Israel
Eleven curtains for the tabernacle
Ten commandments given to the freed slaves
Nine months to take David's ill-advised census
Eight day old boys circumcised
Seven years Jacob worked to marry Rachel
Six days of labor before a day of rest
Five smooth stones for a slingshot
Four corners of cloaks have tassles
Three sacred festivals
Two women and a baby come before a king
And one God
who created it all from an empty void.

II

Twelve disciples of the New Israel
Eleven of them after the cross
Ten coins reunited with their owner
Nine cured lepers not turning back
Eight unmentioned people who also passed the robbed one
Seven loaves to be blessed
Six stone containers to be filled
Five virgins were foolish/Five were wise
Four days Lazarus was in the tomb
Three gathered in His name
Two pieces of wood
And one empty tomb
which opened the gates of the Kingdom.

SUNNYSIDE OF THE STREET

The Pogues    (Music)

Seen the carnival at Rome 
Had the women I had the booze 
All I can remember now 
Is little kids without no shoes 
So I saw that train 
And I got on it 
With a heartful of hate 
And a lust for vomit 
Now I'm walking on the sunny side of the street

Stepped over bodies in Bombay 
Tried to make it to the U.S.A. 
Ended up in Nepal 
Up on the roof with nothing at all 
And I knew that day 
I was going to stay 
Right where I am, on the sunny side of the street

Been in a palace, been in a jail 
I just don't want to be reborn a snail 
Just want to spend eternity 
Right where I am, on the sunny side of the street

As my mother wept it was then I swore 
To take my life as I would a whore 
I know I'm better than before 
I will not be reconstructed 
Just wanna stay right here 
On the sunny side of the street

Meditation on Mary McCleary's Prodigal Son

(click to enlarge)

 (Luke 15: 11-32)

A fact of life is

that ranchers 

are land rich and cash poor.

So when the 

baby boy asked

for his inheritance,

the Father had

to place a parcel 

of the homestead

on the market

to make it happen.

And after the sale,

the Law abiding brother

dutifully pulled 

the fence and barb wire

from the old property line

and started to place the new 

boundaries of the estate.

And with each post 

he pounded into place,

he imagined his 

departed brother

nailing someone 

in a distant land. 

(verse 30)

Angry Young Man

Luke 15:29:  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.'

O 

poor child

of the Law!

There is no 

decree,

ordinance,

mandate

or rule

in your 

Book of Law

on how to

throw a party!

And  after

seeing how 

Grace celebrates,

you stormed up 

to your room

and started

to write

the absolute manifesto

on how to have fun.

GRACE

The grace of God means something like: 

Here is your life.  

You might never have been, 

but you are because the party

wouldn’t have been complete without you.  

Here is the world.  

Beautiful and terrible things will happen.  

Don’t be afraid.  

I am with you.  

Nothing can ever separate us.  

It’s for you I created the universe.  

I love you.  

There’s only one catch.  

Like any other gift, 

the gift of grace can be yours 

only if you reach out and take it.  

Maybe being able to reach and take it is a gift too. 

Frederick Buechner

Ash Wednesday (2014)

Gen 3:19 ; Gen:4:10-16

Sinners 

approach the altar

to accept the dirt cross

and hear the words

said to the first couple.

After this holy event,

we leave the temple

with Cain's mark of 

protection.

But unlike Adam's progeny,

who wandered

east of Eden,

we place our trust

in the One

who tells us

He knows

the way

home.

Messiah

A young fugitive who comes to a town where the people are willing to take him in and hide him. When soldiers arrive in search of the fugitive, the townspeople protest that they know nothing. Suspecting their lie, the soldiers warn that, unless the fugitive is turned over by morning, the entire town will be destroyed.

In deep fear the people rush to their pastor for counsel. The priest, greatly troubled, starts searching scripture for an answer. All night he reads and finds nothing. Then, just before dawn, his eyes fall on a passage, 'It is better that one man should die for the people than the whole people be lost.'

He is sure that's the answer, and goes to the people with the news. The soldiers are informed that the fugitive is indeed hidden among them, and the young man is taken away. They throw a big party in the town, lasting far into the night, and celebrate their deliverance by the grace of God.

But the pastor returns to his study, still troubled. An angel appears to him and asks what's the problem. 'I still don't feel right about turning over the fugitive,' the pastor says. The angel replies, 'Did you know that he was the Messiah?'

The pastor is incredulous. 'How was I to know?' he asks. 'If, instead of reading your Bible,' the angel replies, 'you had taken time to visit the young man and looking into his eyes, you would have known he was the Messiah.'

Silent God

This is my prayer—

That, though I may not see,

I be aware

Of the Silent God

Who stands by me.

That, though I may not feel,

I be aware

Of the Mighty Love

Which doggedly follows me.

That, though I may not respond,

I be aware

That God—my Silent, Mighty God,

Waits each day.

Quietly, hopefully, persistently.

Waits each day and through each night

For me.

For me—alone.

Edwina Gateley