Quant Revient (Mo21)

When the return of leaf and flower
signal the arrival of the summer season,
God, that is when I think of Love
who has ever been
courteous and gentle with me.
Her solace pleases me greatly
for her good will
relieves my pain.
Many honors and good things
come to me from being in her service.

--Anonymous 4 Loves Illusion (Montpellier Codex 13 cent)

Decay

Decay

Staring into the sun,

Burdened and taken,

I was thrown away,

I lost everything and I came to a fall,

Blown away and thrown aside:

-

We used to love/ We want to feel/ We need to find

So far away we scream/ We crawl and reach/ We used to see the sun

-

Tears running I feel,

Back against the wall I feel the steel,

Nail in my hand from a broken man,

I wonder if we ever can,

Break free and find the real:

-

We used to love/ We want to feel/ We need to find

So far away we scream/ We crawl and reach/ We used to see the sun

-

Said it out loud,

Looked at the distance in the glass,

I saw what I was as I loaded a bullet,

My former life passed as the trigger pulled,

Ashes blown away/ thrown

-

We need to love/ We need to feel/ We need to find

So far away we scream/ We crawl and reach/ We need to see the sun

-

Silent decay spins,

Following crows as they rise,

Never again will I stray,

Once again I will fall

--Nick Ahern 2005-2006

The Shack

Breathe in me...deep
That I might breathe...and live
And hold me close that I might sleep
Soft held by all you give

Come kiss me wind and take my breath
Till you and I are one
And we will dance among the tombs
Until all death is gone

And no one knows that we exist
Wrapped in each other's arms
Except the One who blew the breath
That hides me safe from harm

Come kiss me wind and take my breath
Till you and I are one
And we will dance among the tombs
Until all death is gone

---The Shack p233

Brave New World

"'Oh, God, God, God...' the Savage kept repeating to himself. In the chaos of grief and remorse that filled his mind it was the one articulate word. 'God!' he whispered it aloud. 'God...'"
-p207

"But my own experience has given me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the religious sentiment tends to develope as we grow older; to develope because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its working, less obscured by the images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed; whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the source of light; turns naturally and inevitably; for now that all that gave to the world of sensations its life and charms has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, some thing that will never play us false- a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other losses."
-p233 book quotes from another source

"'Are you sure?' asked the Savage. 'Are you quite sure that the Edmund in that pneumatic chair hasn't been just as heavily punished as the Edmund who's wounded and bleeding to death? The gods are just. Haven't they used his pleasant vices as an instrument to degrade him?' "
-p236

--Aldous Huxley

look up later: I have felt the hand of God" by Craig Courtney

Idyll of Praise

This is my father’s world,

And to my listening ears all nature sings,

And round me rings the music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world:

I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees,

Of skies and seas His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world.

This is my Father’s world,

The birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lilly white,

Declare their maker’s praise.

This is my Father’s world:

He shines in all that’s fair;

In rustling grass I hear Him pass,

I hear Him everywhere.

This is my Father’s world.

This is my Father’s world,

O let me not forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father’s world:

The battle is not done;

Jesus who died shall be satisfied,

And earth and heaven be one.

This is my Father’s world.

--Craig Courtney

Hosea 7

¹ whenever I would heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim are exposed
and the crimes of Samaria revealed.
They practice deceit,
thieves break into houses,
bandits rob in the streets;

² but they do not realize
that I remember all their evil deeds.
Their sins engulf them;
they are always before me.

³ "They delight the king with their wickedness,
the princes with their lies.

⁴ They are all adulterers,
burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

⁵ On the day of the festival of our king
the princes become inflamed with wine,
and he joins hands with the mockers.

⁶ Their hearts are like an oven;
they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷ All of them are hot as an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and none of them calls on me.

⁸ "Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over.

⁹ Foreigners sap his strength,
but he does not realize it.
His hair is sprinkled with gray,
but he does not notice.

¹⁰ Israel's arrogance testifies against him,
but despite all this
he does not return to the LORD his God
or search for him.

¹¹ "Ephraim is like a dove,
easily deceived and senseless—
now calling to Egypt,
now turning to Assyria.

¹² When they go, I will throw my net over them;
I will pull them down like birds of the air.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will catch them.

¹³ Woe to them,
because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴ They do not cry out to me from their hearts
but wail upon their beds.
They gather together for grain and new wine
but turn away from me.

¹⁵ I trained them and strengthened them,
but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶ They do not turn to the Most High;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed
in the land of Egypt.