A Momentary Taste of Being

from Seven Prayers That Can Change Your Life Leonard Felder If you look underneath the cumbersome English phrase "gratefully acknowledge" and just focus on the feeling of the Hebrew words Modeh/Modah, it's almost like the sensation of kvelling , a Yiddish word that means "to feel joy in your entire being." Kvelling expresses a sense of fullness or completeness because something wonderful is happening or because you feel loved and connected to a best friend, a beloved partner, or a child whose joyfulness makes you feel alive. Tonight I am kvelling, and I don't know why.  

The Divine Office Online

First, a joyous Ash Wednesday to all those who observe it--and below is one source of that joy: From a Letter of Pope St. Clement to the Corinthians  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” and I will listen to you as a holy people.

One of the intercessions caught my attention this morning: "Teach us to be loving not only in great and exceptional moments, but above all in the ordinary events of daily life."

Praying the O Antiphons You will recognize most of these if you are familiar with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." (via Dark Speech upon the Harp)

"Hail Mary" in Arabic "Martin of Tours": a Poem Encountering the Word of God in Sacred Scripture

The Placebo Effect of Prayer --hint--it isn't

A magnitude 7 earthquake ten miles off the coast.  Given Haiti's already poor infrastructure, this is likely to be devastating.  Please pray for the people of Haiti. One source

Sirach is not much read outside of the Catholic Church--consigned to the so-called Apocrypha (really the deutero-canon) it is a much overlooked source of Biblical wisdom and insight and so I share these two snippets from the Office of Reading of the day: from Sirach 1:18-20, 27-28 A man may become rich through a miser's life, and this is his allotted reward: When he says "I have found rest, now I will feast on my possessions," He does not know how long it will be till he dies and leaves them to others. ******* For it is easy with the Lord on the day of death to repay man according to his deeds. A moment's affliction brings forgetfulness of past delights; when a man dies, his life is revealed. Call no man happy before his death, for by how he ends, a man is known. Somber and sobering thoughts--but they go along well with the age of the metaphysical poets and the memento mori.

Can be found at Laudator Temporis Acti As a general thing, occasional verse can be trying and not the best poetry, but this Richard Wilbur says what it needs to well, succinctly, and poignantly.  We do well to remember.  But we do well also to remember that this is Veteran's Day, NOT Memorial Day, so if you have the chance to do so today, thank someone in the Armed Services who daily sacrifices what little autonomy we have in action and thought so that we all might have the litte we do.

Joyce Carol Oates titles her book The Faith of a Writer with great intent.  One does not want to interpret, but it seems in some of the essays, that art, in this case the art of literature, replaces God for Ms. Oates.  If it is so, then this is where we part company--amicably.  Art in no way replaces God, although, I can see how one might mistake it for doing so, because art can be a powerful attractive force, and viewed in a certain way by people so inclined, art can, in the same way that nature can, reveal something of God to us.  It is in those transcendental moments that the mistaken perception can occur.  I belabor the point--I do not know what Ms. Oates spiritual outlook is--judging from much of her fiction, I'm not sure I'm inclined to want to know. What is interesting in the book is the way in which authors are viewed as Acolytes, Crucifers, and priests.  The act of reading shares many similarities with the act of praying and there are times when...