'If the door shuts, do not go away'

Reflective material for personal use

‘After immense activity one passes into a phase where passivity is the only way. I pray that you may be finding this passivity as the way in which the soul serves God, not by doing this or that but by passively receiving the great stream of His love and compassion.’

Michael Ramsey

Butcher and Sheep
Rumi

Do not despair when the beloved sends you away.
Today’s rejection may turn
tomorrow to an invitation.

If the door shuts, do not go away.
Be patient, even if every possibility seems closed.

The friend has secret ways known to no one else.

Is it not the case
that when a butcher kills a sheep,
he does not leave the carcass?

Rather, he bends down and works more closely.
The sheep’s life becomes the butcher’s life.

The meaning with this is: There is
a great generosity in being killed by the beloved.
Solomon’s kingdom goes into a single ant.

Both worlds combine in one heart.
I have traveled everywhere
and found no likeness for the friend
Have you found one?

This silence gives a taste.
Whatever wine the friend serves
comes when language ends.

Trans by Coleman Barks, ‘Rumi, Bridge to the Soul, Journeys into the music and silence of the heart’ 2007.

Read the poem and spend some time in silence

Reflective Questions

In what ways does the Christian faith talk about death in relation to the spiritual life?

How do you respond to the ideas in this poem?

What stands out most for you?

How has rejection or a definite ‘no’ to something you wanted, eventually brought new life to you?

How do you feel about things dying, about closing doors, about saying ‘no’?

You may like to spend some time in prayer with this verse:

‘I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who lives; but it is Christ who lives in me’. Gal 2:19-20

Activity – go outside and find something rough, hold it in your hand. What do the rough things of the world teach us?

Comments

Radical Story-telling?

Public Domain The Flight into Egypt File: Adam Elsheimer - Die Flucht nach Ägypten (Alte Pinakothek) 2.jpg Created: 31 December 1608 Which of the Gospel writers include an account of the birth of Jesus? When were they writing, for what audience? Mark’s Gospel is almost universally considered to be the earliest Gospel and it’s understood that both Matthew and Luke used it as a source text. But Mark has no account of the birth of Jesus, he begins with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. Only Matthew and Luke have birth narratives and they are different whilst sharing some common features: Mary and Joseph are to be married and there’s a miraculous virgin birth in Bethlehem. But that’s about it. Jesus is born in a house in Matthew’s account whilst he is placed in a manger in Luke’s because there’s ‘no room at the inn’. Mary’s thoughts and feelings are not mentioned in Matthew at all, whilst from Luke we get the story of the Visitation, Annunciation and the wonderfu...

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candle may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor10 of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. Wilfred Owen, September - October, 1917 Wilfrid Owen’s poetry introduced me to the reality of war as a student at secondary school, along with Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves these were the writers that helped me see the sacrifice that we ask others to make on our behalf when we send them to fight for us. These writers showed us wh...

Silence

Lent Study Group One of my top 10 books of the last 10 years has to be: 'A Book of Silence' by Sara Maitland. I first heard Sara talk at Greenbelt many years ago and I was fascinated then by who she was - an eccentric woman, speaking with intensity and insight, offering an alternative and captivating viewpoint on the human experience. In this book she explores silence in all sorts of ways: by living on her own; by visiting the desert; through analysing the desert traditions within early Christianity; and through attending to what happens to the body and the mind in and through extended silence and isolation. Her book begins: I am sitting on the front doorstep of my little house with a cup of coffee, looking down the valley at my extraordinary view of nothing. It is wonderful. Virginia Woolf famously taught us that every woman writer needs a room of her own. She didn't know the half of it, in my opinion. I need a moor of my own. Or, as an exasperated but obvious...

Rev elations

Search This Blog