Yesterday we read (in the Episcopal Daily Office Lectionary) in Luke 8 one of those passages I know is there, but can never find: ”The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, Called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.” Back then, women and children really didn’t count. They were not considered worth notice. But it really sounds like there were a lot of people who routinely traveled with Jesus. Not just the twelve. Not just a group of men. But men and women (and probably children). And they weren’t all poor — though many of them probably were. Joanna would have been a woman with access to resources. And these women, whatever their resources were, provided for Jesus and the whole community which followed him, out of their resources. (more…)
Poetry
October 13, 2012
Three Small Bits …
Posted by johnmangels under Bible, Poetry | Tags: C. Day Lewis, Daily Office Lectionary, Forward Day by Day, Inclusion, Sister Patricia Angela Jones |Leave a Comment
July 31, 2012
A Prayer in Brokenness
Posted by johnmangels under Prayer, Poetry, Saints | Tags: spiritual search, Ignatius of Loyola |Leave a Comment
This might have been how I should have ended last Sunday’s sermon (David’s Sin). I ran across it today in Celtic Daily Prayer (it’s Ignatius of Loyola day in their calendar, and this was linked to the brief biography there):
O God,
I cannot undo the past,
or make it never have happened! (more…)
September 3, 2010
Aphrodite, 1906
Posted by johnmangels under Poetry | Tags: Creation, John Hall Wheelock, the goodness of life |Leave a Comment
Here is another poem by John Hall Wheelock, that caught my fancy — this time from the other end of life! I don’t know much about his life at all, but this would have happened (I’m thinking it reflects something that happened, but I could be wrong) when he was young. It makes me think of the Dylan Thomas poem (more…)
July 3, 2010
There is a Field …
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Poetry, Religion | Tags: Arthur James, by John Mangels, Common Ground, Poetry, Rumi, Truth |Leave a Comment
I’ve run into this poem by Rumi before. But I’ve been talking about the limitations of what we know and looking for common ground, recently here and here, and not so recently here, and it really struck me. What do you think?
Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.
I found that in “An Almanac for the Soul” by Marv and Nancy Hiles — which I picked up at the Bishop’s Ranch, a rather nice retreat center located in our diocese (and owned and operated by the Diocese of California). The next daily entry in that same book comes from Arthur James, First Earl of Balfour. It says:
Our greatest truths are but half-truths. Think not to settle down forever in any truth, but use it as a tent in which to pass a summer night, but build no house of it, or it will become your tomb. When you first become aware of its insufficiency, and see some counter-truth looming up in the distance, then weep not, but rejoice: it is the Lord’s voice saying, “Take up your bed and walk.”
Anyway, these passages seemed to cohere with and comment on themes I’ve been running with. They’ve given me more food for thought.
November 19, 2009
Roshi Doshi posted this on open windows & unlocked doors:
In Memory of Daido Roshi (1931-2009)
(more…)
November 17, 2009
Running with “Wild Geese”
Posted by johnmangels under Poetry | Tags: by John Mangels, Mary Oliver, Poetry, Writers Group |Leave a Comment
This, again, is from the writers group. We listened to a poem by Mary Oliver called “Wild Geese” (found in Dream Works) three times. And then we ran with what we heard. This is my write:
This is the invitation I hear.
Sometimes we make our spirituality so hard, walking on our knees for a hundred miles. Sometimes we make our spirituality something that seems disconnected with the life we live and know. (more…)
October 6, 2009
Walking the Marshland
Posted by johnmangels under Poetry | Tags: Birding, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Fiat Lux, Poetry, Stephen Dunn |Leave a Comment
Jim Richardson posted this poem by Stephen Dunn (by way of his friend Karen). We spent some time in the marsh this past summer near Brigantine, looking at the birds, and this brings back those memories for me: (more…)
July 21, 2009
One Perfect Day
Posted by johnmangels under Bible, Poetry | Tags: Bible, Poetry, Roshi |Leave a Comment
Roshi posted this poem of his, which he read at a service for House of All Sinners and Saints:
one perfect day (mark 6:53-56)
i walk into intensive care
and see my sister lying under
crisp white sheets.
a dozen beeping monitors gathered
closely around her bed. (more…)
