to celebrate St. Teresa's 'arrow of burning charity'. (Bernini).
I join in the wonder of the still point of the Iceland horizons. |
domdonald.org.uk
 |
| The Ecstasy of Saint Teresaby Bernini, Basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. |
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: edward ...
To: Donald ....
Subject: Your blog and some lines
From: edward ...
To: Donald ....
Subject: Your blog and some lines
Dear Father Donald,
Thank you for the Email and the account of Jubilees st Nunraw..I hope
that the year of faith will bring you new subjects prepared to
penetrate into the Unknown, which is near to all of us.
I offer you a poem on Saint Teresa which I wrote last night, having
firstly in mind the Sclerder Carmelites, and also the Quidenham
Carmelites who have agreed to a consecrated hermit from here
(originally Lithuanian) going to live with them..
I also include the poem which I thought you would not like - inspired
by the rapid movement of the sun at the horizons here.
....
Blessings in Domino,
fr Edward O.P.
[Our Lady of Light
Carmelite Monastery SclerderLooe Cornwall PL13 2JD
The arrow-launch and some of its
effects
At the Escorial
they showed
a bound
manuscript propped up in a perspex box,
opened out to
display
her scratchy
busy writing.
They were the
letters she wrote to King Philip;
they contained
projects described like arrow-shots,
seeking help to
finance convents:
the foundations
which her discalced Sisters
chose to make
their way with speed directly
within the
spiritual structure of the Church
creating austere
and joyous houses.
Teresa stressed
the long preparation before the Lord awoke her
to tumultuous
thinking.
Bernini
fashioned an arrow of burning charity poised for despatch
into her
deepest heart:
a reward for
zeal-driven unwaveringness
in labour unlimited.
Practical there
must be
but secured in
contemplation:
running after
the ointments
which the now
undying Christ
disposes of to
draw with power
his intensest
still and wide open-eyed aspirants
finding among
themselves Mothers begetting grace in spiritual daughters,
exploring the
Castle's protected rooms,
finding their
pace,
whether in
common or uncommon graces -
who can here
judge?
Alertness and
awareness,
connatural,
arrow-swift desires,
unwasted
efforts.
All articulated
in a new-minted
style supported only
by depths
untold,
having the
dispositions at their deepest
to catch the
All of their desires.
Stykkishólmur
14 October 2012
 |
| Map showing the dates of midnight sun at various latitudes (left) and the total number of nights. |
Subduing planetary geometrics
The heavens do
not sink
nor the orbits
of our planets rise.
The heaven of
the sun from its brief sinking below the horizon
of polar north
to antipodean south
may suffer a
slight deviation from its elliptical course,
yet its course
can be supposed as deviating from a geometrical
and predictable
inner planetary transit
We see
ourselves at the still point of a turning world;
the motions
outside us,
biological
variations in colour are normed against
an axial
deviation of the earth itself
as in the local
features of weather:
cloud-gathering,
snow, hail and rain precipitation,
local and
thereby passing,
micro-climactic.
Parallax in an assertion made against geometry
Parallax in an assertion made against geometry
by personal and
evident exclusion.
Yet the
patterned geometrical tucks into the surface geography
supported by a
geometry assumed but delusive,
holding beauty
captive,
macroscopically
and microscopic.
And all is
contained in the inner multiple in unity
Spirit of power
and of truth.
Stykkishólmur
12 October
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