The Wine of God
[“I am the vine that fills your cup with joy” (from “Take and Eat” by Fr. Michael Joncas [b. 1951]).] O Lover, One of the richer images in biblical writings is that of wine....
Author: ambushee
Kenósis as Core
[“Although (Jesus) was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be clutched, but poured himself out, taking the form of a servant . . .” (Phil...
“Your Love Is Better than Life”
Embedded in Psalm 63:1-8, the prayer with which I begin and conclude each day, is this: “Your love is better than life” (3). The Hebrew term translated as “love” is hésed (khéh-sed), a lush...
A Night on the Jabbok
[Inspired by Genesis 32:22-32, the blogger experienced this post as seemingly writing itself during a week-long hospitalization following a cardiac episode at the end of August.] O Mysterious One, I am Jacob, and this...
Might the Silence Sing?
O Lover, In my initial engagement with the spirituality of Juan de la Cruz thirty years ago I became enamored by the theme of apophática (“imagelessness”). I subsequently found myself gleaning from his writings...
The Problem of the Personal
O You, Finally, Beyond Names, At about the two-thirds juncture of my life I began addressing You primarily in the second grammatical person as “Lover.” I did this having reached a tipping point regarding...
How Large Is My “Yes”?
O Lover, One of the formative issues in my faith journey is captured by the title of J. B. Phillips’ Your God Is Too Small (1953) which I first read in college. Insofar as...
A Peek from a Pixel’s Perch
O Lover, Sequestered in the bifurcated gestalt of my protracted minority, in some respects an isolate harried by contingency and void, still holding both You and myself to be entities in some structure, I...
Regarding Non-dualistic Spirituality
O Lover, Over the past year I have been increasingly beset by questions regarding the implications of non-dualism for contemplative practice and awareness. I understand non-dualism as affirming that Reality in its very largest...
Beneficence
[Hall, Meredith, Beneficence. Boston: Godine, 2020.] O Lover, The setting for my reading highlight of this summer (but half spent) is largely restricted to a Maine farmstead across decades beginning in the early 1930s....