From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,Continue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 8”
Tag Archives: darkness
Christmas Day: Last Last Thing
After all we have done and left undone,after joy, after grief, after unbelief,after wrapping paper scattered on floor,after food is gone or stashed away,after conversations thrive or starve,after bombs are thrown and names are known,after fire and flood, after duties done,after every going down of Sun,the darkness still has not overcome,the darkness will not overcome.
Advent 23: In Darkness
…he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.(Psalm 143:3 KJV) One Christmas,my brother and I sleeping onfold-out beds in our grandparents’ living room,I found myself awakewell past the usual hour, andmy thoughts like the room plungedin obsessive black, savefor a red electric glow from someunidentified source, I knewContinue reading “Advent 23: In Darkness”
Advent 22: Remember your last end
But for now, in what passes as daylight, remember night: remember those who dwell in night, remember the night that lies before those who fail to remember the light. Remember the absence of memory or light, remember the path out of darkness tonight.
Broken Epiphanies
Save me, O God: for the waters are entered even to my soul. I stick fast in the deep mire, where no stay is: I am come into deep waters, and the streams run over me. (Psalm 69:1-2, 1599 Geneva Bible) Is it, as Bosch would have it, a sinking scene, hut scarcely erect, while in the background knights andContinue reading “Broken Epiphanies”
“The thick darkness where God was”
This is what must first be given to the painting, a harmonious warmth, an abyss into which the eye sinks, a voiceless germination… (Paul Cézanne) How often is he shown with those horns of light, as though his head were itself full of the brightest luminescence and two cracks, two holes had formed inside his skullContinue reading ““The thick darkness where God was””
Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 3
Glory to your coming that restored humankind to life. (Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns of the Nativity) Because of the shadows, we miss our brother’s face, our sister’s gaze. The pace of the crowd moves us forward. If you reached out to touch my garment, I would not feel. This power departs us daily:Continue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 3”
Number Nine
Carlton kept in darkness slept, The streetlights out, the roadside swept With rain that afternoon and feet Bewildered by the night. The city never sleeps, they say, And anxious souls in search of day Pit-pattered while inside the homes Smart-phones took place of light. Commerce halted, leisure paused,Continue reading “Number Nine”
The Consolations of Writing 