Poets & Saints

Matthew 6:7-8 (NRSVUE)

When you are praying,

do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do,

for they think that they will be heard

because of their many words.

Do not be like them,

for your Father knows what you need

before you ask him.

God alone I seek and desire.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“If you want to gather all your desire into one simple word

that the mind can easily retain,

choose a short word rather than a long one.

A one-syllable word such as ‘God’ or ‘love’ is best.

But choose one that is meaningful to you.

Then fix it in your mind so that it will remain there come what may.

This word will be your defense in conflict and in peace.”

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Psalm 42:1-2 (NRSVUE)

As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and behold

the face of God?

I reach for God with longing love.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“But in the real contemplative work you must set all this aside

and cover it over with a cloud of forgetting.

Then let your loving desire, gracious and devout,

step bravely and joyfully beyond it

and reach out to pierce the darkness above.

Yes, beat upon that thick cloud of unknowing

with the dart of your loving desire

and do not cease come what may.”

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Psalm 46:10a (NRSVUE)

Be still, and know that I am God!

I set all else aside. There is room for God.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“Just as the cloud of unknowing lies above you,

between you and your God,

so you must fashion a cloud of forgetting beneath you,

between you and every created thing....

But I tell you that everything you dwell upon during this work

becomes an obstacle to union with God.

For if your mind is cluttered with these concerns

there is no room for him.”

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Exodus 20:21 (NRSVUE)

Then the people stood at a distance,

while Moses drew near to the thick darkness

where God was.

By love God may be touched and embraced.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“A man may know completely and ponder thoroughly

every created thing and its works, yes, and God’s works, too,

but not God himself.

Thought cannot comprehend God.

And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know,

choosing rather to love him whom I cannot know.

Though we cannot know him we can love him.

By love he may be touched and embraced, never by thought.”

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on John 14:2-3, with a reading from Brian Zahnd's Unseen Existences. Day 55 of the Unseen Existences series.

John 14:2-3 (NRSVUE)

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.

If it were not so,

would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and will take you to myself,

so that where I am, there you may be also.

God alone suffices.

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

“There are sorrows, but there are also joys.

There are heartaches, but there are also healings.

There are woes innumerable,

but there is also a peace that passes understanding.

There are adversaries, but there is also a Helper.

There are accusations, but there is also an Advocate.

There is anguish, but there is also a Comforter.

And so we press on.

We will find our way home

because the One who calls us home

will make a way even when there seems to be no way.

Be of good cheer, pilgrim. You’re on the right path.

You will make it.

No one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.

Buen camino.”

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on James 1:2-4, with a reading from Alan Kreider's The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. Day 54 of the Unseen Existences series.

James 1:2-4 (NKJV)

My brethren, count it all joy

when you fall into various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith

produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking nothing.

Patience obtains all things.

Alan Kreider, from The Patient Ferment of the Early Church

“Patience was not a virtue dear to most Greco-Roman people....

But Christian writers called patience ‘the highest virtue,’

‘the greatest of all virtues,’

the virtue that was ‘particularly Christian.’

The Christians believed that God is patient

and that Jesus visibly embodied patience.

And they concluded that they, trusting in God, should be patient:

not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry,

and never using force to achieve their ends.”

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on Isaiah 40:8, with a reading from Peri Zahnd's Every Scene by Heart. Day 53 of the Unseen Existences series.

Isaiah 40:8 (NRSVUE)

The grass withers; the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

All things are passing. God never changes.

Peri Zahnd, from Every Scene by Heart

“This is the Meseta,

that middle section of life,

that sometimes boring, sometimes tedious section of life,

but we realize in hindsight how beautiful it all was

and that we wouldn’t have skipped it for anything!...

And then you leave the Meseta and cross more mountains.

You realize the end is nearer, but that it’s really just a beginning....

It’s a mystery, but a mystery I now approach

more trustingly, more willingly,

surrendering myself to the purposes of God.”

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on Philippians 4:6-7, with Teresa of Ávila's prayer known as Saint Teresa's Bookmark. Day 52 of the Unseen Existences series.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NRSVUE)

Do not worry about anything,

but in everything by prayer and supplication

with thanksgiving

let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds

in Christ Jesus.

Let nothing disturb me. Let nothing frighten me.

Teresa of Ávila, “Saint Teresa’s Bookmark”

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing frighten you.

All things are passing away.

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing.

God alone suffices.

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on Jeremiah 6:16, with a reading from Brian Zahnd's Unseen Existences. Day 51 of the Unseen Existences series.

Jeremiah 6:16a (NRSVUE)

Thus says the LORD:

Stand at the crossroads and look,

and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way lies,

and walk in it,

and find rest for your souls.

Buen camino. May my way be good.

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

“Dear pilgrim, may your way, though not easy, still be blessed.

Despite blistered feet, sore knees, and bone-weary fatigue,

may you find what you are looking for.

May you reach that holy aspiration you are pressing on toward.

And as we both know, our holy aspiration

is much more than arriving at a cathedral

in the city of Santiago.”

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A five-minute Christian meditation and lectio divina practice on 1 Kings 19:5-8, with words from the Iona Community communion liturgy. Day 50 of the Unseen Existences series.

1 Kings 19:5-8 (NRSVUE)

Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him,

“Get up and eat.”

He looked, and there at his head

was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

He ate and drank and lay down again.

The angel of the LORD came a second time,

touched him, and said,

“Get up and eat,

otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”

He got up and ate and drank;

then he went in the strength of that food

forty days and forty nights

to Horeb the mount of God.

When my strength is gone, I am fed for the journey.

From the Iona Community communion liturgy

“This is the table, not of the church, but of the Lord.

It is made ready for those who love him,

and for those who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith, and you who have little;

you who have been here often, and you who have not been here long;

you who have tried to follow, and you who have failed,

come! Because it is the Lord who invites you.

It is his will that those who want him should meet him here. Amen.”

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