Accept What Comes

A friend of mine introduced me to a newsletter entitled, Thin Places, published by Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.  It actually comes via regular mail which I find enormously satisfying.  The paper is easy on the eyes, and has a nice feel to it.  It is a pleasure to hold.  The current issue is only eight pages so it is quite inviting to pick up and begin reading. The only frustrating thing I have found so far is that in the current issue, there is listing for a "one time opportunity" for an hour long workshop on the Jesus Prayer. The gathering will be held at the Benedictine Center at St. Paul's Monastery in St. Paul on a Tuesday evening in April.  I would love to be there.  Alas, I do not think I can attend, for as you can see below, I am lodged on the west coast.  I shall need to be content with rereading The Way of a Pilgrim by Dennis J. Billy.  I have read this book every Lenten season for several years.     

 

The good news is that in this issue there is an excerpt from a Wendell Berry poem, "How To Be a Poet." This I can take part in. The excerpt is a beautiful instruction in how to begin Lent.  It also reminds me of my walk among the very frail elders.  Some of them seldom speak, whether due to lack of interest or illness.  I am grateful that my role is not to disturb (though I regret that here sometimes I do fail), but rather absorb the occasional nod, smile, or the uttered word or two.  I find I can have a very good conversation with those who seem to have used all the words they care to in this lifetime, and who often appear content to simply be.           

 

Accept what comes from silence. 

Make the best you can of it.  

Of the little words that come 

out of the silence, like prayers 

prayed back to the one who prays, 

make a poem that does not disturb    

the silence from which it came. 

    

   

Here is the poem in its entirety.   A wonderful reminder that we must seek, when we can, an unfiltered life.  Such experience is our divine inheritance.  Lent is about reclaiming that gift. 

Blessings on your journey.      

  

How To Be a Poet

BY WENDELL BERRY

(to remind myself)

i   

Make a place to sit down.   

Sit down. Be quiet.   

You must depend upon   

affection, reading, knowledge,   

skill—more of each   

than you have—inspiration,   

work, growing older, patience,   

for patience joins time   

to eternity. Any readers   

who like your poems,   

doubt their judgment.   

ii   

Breathe with unconditional breath   

the unconditioned air.   

Shun electric wire.   

Communicate slowly. Live   

a three-dimensioned life;   

stay away from screens.   

Stay away from anything   

that obscures the place it is in.   

There are no unsacred places;   

there are only sacred places   

and desecrated places.   

iii   

Accept what comes from silence.   

Make the best you can of it.   

Of the little words that come   

out of the silence, like prayers   

prayed back to the one who prays,   

make a poem that does not disturb   

the silence from which it came.

Source: Poetry (January 2001).

      

For as long as I have been reading The Way of a Pilgrim, I have been saying The Jesus Prayer.  It helps me to admit my numerous flaws, and forgive others and myself.   I have found that if one sincerely asks for mercy, it will show up, often in surprising ways. That gives me courage.  I am learning to look for it, and give thanks.       
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner.  

Thank you.