MONOTONY OF A MONASTIC LIFE

The sheer singleness and repetition of a Monastic life is most highlighted in my Hermitage.

All things are over and over and over again.  The white molding, the beige plastered walls, sage colored drapes in my bedroom with pictures of Mary, ever-Virgin peering over... indeed, a nothing-ever-changes Life.  

My walks outside remain staid each day, 

seemingly unadorned and lifeless in purpose.

But, no ... 

It happens each second in a most miniscule way.  God is in the splinter of a glint, the flakiness of a light shown into my Hermitage,  my Cottage-in-the-Trees.  

God, I can smell` for he roams my kitchen in simmering Lentil soup with smoked turkey, apples and cinnamon wafting scents of good wholesome food!  

God, I can see` for each shine of the Western sunset breaking into my silent cell with His Royalty of purples, pinks, reds, crimsons, white, grays slashing about the darkening sky!

God, I can touch` upon each object I see for God is the God IN all things, THROUGH all things, and OF all things.

God, I can hear` through the motoring life outside, through movement of  green Peppercorn trees with winded ballets, their life I witness in my stillness. 

Oh, it may appear that no/thing changes in my Hermitage; however, those who see no/thing are Thomas.  Those Thomas'  necessitate proof of some/thing. 

However, those who need nothing, oh, so reach and further fly!  toward this Holiest of Holies! while unfettered wings blaze true bright 

in unquenchable fire.  

How Holy Is His Name!

 

A THIRD ENCOUNTER WITH MARY, VIRGIN

Sweet Mary came to me yet again.

Not in voice; yet in that same place of

stillness deep within my heart of

hearts.  In that place that Mary

resides.

Again, she came unto me while I was

in great distress and turmoil and she 

did comfort me, easing my mind.

This time it was while I dozed in 

unsettled sleep.

With suddenness, in the locus of her

voice was a small, lit, empty cross. It

appeared ... faded, then appeared a 

second time.   It was illumined on its

right side.

I knew it was Mary~bringing her Son

this time to me to show that my trials,

though small, are loved, are noticed,

and my spirit is not abandoned.

Inside that quiet time, in the 

profundity of pain, Mary's Son joined

me and entered into an inner sanctum

reserved for the Holiest of Holy.

May He ever be praised!

LISTENING TOWARD

No, you shall not know the word.

For, it is incendiary and troublesome; ofttimes a burden and anachronistic.

It is an awkward word, inside an orb of greed, 

narcissism, self-preservation, and con-artists. 

• However,
  

You shall know of its meaning:

/Listening toward/ 

again

/Listening toward/

 

What does that stand for  

and, 

                  what are its fruits does one suppose?

Oh, I know its glint and have savored its many flavors and sweets.

I have stood in its sweaty leafed tropics 

sensing the moistening rain upon my bent shoulders.

Many do fall by it; whereas, many do rise, lifting toward the God in Christ!

No ... No ...

I still shan't expose the word to you.   

Instead, the golden Fruits of it.  Its presents of Glory.

 Oh, how myriad/ 

and stark/ 

and needed/ 

and noble/ 

are its spiritual gifts.

These favors I have witnessed given to those living this word:

Peace.

Stability.

Inner Silence.

Civility 

Humility.

Grace.

Self-forgetting

Self-knowledge

Love.

  

We learn Love when we learn to be silent and 

/listen toward.

Oh, for it happens not in a vacuum;

 but, in a molten throbbing cauldron; 

transfiguring us through time and time's travail.

Seek this word. 

It lays in pitchy darkness 

upon your oh so muted lips.

THE HEALING OF DARKNESS

How it just struck me! 

As lightening bolts from the cosmologies above! 

That: it is during the profundity of sleep that our bodies are healed on the molecular, chemical, and psychic levels. 

Were it not for our daily dose of  darkness, 

we would be most broken.  

And, it struck me again and again, 

in the sultry bisque night, in that Tomb where the Light lay amongst the Dark, the Dark was resurrection and Life.

Yes, it struck me yet again, yet again and again!

that Christ became whole for us

from darkness; and in darkness was he risen as starbursts 

for me. 

SOUL HAIKU

How barren a soul

empty and cascading ... yes, 

  to hold close pure Flame.

HOLINESS OF PRAYER

  Something occurs while the veil of prayer envelopes me.  

It is as if there is a trance, 

a dance, taking me far elsewhere.

Shallow and sweet is Her Breath  

and the Presence is over me ... over me, 

over me mute as rush weed in winter.

Oh, for I am icy pond/ 

ALIVE! amidst buried stillness,  

singly with Christ, my sweeter Love.

 

 

SPIRITUAL EYES

And, when I quiet; become still and pray,

it is as if a fine layer of cloud/ a mist/ through damped morning Forest

covers my eyes and I travel to heaven leaving what is seen 

to become unseen.  

        Through the veil, my heart greets him

and, at once, I hum.

We know the words, which falling effortlessly, drop as dew upon blue-blades.

Commingling, we enter deep through the fogginess, 

loving the other through gray invisibilities of 

delight/standing outside Time.

O!  Prayer: sheath of silence/ pall of Holiness; stay Now with me.  Let 

me live among your fecund bogs; your greeny trees: motionless, open-mouth & mute

witnessing to your grand Love!