A Blog by LeRoy Friesen
O Lover, In this my late autumn assorted oppositional tensions (e.g., paradoxes and dialectics, ironies and seeming oxymorons) are surfacing with greater frequency. In retrospect, life is shown to be an oscillation between negation...
[“I did not see God, for that would have blinded me, but I saw the bending of the grasses at the passing of the hem of His garments” (Sophy Burnham, b. 1936).] O Lover,...
[Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943. (Complete and Unabridged; K. Smelik, ed., A. Pomerans, trans.). Eerdmans, 2002.] O Lover, In these chaotic days I have found myself exploring as for the first...
[“The whole earth is full of (Your) glory” (Is 6:3).] O Lover, Are not major paradigm shifts glimpsed primarily in retrospect after the tumult has peaked and a measure of perspective gained? Is this...
[“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was terrified and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none...
[“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird (‘dress’) yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone...
O Lover, I confess that I have moments when I wonder whether You and/or I are an illusion; whether religion and spirituality are mere human projections fueled by fear of finitude in general, mortality...
O Lover, I still recall the gist of musings long ago by a colleague of mine in the context of a graduate student palaver: “I am more at peace with the certainty of my...
O Lover, In last week’s post pondering Your presence decades ago in the hearing of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Hodie Christus natus Est I failed to accentuate a theme which has since refused to go...
[Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958), Hodie Christus Natus Est (solos/choral/orchestral cantata in 16 movements).] O Lover, It was thirty-seven years ago this week. I was driving truck in what would become in retrospect the seam...
[“Day by day / Day by day / Oh Dear Lord / Three things I pray / To see thee more clearly / Love thee more dearly / Follow thee more nearly / Day...