even more credible

There's something about reading from the iBreviary at side of a man the nurse says “is waiting for the angels to come tonight” that makes the words more real.

Ever since we heard this we have been praying for you unceasingly and asking that you may attain full knowledge of his will through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight. Then you will lead a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way. You will multiply good works of every sort and grow in the knowledge of God. By the might of his glory you will be endowed with the strength needed to stand fast, even to endure joyfully whatever may come, giving thanks to the Father for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Through him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

—from letter of Paul to Colossions 1, 1-14

The goodness and humanity of God our Savior have appeared in our midst. We thank God for the many consolations he has given us during this sad exile of our pilgrimage here on earth. Before the Son of God became man his goodness was hidden, for God’s mercy is eternal, but how could such goodness be recognized? It was promised, but it was not experienced, and as a result few have believed in it. Often and in many ways the Lord used to speak through the prophets. Among other things, God said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. But what did men respond, thinking thoughts of affliction and knowing nothing of peace? They said: Peace, peace, there is no peace. This response made the angels of peace weep bitterly, saying: Lord, who has believed our message? But now men believe because they see with their own eyes, and because God’s testimony has now become even more credible. He has gone so far as to pitch his tent in the sun so even the dimmest eyes see him. 

—from a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot (Sermo 1, in Epiphania Domini, 1-2: PL 133, 141-143)

We breathe together.

We think of peace.

you don't say

Have you seen that which cannot be seen?

Of course you have.

Seems paradoxical, eh?

We see.

But cannot say what we see.

All that can be done is act with compassion.

Compassion is the only way to say what cannot be seen.

doing only what we are

these five days

by many beds

in hospital

balancing patient

visiting with hospice

sitting and prison

teaching -- all three

a conversation with

my community --

our family sentience

one recognition

after another

walking frigid
mornings

mountain trail

icy brook

frozen field

my family
late december

sitting when all are standing

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (591).                                                                                                       BY EMILY DICKINSON  

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - 

The Stillness in the Room 

Was like the Stillness in the Air - 

Between the Heaves of Storm - 

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - 

And Breaths were gathering firm 

For that last Onset - when the King 

Be witnessed - in the Room - 

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away 

What portion of me be 

Assignable - and then it was 

There interposed a Fly -  

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz - 

Between the light - and me - 

And then the Windows failed - and then 

I could not see to see -

each atom, each element, each breath

yes --

it's all

we know

of god

haiku (christmas)

Yes

this

is what

I think

of you

eve of birth remembrance

Finally, Christmas Eve Vesper's antiphon:

Ant. When the sun rises in the morning sky, you will see the King of kings coming forth from the Father like a radiant bridegroom from the bridal chamber.

sunday's O antiphon

Ant. O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.

all true speech

When you hear the sound of voices speaking truth, harden not your hearts, pay attention, and smile.

MS. TIPPETT: Right. Very interesting. I would love for you just to read a little bit more a psalm that you love right now. 

MR. BRUEGGEMANN: The Book of Psalms ends with these outrageous doxologies. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire, hail, snow, frost, stirring wind filling his command, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and cedars, wild animals and cattle, creeping things and flying birds, kings of the earth, princes and all rulers, young men and women, all old and young together.”
It’s an image of all creatures joining in doxology. I love that, to think that sea monsters — I don’t know how sea monsters howl or how they express their faith, but it’s an early form of [sings] “All creatures of our God and King.” The whole world is coming in doxology, and I just think it’s so wonderful.

I just read a book recently, and I don’t know whether it’s right, but it says that Socrates said that all true speech ends in doxology to God. I hope he said that. If he didn’t, he should’ve. [laughs]

(--from OnBeing, The Prophetic Imagination,) 

As good a Sunday service as I might've attended.

Bless their hearts!

(And thank you, Alexander Di Lella ofm, for your scholarly teaching on the Prophets fifty years ago)

one within the other

Never is light so strong as when darkness says "I have beaten you".

Light looks right through darkness, saying, "I love your diaphaneity in my presence."

Light suffuses darkness, allowing it to remain itself throughout interpenetration.

Hence, getting along, one with the other.

saturday's O antiphon

Ant. O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.

yes

Sleeping dog

First morning returning light

His sweet breath on gray rug

solstice

nothing

but rain --

first winter night

friday's O antiphon

Ant. O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. (Vespers)

late and soon

“The world is too much with us; late and soon” (—Wordsworth).

Let planet tip and turn, returning light from darkening descent. It is time to look beyond posturing prancing and begin upclimbing ascent to clear and unambiguous truth in joy! She, mother of light, will point.

a scary story

Everyone knows what a rotten piece of fruit tastes like. But the third and fourth bites, when taken, signal it's not about enjoying the fruit -- no -- it's about what you want from the person watching who gave it to you.

The torpid men with rancid juice dripping down their jowls are watched by gnarly eyes of smarmy face looking out from wretched man temporarily occupying Oval Office in deficient decline toward terminal throes of ill-gotten reign of democracide and denigration.

What so proudly we hailed is in danger of dark decomposition and decompensation.

The chickens, so to speak, are coming back to Washington, to get another vote and more putrid fruit from desiccated hands of poseur president on brink of vacating completely the unstable office he sits in shadows within.

thursday O antiphon

Ant. O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; and lead your captive people into freedom.

just to maintain perspective

Observable universe

Visualization of the whole observable universe. The scale is such that the fine grains represent collections of large numbers of superclusters. The Virgo Supercluster—home of Milky Way—is marked at the center, but is too small to be seen.
Diameter	8.8×1026 m (28.5 Gpc or 93 Gly)[1]
Volume	4×1080 m3[2]
Mass (ordinary matter)	4.5 x 10 51 kg [3]
Density (of total energy)	9.9×10−27 kg/m3 (equivalent to 6 protons per cubic meter of space)[4]
Age	13.799±0.021 billion years[5]
Average temperature	2.72548 K[6]
Contents	Ordinary (baryonic) matter (4.9%) Dark matter (26.8%) Dark energy (68.3%) [7]

From Wikipedia:

The observable universe is a spherical region of the Universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth at the present time, because electromagnetic radiation from these objects has had time to reach Earth since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.^[8][9]Assuming the Universe is isotropic, the distance to the edge of the observable universe is roughly the same in every direction. That is, the observable universe has a spherical volume (a ball) centered on the observer. Every location in the Universe has its own observable universe, which may or may not overlap with the one centered on Earth.

The word observable in this sense does not refer to the capability of modern technology to detect light or other information from an object, or whether there is anything to be detected. It refers to the physical limit created by the speed of light itself. Because no signals can travel faster than light, any object farther away from us than light could travel in the age of the Universe (estimated as of 2015 around 13.799±0.021 billion years^[5]) simply cannot be detected, as they have not reached us yet. Sometimes astrophysicists distinguish between the visible universe, which includes only signals emitted since recombination—and the observable universe, which includes signals since the beginning of the cosmological expansion (the Big Bang in traditional physical cosmology, the end of the inflationary epoch in modern cosmology).

According to calculations, the current comoving distance—proper distance, which takes into account that the universe has expanded since the light was emitted—to particles from which the cosmic microwave background radiation(CMBR) was emitted, which represent the radius of the visible universe, is about 14.0 billion parsecs (about 45.7 billion light-years), while the comoving distance to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.3 billion parsecs (about 46.6 billion light-years),^[10] about 2% larger. The radius of the observable universe is therefore estimated to be about 46.5 billion light-years^[11][12] and its diameter about 28.5 gigaparsecs (93 billion light-years, 8.8×10²³kilometres or 5.5×10²³ miles).^[13] The total mass of ordinary matter in the universe can be calculated using the critical density and the diameter of the observable universe to be about 1.5 × 10⁵³ kg.^[14] In November 2018, astronomers reported that the extragalactic background light (EBL) amounted to 4 × 10⁸⁴ photons.^[15][16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe

beyond belief

What if, taken in the light of modern physics (as far as it goes), we came to understand these words with visionary mind?

Canticle — Colossians 1:12-20
Christ the first-born of all creation and the first-born from the dead

Let us give thanks to the Father
for having made you worthy
to share the lot of the saints
in light.

He rescued us
from the power of darkness
and brought us
into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Through him we have redemption,
the forgiveness of our sins.

He is the image of the invisible God,
the first-born of all creatures.
In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,
things visible and invisible.

All were created through him;
all were created for him.
He is before all else that is.
In him everything continues in being.

It is he who is head of the body, the church!
he who is the beginning,
the first-born of the dead,
so that primacy may be his in everything.

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him
and, by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person,
both on earth and in the heavens,
making peace through the blood of his cross.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. The Spirit of the Lord rests upon me; he has sent me to preach his joyful message to the poor.

READING Philippians 3:20b-21 vespers, 19dec18

...   ...   ...

Would we come to see the isomorphic interface between wording and physicality -- how each vibrational breath is, at origin, the inchoate inception, and real conception of what is to be, as it emerges from. emptiness into particularity, then returning to emptiness again?

And would our coming to see (and become) our particular emptiness between arrival and departure assist our time in this interim to be less contentious, combative, and filled with illusory belief in  accretion, acquisition,  or accumulation? 

The ethos of domination, control, and personal wealth rifles our human culture.

We do not yet see.

just so

Everything is quiet,
And the night is clear:
The perfect time to raise your pillow
And cultivate your mind. 

- Daegak Euchon (1055-1101) daily zen.com