Church bells, sea gulls and pilgrimage pathways, and books…textures of Antwerp…

Doing a little church history research this month in Antwerp, not just monastic beers but also churches!

 Got to visit this church again—Saint Carolus Borromeus. They gave a blessing to all visitors of the nations. Nice blessing, as i feel like a visitor everywhere I go, including the nation i was born in, but rarely get a specific blessings for being one. Afterwards, walked the pilgrim’s path (the northern leg of the medieval Camino trail) back up to our studio across from Jakob’s Kirk. Nice that these buildings are still offering creative haven and a chiming for travelers and those passing through, which in some sense, is all of us.

This particular church’s altar piece was by Rubens, and various other artist through the years. Nice to think about a time when the arts and the church worked in tandem-one blessing and helping express the other. It’s been a while unfortunately.

Also the light in this first Jesuit church square is always special and touched by tone.

This city is also intoned or telling its story, through church bells still, and not necessarily in a nostalgic or touristic way.

From our studio space, we encounter three layers of sonic ecclesial texture which ring daily—St Jakob’s, St Catherine’s and St Mary’s—the first, recalls history, deep rolling bells-take you to this century’s wars and the havening of Jews here (Red Star Line etc), the second, more a tingling, come to life sensation (God is not done with you Europe sense), while, St Mary’s carries a call to a wedding or banquet or both! Conversational intimacy! So much resides in the tone of a church bell, at least for whom it tolls!

Anyway, nice to be back among the gull calls, church bells  and a place to consider from…

 I like thinking of symbols which hold or express the identity of places. Here, church bells, sea gulls, and books; fashion and the arts rest on these. Monastic in that way. Makes sense, Thomas of Kempis and many other great monks (some of whom made great beer) resonated with this region. So do I. Thanks again Antwerp, see you soon creative friend! Still under construction all of us.

“All activities are a medium to commune with, get to know and hence love, and actually encounter, and thus be transformed by God; this includes the arts.” Reverend Shoehorn

Sorry for the length again, I’m long winded and worded-more a Whitman, less an haiku poet-but enjoying studying great spiritual thinkers about art and spirituality again today. Theology of the imagination is one of my favorite subjects. Came upon this gem by Thomas Merton:

“Art-even a true deep to deep encounter with art- allows us to find ourselves and lose ourselves simultaneously, for art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some sense explains.

Music and art, photography and poetry attune the soul to God because they induce a kind of contact with the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. The genius of the artist finds its way by the affinity of creative sympathy, or co-naturality, into the living law that rules the universe. This law is nothing but the secret gravitation that draws all things to God as to their true center…it makes us alive to the tremendous mystery of being, in which we ourselves, together with all other living and existing things, come forth from the depths of God and return again to Him. And art that does not produce something of this is not worthy of its name.” (No Man is an Island)

Merton had a great, and unfortunately rare in the Christian tradition, ability to integrate his understanding of the arts and spirituality, and express them both from a Kingdom Perspective-a type of revealed theology, i would say. (I can think of George MacDonald, Oswald Chambers, Lewis and a few others who have modeled this integration well-not the worship of the imagination as the Romantics did, but a sanctified imagination, a yielded imagination; creativity as a place of spiritual collaboration with Our Source and Creator. In this sense, creativity becomes a place where our true identity is called forth or activated.)

“Things are beautiful to the degree that they conform to real Reality. Everything that is, is beautiful insofar that it is real.” Nice meditation today, echoing King David’s meditations on the commandments (Psalm 111), as a way to trail into the Reality in God of what they pointed towards, law into Spirit, sort of thing. (Tillich’s “Symbols participate in The Reality to which they point!”).  Just as we are His symbols or poems of Himself (Ephesians 2:10). Art can facilitate this!

The relationship between the imagination and spirituality has always captivated me. As another creative saint put it, “To have a sanctified imagination is to meet God directly in His and our own true creativity-being to Being-by encountering His, ours is called forth and formed. We become collaborators again, as in the garden, even collaborators in interpretation! Art making becomes a tabernacle of meeting, just as all activities should be.”

Anyway, fun researching this stream of knowing. Now I’m going to go make some art! Or as Elvis sang, “A little less conversation, a little more action.” Or is it, incarnation!

Here in antwerp

awakened today to bells ringing and rain sounds-typical winter but for my dreams

last night. in one my car could fly. i know where i would drive

rain, books, listening…an introverted monk yet waiting eagerly for a sunny day…

even what i dreamed mingles with the bells, gulls and words this morning

i sit for a while and remember back

at least before the wars here, and then turn

towards forward…these bells are also ringing for us here now.

so i pull my phone out and try to put the bell tones inside it

so i can carry them with me. like those who pray at night carry the dead.

and the piano player is already practicing this morning-the warmth of piano tones

with the sight of cold north sea rain through the window—that’s what it’s like

even the gulls are trembling in the never finished church tower of St Jakob’s.

the old people couldn’t make it to church to pray today, as the stones are just too cold on a day like this. So i’ll pray for them, as those who are unseen in prayer.

or like those who pray at night.

This region has a monastic spirituality, a contemplative spiritual heritage. People like Thomas a Kempis hung out here. Things like to reside in and just be themselves. I relate to that. It is less a builder and more a be-er (plus, it has good beer!). Sometimes it is good to remind ourselves that it is enough to just be “in Him”, and allow Him to whisper our true names to us, to trace our white stone names on our hearts, as George MacDonald, CS Lewis’ mentor, might put it.

There are several tones of church bell rings in this neighborhood. The St Jakob’s is deep and resonate; the st Katherine’s is higher pitched and hand rung. Then St Mary’s is like a call to a banquet or wedding. They mingle here throughout the day, teaching things.

Refreshing to be in a place whose spirituality is marked and carried by sea gulls, church bells and books. A monastic resonance, and always a monk like residence for me here. Nice to be in a place which highlights being above building. We need both in our spiritual diet, but sometimes i just need to resonate with Him, and my deeper self-do less for Him, and be more in Him.

  I come from a  place which is constantly building and carving-a forceful men lay hold sort of place, where partnering is forging, carving, and actively bringing justice, feeding the poor. Those are all good things but sometimes it is good to step back and tend the well from which all this action flows, as well. Thanks to the low lands for reminding me to be contemplative at times. To be in Peace before i try to bring peace to others.

If you were alone in the universe, with no projects to pursue, with nothing to do, who would you really be, as one monk asked.

Each region has it’s spiritual gifts and heritage. I needed this one, may it always be protected and have room just to be itself. For a tree really is praising God, just by being a tree. And so are we.

“Each city and country has its gifts, and struggles, and unique broken but redeemable reflections of certain aspects of The Real. Finding their particular nuances and what aspect they reflect of God, has become part of my spirituality.” (from a book on the theology of cities, I’m reading; to disciple the nations you have to know them and love them first like people!)

Cities are like people to me-on a journey of becoming, in need of love and revelation to know themselves, just like us. I like walking alongside them, and enjoying what they already know, and seeing what they need. Listening to them on their own terms, not mine. Trying to hear them for what they truly are, not through my projections or needs on them.

Each city reflects unique aspects: Antwerp has creative curious friendship; berlin a strong house for all nations and bold leadership-arm of God stuff; Prague, that sweet song of solomon fragrance, a lover’s attire, and a place of mystical exchanges in conversation; Austin, creative incubator, entrepreneurial catalyst haven…each city has their gifts and their struggles to become. It is a joy to get to know so many places well. So many places still yet to know and love in this life. Perhaps we never finish in loving…

Of course, like people, our very strengths unredeemed are also our greatest weaknesses, or areas of life which are hardest to live out. So the biggest wounds are often where the greatest strengths reside. I like looking there first to know and listen. So a place of friendship, can become insular; a place of leadership can become presumptuous, a place of curiosity can become mentally unstable etc—but just on the other side of these shadows, is the redeemed identity, standing in the Light, and reflecting upwardly. I like to bring salt and light right there. So I can see who the other really is.

I also like to think of how individual’s stories who live in a city, relate to the city’s biography. How our personal stories relate to our city’s narrative has always fascinated me. Why am I here in this place at this moment of our journeys. What developmental stage is my city at, and my own—how do they match and where do they not? I love asking these sorts of questions as I travel.

Considering a hawk i saw on the way to the airport yesterday in San Fran:

that golden gate park hawk flew over my car when it chose to, i suppose.

Me, halfway out of the city on 19th Avenue, internally noting many friends along the way, each block, over years, rolling along the ocean’s folds, stress-lessly to behold her again. freed, in gaze, by her  bold certainty of flight, her clear sense of direction of knowing herself fully, unquestioningly….

sheer in her descent, and sun flecked in her rising…assurance of when to

hit which waves of light when…

i, at least, saw her through the car window.

And in eucalyptus’ scent that seemed like a crimson green crisped colored blanket leading to the east, warming even my car, she was

enough of a gift for a proper sunday morning in san francisco. Instantaneously,

the synagogues and various other services were being held in the open air like us

 being formed like this hawk or the earth before cities and now through them…the Pope was talking to the Lutherans in Swedish on the radio, judgement was starting to begin with the house of God; but for me today, there was 2.3 ounces of hope in her powdery red hawk breast alone. here,

with everyone slowly lounging on, towards breakfast

in that healthy receptive gaze of being that marks this city

when it chooses to look outwards and serve, and truly be itself, freely offering its jewels, birds and songs for free, in kindness, not hoarding the sonic scenic banquet of her solar blessings,

or losing herself in the insularity of glory, the naked surfer lost in himself at dawn,

who knows but won’t share the wave, but, rather, sharing how to ride the recently occurring waves gladly, like the Pope, did ok, today on the radio or through whatever media or mediums the treasures of life fly…which, we kids passing through take note of…

Just before i saw that hawk, i was considering how fast and efficiently, the golden gate park dogs caught frisbees

(not how happy they looked, or are, but how alive, how readied, poised, positioned, modularly potentially adaptable to The Light things are here-water, wind, wave-the three characteristics of The Holy Spirit- even this park is meant to reflect back that fact!)

how in “sweet shape” the earth still was or is, despite us…

some days are clearly outside of us.

Regardless, that red tailed hawk

caught my eye and heart today on the way

to the airport.

It’s the little things which set us off and upwards to consider…

Today’s favorite monk quotes from art monks I’m studying:

“With so many unseen collaborations on our behalf,

who are we to block becoming.” 3rd C anonymous monk

“When i look at nature, i am forced beyond myself. When we switch our focus to something or someone as profound as Jesus for instance, we immediately are drawn into His love. We can’t see truly without being transformed by what we look at. We become as we watch well.

I can’t even see myself if i can’t see Him. He reconciles me to myself, and then to others.

We cannot truly look at Him, if we can see past religious traditions, without instantly, being led to love more. When I look at Jesus, i have no choice, but to love others. If I gaze properly at Jesus, i am compelled to love!” 6th C anonymous monk

And he added, “Why would we so vacuously perform our duty to become, to be formed more fully daily?”

i want to offer you

uncategorized blessings…

when we meet , we can be

more succinct

until then, friend,

let’s offer one another this

generalized sacrifice for one another,

pulling down the best for one another

in faith’s sight

until we can see clearly

face to face, then, the blessing will be obvious

redundant even-now, is our chance to really bless one another

our place to taste the bitter sweet tint of Grace…

Another monk’s prayer, on true discernment i found helpful today:

“May the Father’s real and tangible peace and kindness of being rest over you all this hour! That you would know or recall yourself into that place in His Heart of Peace, more instantly and constantly. That knowing of how you fit in the grand scheme and also your own story, and where you are in it, so you can keep living and becoming it!

Father’s Peace over all. His Grand Spirit is higher than your soul’s needs or tensions, though concerned with them! So we breath ourselves into Your Spirit, Father of all Life, including our small example. We do not stress, because You Father are not stressful.

I can see how many people really need the father’s  peace over their lives at this hour. So here is a release of Father’s peace over your hearts. The Father knows all your needs and wants, but we flail down here. Our soul’s get restless. But His Being knows, and we can know ourselves in it.

Reside, rest, find and found, ground yourself in His Bosom this hour.

Great Father creator God! There is no higher resting space. You are our home. We are fine and re-fined through and in You! Be our Peace, and help us to just release daily, even this instant, into the actual Being of Your Life.”

(So cool, these monk’s young and mighty astute prayers!)

 He goes on..”We are not isolated in the fray. We have Father’s spirit right here, who brings calm, knowing and even love into the midst of our daily actions! Love being the ultimate test and container of our lives. If and when we default to love, and let that be our highest priority and tone, we will find fruit and life. Does it have love as the central tone, is the real way to discern.”

What we talk about when we talk about love, to quote Raymond Carver…or at least what one monk in the 300’s was talking about…

Translating or interpreting some older monk’s prayers and thoughts today-i love discovering these gems. I liked this diary entry of his about love: this is my loose interpretation of his thoughts. i enjoy thinking about love as way to live…love always makes “sense” of everything in life. I tried to capture the tone of his thoughts.

Love!

“Love is the highest principle in God’s Way, it is His Core characteristic. God IS Love. So, when i wrap a situation, or even its interpretation, in love everything has room to resolve and come clear eventually, to rest and enter into His Being. I become a conduit guiding things into that space.

Love is higher than understanding, because our understanding, in the moment, is always partial. Our judgements aren’t in full sight ever, and we are, ourselves, in constant transformation.

Love, however, is impartial and at the same time practical! It knows and applies itself in kindness.

God is Love. Father’s knowing is unfailing.

So when we are confused, and choose to move in love, we are rewarded in the end, even with understanding. So we can apply justice and interpretation-other aspects of His Being-into action, once we have arrived in the peace of His Love. Once we have cored in His Core.

Love is The heart’s Mountain. When we move down from it, we bring peace and all the other great spiritual fruits—gentleness, kindness, patience, long-suffering etc.. It’s always practical to apply love to whatever situation we are in. It never fails. Honestly.

The valleys are blessed from the smoke on the mountain.

Of course, we get the pleasure of discerning our own issues from others, and the warfare aspect etc; but our basic default is meant to be love, and it always wins in the end.

For, Love always makes room for everything else, including ourselves and our own growth, and limited understandings. Love is the highest path or way in Him-it is the core of who The Father Creator God is. So, Love is always the best thing to do. And the brightest Spirit to move in.

 When blind, the best way to move is love. Love always leads us home, to Him and our true selves. For, Love re-calibrates us to what is Real!

When, I am confused, i always just start loving whatever is near, and everything clears.

And, Love is also the key to discernment. The Voice of God is always discerned through the tone of Love. The tone of love is how to discern The Father’s Voice from others (I John). If a true word is not spoken in the tone of Love, it is not a whole word! For God is One. His Love is not divided from His Truths. A truth apart from love is a mis-representation. He is both the truth and the way.

 When you can’t see, just love. For The Father’s heart is unfailing! Know that knowing, and you will be fine. If a great teacher lacks Love, he or she is not yet a great teacher!”