Daily Primer — July 8, Longyearbyen, Svalbard archipelago — Norway
Each day you will be given:
A Florilegium entry
A Daily Prayer
and a Night Prayer.
A Florilegium entry
A Daily Prayer
and a Night Prayer.
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold, and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and porpoise. In the end is my beginning.
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The Greeks told the story of the minotaur, the bull-headed flesh-eating man who lived in the center of the labyrinth. He was a threatening beast, and yet his name was Asterion—Star. I often think of this paradox as I sit with someone with tears in her eyes, searching for some way to deal with a death, a divorce, or a depression. It is a beast, this thing that stirs in the core of her being, but it is also the star of her innermost nature. We have to care for this suffering with extreme reverence so that, in our fear and anger at the beast, we do not overlook the star.
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold, and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and porpoise. In the end is my beginning.
=============
The Greeks told the story of the minotaur, the bull-headed flesh-eating man who lived in the center of the labyrinth. He was a threatening beast, and yet his name was Asterion—Star. I often think of this paradox as I sit with someone with tears in her eyes, searching for some way to deal with a death, a divorce, or a depression. It is a beast, this thing that stirs in the core of her being, but it is also the star of her innermost nature. We have to care for this suffering with extreme reverence so that, in our fear and anger at the beast, we do not overlook the star.
lines from T. S. Eliot, ‘East Coker’, in Four Quartets, 1944.
And then:
Moore, Thomas. Care of the Soul Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition (p. 22).
And then:
Moore, Thomas. Care of the Soul Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition (p. 22).
Florilegium is the Medieval Latin word for bouquet, or more literally flowers (flos, flor-) which are gathered (legere). The word florilegium was used to refer to a compilation of writings, often religious or philosophical. These florilegium are literary flowers—beautiful words/prayers/thoughts I have gathered. During my sabbatical they will give me something to ponder each day. — PHL.
God, who sent Moses to the brickyards of Egypt to invite people into a long journey through an uncertain wilderness in pursuit of becoming a new people — you are the God who goes with us as we journey toward newness. Help us, Lord, to trust in you as we navigate the discomforts and uncertainties of leaving an old identity behind and make our way to become our truest selves. Comfort us that we might join the Psalmist in professing: “I have calmed and contented myself like a weaned babe on its mother — like a weaned babe I am with myself.” We ask this in the name of our Lord and Shepherd, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Exodus 3; Psalm 131:2. Liturgy of the Hours — PHL.
Christ stands before me
And peace is in his mind.
Sleep, O sleep
in the calm of all calm
Sleep, O sleep
in the love of all loves
Sleep I this night
in the God of all life.
And peace is in his mind.
Sleep, O sleep
in the calm of all calm
Sleep, O sleep
in the love of all loves
Sleep I this night
in the God of all life.
Celtic Prayers from Iona by Philip Newell, p. 33.