mirror with water spots

I guess this proves I am communally challenged




can't even keep  a decent discussion going


what the hell is my problem

i also found this beautiful poem

Also from 
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17431

Subject: Lyr Add: JE VIS AVEC VOUS, MA PROMISE (Louis Riel)
From: Q
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 03:54 PM

Lyr. Add: I Live With You, My Betrothed
Louis Riel, 1881, translation Paul Savoie

1
I live with you, my betrothed
Though Mother Church's holy blessing
Has not yet been bestowed
On us. Still, you wear my gold ring.
2
I wedded you. O my lover
In the year of eighty-one,
Close by the cockle-shell river.
Under common law, we were one.
3
If the circuit priest's intention
Is to honor our petition,
We will fly to Fort Benton
To gain our sin's remission.
4
Our hearts require ths blessing
To embolden our bond ...

5
For fifteen years, a lone man
God Almighty I petitioned
To grant me a good woman
Well-born, well intentioned.
6
*Father Primeau assured me
My prayers would be answered.
My loving Master surely
Would grant me what I desired.
7
Yes, His promise has held true.
I have found my heart's pride,
A woman who dispells all rue;
The woman biding by my side.
8
Because no priest was present,
My love, we were forced
To wed this way.
My love, there will be no shame.

(Original French will be posted later)

The formal vows were taken the following year, the ceremony blessed by Father Joseph Damiani.
*Primeau, John Baptiste, was Riel's confessor in Massachusetts.

The poem shows the deep religious feelings of Riel; few of his poems do not.
The poem also shows how Riel wrote his poems; they were dashed off as the thoughts came to him and only rarely corrected or revised. This has led some historians to call his poems doggerel, but they express his feelings and are necessary to the understanding of the man.
"Selected Poetry of Louis Riel," translated by Paul Savoie and edited by Glen Campbell, 1993, Exile Editions.

"The Collected Writings of Louis Riel/Les Ecrits complets de Louis Riel," Ed. in Chief George F. G. Stanley, 1985, University of Alberta Press, occupy five volumes; his poetry, over 500 pages, takes up volume 4 (ed. by Glen Campbell).

another old song

From:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17431

Subject: Lyr Add: RIEL'S FAREWELL
From: raredance
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 10:09 PM

Ah, Riel's Farewell. This song was collected from a Metis in Lebret, Saskatchawan, who claimed that it was a letter that Riel wrote to his mother while he was in jail in Regina. Riel actually has a track record as a poet, having written a couple of songs, including Riel's Letter to his sister Henriette, that survived among the prairie Metis, and even published a small volume of poems in his early years. Thomas Flannagan, a scholar of Riel poetry, doesn't think that this one fits Riel's style. He thinks it was more likely written by on of Riel's followers using an old French tune. The English words are by Barbara Cass-Beggs who collected the song in Lebret.

RIEL'S FAREWELL

I send this letter to you,
To tell my grief and pain,
And as I lie imprisoned
I long to see again

You, my beloved mother,
And all my comrades dear.
I write these words in my heart's blood:
No ink or pen is here.

My friends in arms and children,
Please weep and pray for me.
I fought to keep our country
So that we might be free.

When you receive this letter
Please weep for me and pray
That I may die with bravery
Upon that fearful day.

C'est au cham de bataille
J'ai fait ecrir' douleurs
On couche sur la paille
Ca fait fremir les coeurs

Or je r'cois t'une lettre
De ma chere maman
J'avais ni plum' ni encre
Pour pouvoir lui z'ecrire

Or je pris mon canif
Je le trempis dans mon sang
Pour ecrir' t'un vieu'lettre
A ma chere maman

Quand ell' r'vevra cett'lettre
Toute ecrit' de sang
Ses yeux baignant de larmes
Son coeur sera mourant

S'y jett' a genoux par terre
En appelant ses enfants:
Priez pour votre frere
Qui est au regiment

Mourir, s'il faut mourir,
Chacun meurt q son tour;
J'aim mieux mourir en brave
Faut tous mourir un jour.

(yes I know the French does not contain the proper accent markings)
rich r

IF TODAY YOU SHOULD HEAR HIS VOICE

conference    #  8






FR TIMOTHY  began by expressing the gracious gift he had recieved in praying the psalms with us the rhythm the pauses the intentional moments of listening for god he went so far as to suggest that he had recieved something far greater than what he had given to us in our conferences

it occured to me while he was speaking that we are in this flourishing time everything around us is in a  flourishing state i see young women who are pregnant i see the forests burgeoning with growth i see flower gardens literally bursting with color and greenery the air is fresh and cool not much sun but the life in the flora is a regular collective madness of flourishing power the birds are regaling everything not much insect life clouds which threaten to douse us once again in a flourishing storms of rain we  are drinking in lots of rain around here...i have this deep sense of some flourishing going on in my life...sometimes i feel i could burst with joy....this resulted in some tears




our flourishing in religious life is sustained by the recitation of the psalms
the psalms are a seedbed for the gardens of our lives
what are we doing singing and reciting these ancient poems
what do we think we are up to
to be to be do be do to    day -in- day -out   bringing these prayers
around in an endless cycle of continuous utterance the world round???

our earliest christian brothers and sisters adopted
the psalms immediately
most likely there was some form of collective psalmody going on
before the rites of eucharist took on recognizable form
from the time of Jesus' death to the the time of the writing of Mark's gospel
or    "peter's"  gospel  those marked by  the WAY
sustained their witness with the psalms in what became
the greatest witness to HOPE

at one level our engaging in the psalms is selfish
we find these chapels to be
places we like very much
we like the prayer and we make it a habit
and we pretend to own it to some degree
but really what we are doing is for others it is for
everyone else in the church it is a true charitable service
it is the ever flourishing garden
no matter what else goes down or awry in the church
the orders dedicated to the divine office will go on singing the psalms
each one is a song each one even when recited is a song
we are engaged in concentrated singing
this is why
MONASTERIES ARE FOUNDED FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHOIR
this takes priority

a little different from the world at large

although it is interesting to think about how important recorded music is in the life of people
 people take on a personal ownership of  "their music"   i have   "My"  music but

the divine office is the one true gem the one thing the treasure we cannot forsake in all of christendom

we keep alive this very public very ancient very drone-like method of prayer a nearly hypnotic form if it weren't for  mind -boggling  statements that wake us up
 or the wrestling match of anyone's particular struggle
the recitation of psalmody could easily descend into inanity...yet it has almost universal concensus that it is powerful and it is beautiful and it has its own perpetual motion...the  HOLY SPIRIT  if you will

herein fr timothy recounted two stories of people he new at the very end of their lives still conscious just before death requesting music requesting the last string quartets of beethoven or a haydn symphony for the other person

in the end there should be music as we finish up our stay here our ministry
whatever it could be we must attend it and end it with beautiful music
and the church learned this early on
 that despite all  no matter what  to go on praising god
'tis the way to lend dignity to everything every event every consequence
it is very quiet understated and insistent HOPE

sing and walk onwards   -  admonishes augustine of hippo

it is godly duty we perform the godly duty of doing it
just doing it day after day just doing it for no other reason
that to just do it
and the psalms as we know appeal to almost every imaginable emotion
every deep thought of mankind is imbedded somewhere
in the expressions in the psalms terrible anger anguish fear
horror laughter worry shame but always the acknowledgement of
transcending in the enduring hope of god
 we too are his hope after all
his language to us is intimate love talk



the   4   point structure of the prayer day:

EVENING
is the true beginning it is a moment of recounting
what has transpired that day and of looking onward in hope
to the next day
we let the day go
MASS is best in the evening tis in the evening we reconcile

the last supper was a late afternoon evening meal

NIGHT
is the time of truly letting go of the day of forgetting
of allowing everything to have its recourse in god
let us always bear in mind that Jesus
slept in the boat while the storm whipped up
compline is a beautiful prayer

MORNING
our tradition is that all churches face east
it is not so any longer
but up until the 20th century it was a standard
the rosetta windows were meant to be the
display of wonder in the morning every morning
announcing god's love for us
our eyes  AWAKENING  with the sun
in morning psalms we utter our deference to the possibility of life being new
a new day dawns we sing the glory this is the day if today you should hear his voice



DAY
day by day o dear lord three things i pray
the present of the present to be in the moment the only moment that really exists
present past - present present  - present future
all one each day the drama it is meant to be the time of flourishing
if at all possible      if we can flourish       if we can assist others
 in their flourishing or simply to flourish ourselves in the midst
of whatever flourishing may or may not be happening
sometimes religious life can appear pretty sterile
even from the inside
if we flourish in prayer we lend humanity to all of it

who is taking the pace         who sets the pace
jean vanier speaks of serving at the pace of a disabled person
allowing them to set the pace
let us not ignore the approach to time that the virtually helpless person
must assume


my brothers
         HE SO ENDED

let us pray











....

body and soul

conference   #7



"....everything you do in the flesh is spiritual...."   ignatius of antioch


a benedictine a jesuit and a dominican were all on a cruise ship and the ship
sank many died but the three priests all were able to swim to safety
and were together on a deserted island
after some weeks of basic survival they were visited by an angel
the angel said
i grant each of you one wish
wish it and god will grant it
so the benedictine said
i took a vow of stability and i desire to return to   st john's abbey
and whoosh he was gone
the dominican thought for a moment and said
the benedictines are always first they are the wise ones
i think i want to go back to black friars at oxford
and whoosh... he was swept away in a cloud
the angel then asked the jesuit what he desired
he said
you know i'm getting a little lonely here
i wish that my old friends the monk and the friar
 would come back here and be with me     : )

what does the  holy spirit do for us
the HOLY SPIRIT drove jesus out tot he wilderness
this seems to be the pattern
each of us can think about times in our ives
when we were in a wilderness a desert place
JEAN VANIER had a promising career in philosophy
he had won honors and had an academic career set out before him
then he met two troubled and disabled young men
and he was invited by the HOLY SPIRIT to go into the wilderness
of the DISABLED
it was in this wilderness that he could hear the quiet whispering voice of GOD

the trials of shame embarrassment scandal horror tragedy of the sexual abuse scandals
have forced the church into a wilderness of sorts
we've all had to ask ourselves where is GOD in all of this
...the best that we've been able to discern is that we can hear the healing words of GOD
calling us to be healers of all human sexual sin all the damage of misplaced intentions
in every aspect of sexuality...this seems to be our contemporary wilderness

the CARMELITE tradition faces right up to the phenomenon
of the DARK NIGHT
(  fr timothy confessed he'd never had a dark night experience he feels he's not strong enough
but he admits to quite a few very grey evenings  )

he described his struggle with   " acedia "
of going through bouts of blahzaisse approaches to everything
no sense of vitality no desire to pray days and weeks of
nothing

what is the difference between the believer in doubt
and the unbeliever in everyday life
the believer is willing to WAIT FOR GOD

prayer is the courage to
LET IT HAPPEN TO ME AS GOD WILLS

timothy related a moment when he was actualy in the garden of gethsemane
in jerusalem
it was there he was finally one day jolted out of his spiritual doldrums

WATING FOR GOD IN SILENCE
PRAYING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE SPIRIT ACTING IN   US
WE DO NOT PRAY ACTUALLY
THE SPIRIT PRAYS IN US

CAN I TRUST THIS

IS IT GOD OR ME ???

here there was a beautiful digression into the thought of CHARLES TAYLOR
i got so excited i almost fell off my chair
he pointed out that nobody in the 20th century has been able to focus in
on the problem created with the loss of imagination in a big section
of christianity
and the replacement  of   CONTROL  the society of CONTROL
the option for   REASON  has meant the option to control life
without much imagination at all

we must all ask ourselves
IS OUR CHURCH A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE WANT TO GO

( i found myself thinking about the abbey church
     not too many people go there to pray  )

in a retreat given to bishops fr timothy recounts his message::
the BISHOPS'  role is to make sure
that      GOD RULES
        -not the climbers
        -not the fearful
        -not the self assured
        -not the good ole boys

we pray at compline

INTO YOUR HANDS LORD I COMMEND MY SPIRIT

our basic question

DO I REALLY WISH TO BE HEALED LIKE THE LAME MAN
DO I WISH TO CLING TO PETER JOHN PAUL ALL THE SAINTS
DO I WANT TO BECOME HOLY

archbishop joseph cardinal bernardine was a well-trained
impeccable ecclesiastical bureaucrat
one day he was having lunch with three of his priests
they were talking about the spiritual life
the archbishop stated bluntly that he didn't pray all that much
the rosary once in a while yadda yadda yadda
the three priests took this very seriously and they challenged him on this
at one point he asked them if they were serious in their critique
it turns out they were passionate
they each in their own way insisted that he return to ardent prayer
and from that day forth he gave the first hour of every day to intentional prayer

it looks a little silly from the outside
but the common objective of all our prayer is
to ....    LET GOD BE GOD

there's a GOD-SHAPED hole in the human heart
that nothing else can fill....blaise pascal

how do i face a void
and emptiness in my life
can i let god sit there
on a little stoop in the empty place
in the prison cell of some hardly understood
mystery of my little life????

we are to TREASURE the empty spaces
in our prayer...don't fear them...don't run away from them

the conference ended with the story of   pere marie jean joseph  lataste  OP

this man in the late 1800s went into womens prisons in CADILLAC
and committed his life to serving them
he would address the women in his sermons as   "my sisters"
and this won the women over to him
they loved him and he sought their healing
many were women of the street or abandoned mistresses
who had gotten in trouble by basically being abandoned
and having nowhere to go
he initiated  the   DOMINICAN SISTERS OF BETHANY
who exist today as communities of women who provide a holy living context for
other women who have fallen on hard times for whatever reason

he was beatified and then canonized one year ago

praise GOD

everything you do in the flesh is spiritual






...

on freedom and truth

conference #6



do i believe that the TRUTH will set me  FREE??
i know i say that i know christ said it i know the
apostles were convinced of it
but am I  ??


the film    of gods and men     shows a very genuine
display of human imagination in the ideals and hopes
of the trappists...and it was in the sharing of their impending deaths
that the whole community was united in both truth
and their shared  imagination

TRUTH  flourishing in the BODY
....."glorify GOD in your body".....st paul

western society appears to be deeply  CARTESIAN
we are content to recognize one another as MINDS
and this has sadly compromised
what catholics always believed about
the goodness of the body

flourishing is stultified with ignorance of the BODY

the glorious truth of JESUS is that in his life and death
he expressed the inherent godgiven beauty of the body
and CHRISTIANITY at its bese GLORIFIES THE BODY
for we then see our bodies as gifts
not really ours in a direct sense
given to us so that we can give of ourselves
GIVE OUR BODIES AWAY  in  degrees of imitation
of the PASCAL MYSTERY

the  LAST SUPPER is the great drama the model
for christian marriage
this is my body
this is my blood
i give to you

even for professional religious
unmarried
we are to GIVE our bodies our very lives

for thomas aquinas
TOUCH is the human of the senses
it is intrinsically good
it distinguishes us for other animals
what we affirm by touch is our intimate connectedness
to the rest of the world

man is made in the image and likeness of GOD
christian life is to be formed into the image and likeness of JESUS CHRIST
an ever new image and likeness one complete with mystery and beauty

i do not recall her name
i do know that she was a contemporary of anne frank
she was jewish
before she died she wrote about the christian gesture of kneeling
... she felt in her body the desire to kneel

the church's mission began
with the healing of the LAME  MAN in
ACTS 3
clear evidence that CHRIST intends to glorify the BODY
(numerous examples from the gospels)

the story is told about a young woman
developmentally disabled and challenged
in the    L'ARCHE  community in OTTOWA
she was given to self mutilation and violent gestures
outwardly
JEAN VANIER had the idea to begin to find nice dresses
to offer to paint her nails
to give her little smellgoods
nice shoes etc
and this changed her
over time she became a smiling person
when she could accept her body as beautiful worthy of beauty
she lost her monsters she became sweet and enjoyable

the christian transformation of the world began with the words
"the TEMPLE of the HOLY  SPIRIT"

"the face is the soul of the body"    -   ludwig wittgenstein


WE CANNOT FLOURISH BY OURSELVES
we are meant to love we are meant to be with others
it is in this context that christians have always hungered to see GOD'S  SMILE
and this is the christian mission which began in ACTS 3
peter conveyed he SMILE OF GOD and it was transposed onto the healed man
every good miistry begins with this GAZE OF AWE

how different is this GAZE this SMILE
from the faces that dominate the  "bully"  culture of modern politics


the tough domineering totalitarian hard gazes of warped idealisms


the christian ministry is as simple as a deliberate gaze
infused with the love of god
when our faces then are most beautiful

the beauty of the FOOT
a beautiful practical design
26 bones comprise the foot
the foot is designed for walking
this walking marked the life of christ
it was emulated by the first christians
even though many settled into communities
it was expected that a long pilgrimage
would be part of the life of a believer

christ's gesture to WASH the feet
was actually a very old custom amongst nomadic peoples
and even in the households of the jews
to receive a vistor without the obligatory washing of feet
was considered tantamount to an insult

to the man he healed in  ACTS 3
peter says
STAND UP AND WALK

the name  TEKAKWITHA :
she who walks groping her way
(  this is thought to be related to the fact that she was partially blind
      after contracting the   'white mans'   illness   )



the WORD became   FLESH AND BLOOD


500  yrs ago we became quite dull we forgot to pray with our bodies
a whole intricate body choreography of hands gesturing kneeling bowing
kissing was nearly wiped out
it survived in the post-tridentine church out of sheer stubborness
(  it's by no means lost in the african american churches  )

the cured man in ACTS 3 rises up and runs to CLING to peter and john
the healing has given the man freedom and he clings in love
to the man who has given him the ability to walk again

the LAME MAN now cured is moved in his body to relate to peter
and john to be with them it's as if the only thing that could make sense to the man is his
being with those who have healed him

we are made to depend on one another down to the very reality of our bodies


the story of   VINCENT   the   BLIND   DOMINICAN

one day vincent was visiting liverpool for the first time
it was most disconcerting but he was dedicated to
negotiating the streets and sidewalks on his own
(  fr timothy relates the huge gift in his DOMINICAN house
      the bodily dependence they have had to agree to
         because there's a blind person in the house  )
well vincent arrives at a street crossing and hears the
walking assistance beeps but isnt' quite sure about things
until he hears two sets of steps approach and he blurts out
excuse me could you help me across
why certainly says the voice
they make it to the other side
and vincent expresses his gratitude 
and the reply comes
o not at all... thank you...really... I'M BLIND



THE TRUTH OF CHRIST INCARNATE IN THE TRUTH OF OUR BODIES












.

of gods and men

conference  #5


every conference begins with this prayer




Prayer to the Holy Spirit



Come Holy Spirit,
 Fill the hearts of your faithful
enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit
 and they shall be created,
And You shall renew
the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
Did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
Grant that by the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our Lord.

Amen







brothers i want to state this again i said it this morning
but i want to say it again now listen very carefully
we are beholden to this notion we must encounter it
with courage and real fearlessness

ATHEISM IS A REAL CHALLENGE TO OUR IMAGINATION



yeah big deal i thought

the master went on to explain the 17th century in britain
the rupture the tearing asunder of the imagination
in favour of the cognitive truth the scientific objective statement
stated boldly and without aplomb there was this attraction to this
dry stale scientism clean laboratory scientism which did not permit much room for imagination

now it's true that early text books hired illustrators

our task and i say this with utmost seriousness our task is to
make the inarguable case for a return to the imagination
for a re-enlivening of the imagination
as it has flourished at other times in the  14th century for instance
the twelfth  century was very imaginative the 6th century from one point of view was
richly imaginative the second into the third centuries were hot moments of rich
christian imagination
we are due for another return
to the healthy hardy catholic enchanted splurging of god's unstoppable flourishing
imagination
we must re-wed TRUTH AND IMAGINATION  teach them to dance with one another again




we must make the divorce null and void



it is important to note at this time that the foundational idea of this conference
was the film      OF GODS AND MEN    in all that he said he returned time and again to the
film reminding us for we had all or almost all of us watched it

so he presents us with the phenomenon of the end of the movie when he watched it with a friend and he observed that nobody in the theatre moved till well after the credits were finished and he could palpabley feel the conflicting emotion in the room    ---    Was this a triumph of evil?


the mind returns to the final scene when they are being led away from the monastery in northern algeria as they walked up the last mountain together they were helping one another along they were stopping to assist the walking of a slower brother much as they would if they were out for a walk
the movie portrayed in a most successful way the  TRIUMPH OF HUMAN LOVE  even in the face of death


courage chesterton says is really contradiciton in terms it is the desire to live and the willingness to die all at once

the truth of christ's passion is in both the BEAUTY and the HORROR
we all of us find it difficult to stay focussed upon it for too long

it is estimated that a quarter of a billion christians are being oppressed tortured killed threatened this very moment in the world.... there is a real hatred in the streets for christianity

for some reason some people respond to a very beautiful message with venom and hatred
yet
how are we to make the effort to always show the very best of christianity
the gifts the treasures we've been granted how do we reflect those back into the world we live in



more martyrs in the 20th century than in any century before.... way more

a good question to ask oneself

is there anything for anyone for whom i am  prepared to die ?

for  it only stands to christian reason  -    you can't hang onto your life


one scene from the movie when two brothers are engaged in
the negotiations of staying or leaving the monastery
one brother states
i didn't come to the monastery to get killed
the response is pure

no brother but you did
you gave your life away completely
when you  stated your vows

learning how to die and learning to be oneself in the community
are like inhaling and exhaling

how to find ways for god to become incarnate in my life in the way that i'm living it

it is a very catholic instinct to attain to friendships with very talented people
the long long tradition of upholding the best of art the best of craft
herein is our answer
we cultivate a truth which transcends the narrow demands of science
are they believers well it doesn't' matter to engage artists in the matters of the religious imagination is to present them with the possibility of belief and the challenge to find a way to express something of that belief

and quite possibly can be the ingenious improvement of science this is what wendell berry thinks anyway

if the scientists take on the minds of the artists
to risk to be creative instead of purely didactic or objectively cognitive or dangerously experimental

thomas aquinas is rich because of his broadness his ability to take all
of science all of literature all of philosophy all of poetry
even profound examples from agriculture and weave them into
a tapestry of thought
(we neglect it to our own demise)

it is the christian message of love which will mend the rift
between imagination and what we like to call reasoned truth

the film     of gods and men        shows this poignantly
the vivid gestures of brotherly love in christ
at the end of the story are set against the impending horror of death
and in that they completely trump the mass murder

there is a love that is much too powerful for the banal passions
which lead to violence


amen



















.