Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Blind by Al Sergel

blind

today, I woke to the reality of being older than the day before.

life happens. 

it does not abide.

my willingness to allow life to stagnate into a definition of “it's just part of the process” is a sign of my agreement with modernity.  it's my cooperation with the violence of this age.

far from being a peacemaker...

i am blind.

i am deaf.

and, often, i am a common thief pick pocketing God.

Laughter Came From Every Brick -- Teresa of Avila

Laughter Came From Every Brick
Just these two words He spoke
changed my life,
"Enjoy Me."
What a burden I thought I was to carry--a crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me,
"I know a song. Would you like to hear it?"
And laughter came from every brick in the street and from every pore in the sky.
After a night of prayer, He changed my life when He sang,
"Enjoy Me."

C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton: Poetic Affinities -- by Ron Dart

It is a rare day, indeed, when C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) and Thomas Merton (1915-1968) are breathed in the same breath. There are many who bow low to Lewis, and many others genuflect to Merton. Both men, for different reasons, have an ample following. Is it even possible to think of these men as having anything in common?

We do know that Lewis was quite fond of Merton. John Brown did a thesis at Union Seminary on race relations in the 1960s, and in a letter to Merton, he had this to say. “I am rather ashamed to admit that you are the first Roman Catholic writer that I have read seriously, and then only on the recommendation of C. S. Lewis, who in a letter not long before he died, stated that he had discovered your writing, and found it quite the best spiritual writing he had come across in a long time”. Merton replied to Brown (August 7 1968). “Thanks for your kind letter. I am certainly happy to think that so sound a judge as C.S. Lewis found something to like in my writing” (The Road to Joy: p. 369) . Merton’s interest in Lewis, though, can be traced back to a book review he did of The Personal Heresy in 1939.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You have only to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver, from Owls and Other Fantasies, poems and essays, Beacon
Press, 2003.

From Person to Thing - by Al Sergel (Response by Adit Gamble)

Matthew 4: 1-11

“To love means to empower.”
“Communion makes us vulnerable."
-from Becoming Human by Jean Vanier

Just as there is daily bread, there is daily choice.

At the root of choice is to love and trust God or not. As well, do justly and love our neighbor or not.

When we love we create bonds – we enable communion. When we don’t, we inevitably create walls moving people from subject to object: from a person to a thing.

Gate and Scale by Adit Gamble

Corrupt scales versus Justice
Filthy rags versus Perfection
Broken bloody gate
Who else would allow anyone to pass?

Preciously accurate scale,
Who else would absorb the cost, the weight?

We might call you broken
But you are brilliant, shining, shining and strong
Indestructible gate that broke Himself for you
Scale that was keenly, strongly and perfectly made,
that refused to measure against you.

Jesus is the indestructible gate, that desired to be broken to allow all men entry.
Jesus is the perfectly accurate scale that refused to keep a count against you.

... and you know how much He despises corrupt scales
Keep in mind, His scale is perfect love...

Living Scale that knows the absolute, true and perfect count.
Scale that counted the cost...
Scale that refused payment... to be evened out.
That equals forgiveness
and surrender
even though it contained all power

Only asks one thing:
Come through this way.

Out Of The Corner Of My Eye -- by Blind Man At The Gate

 UBP - http://www.brianzahnd.com

I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
A ghost, a whisper, a suspicion, a subtle and subversive rumor
So dangerous that every army would be commanded to march against it
So beautiful that it would drive those who see it to madness
Or sanity
Does the whole of my kind suffer from mental and moral vertigo?
As Melville said of cabin boy Pip
He saw the foot of God upon the treadle of the loom
And dared to speak it
Henceforth his shipmates called him mad
As Vladimir said when they came to bury Fyodor
The spiritual leader must feel the falsehood prevailing in society
The prophet must struggle against it, never tolerate it, never submit to it
I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye

Is it possible that the war is over? -- by Eric Janzen

When I saw the figure he was jumping the line
and hopping over trenches,
rolling up razor wire,
and, of all things, laughing.

AFN Chief Phil Fontaine's Response to Apology

The Canvas - part 1 -- by A.G.

i open my eyes and right in front of me is a work of art on a canvas,
it stretches up as high as i can see,
as far down as i can see,
as far to the left and to the right of me as i can see.

the background is quite dark,
the colors muted.
people's faces are not more than blotches, indistinguishable.
i am aware that time has both eroded and left a layers of pollutants on it
it is not what is was meant to be. 
restoration is calling.