Best Liturgical Poems


Premium Member Egnehenots: Earth and Stone

Egnehenots – of earth and stone

Chief elder – most wise upon the Salisbury Plain
     an old man . . .  loved deeply
     revered father of the land
     wakes before the sunrise
     speaks with a clear wind voice
     it is time . . . retniw ecitslos 

The twelve bow  . . . form together
      three to a side
      lift Otsego – clear water running
      high in the air
      in liturgical movements 
      move across the dark plain
      whitlow grass . . . juniper shrubs . . . wild thyme . . . 
      sweeten the air
      moss laden stones
      soft upon leather-bound feet  

Within the wind
      haunting cries of the stone curlew
      crested newts scramble for cover
      the great bustard cuts the air with powerful wing beats

Ancient burial mounds appear
      a sacred circle of life emergences
      the procession stops . . .  lowers
      Egnehenots steps down, blesses the twelve
      enters the holy inner circle alone

Laying his head against the mighty sarsens
      begins to chant . . . 
      father of the blue stones
      creator of the big sky light 
      upon these rocks I cling for your life
      from sky, to earth let your love flow

On this holy day
      your strength is once again revealed
      wind and rain obey your commands
      days, nights, seasons march to your song 
      how great and mighty is your power

Hear our cries upon the wind
      absorb our tears upon the earth
      our breath upon your mighty rocks
      be now amongst your people
      send forth the sun and rain
      let the earth bring forth its riches
       so that we may dance in your radiance

The sun breaks the horizon
       Sending out shafts of lights 
       streaking across the sky
       clouds turning purple then into shades of reds, oranges 
       a single ray of light strikes forth
       straight as an arrow
       illuminating the altar stone
       connecting slaughter stone 
       and finally . . . the heel stone
              Where 

Where, an old man clings

A loud cheer explodes from the village
Food and wind flow – a celebration

A new year begins - 
Rain clouds appear in the west

Egnehenots – of earth and stone








Love Generously 

David Meade
12/8/2015

Premium Member Apostolic and Ecclesial Traditions

The tradition in question comes from the apostles
Hands on when they received from Jesus’ teaching examples
What they learned from the Eternal Holy Spirit
First generation of Christian did not have a written New Testament
It demonstrates the process of living tradition

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological
Disciplinary
Liturgical or devotional traditions
Born in the local churches over time
These are particular forms
Adapted to different places
Times
In which the great Tradition is expressed in the light of Tradition
The traditions can be retained
Modified
Even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium

1132015

Premium Member Feel At Home In Any Catholic Church

Each Catholic Church may be unique
But you will find familiar elements in any Catholic church 
That you also find in our own parish home.

Baptismal font—a pool or large bowl of water usually stands
Near the doors of the church and reminds us
That baptism is our “door”
To the Catholic faith.

Nave—the large open room usually filed with pews or seats is
The main assembly area.

Sanctuary—the part of the church reserved for liturgical
Action that contains an altar where the priest celebrates the sacrifice of
The Mass
A chair for the priest
The lectern for reading Scripture

Tabernacle—usually located in a place of honor in the
Sanctuary, this receptacle holds consecrated hosts. A candle nearby
Signifies when it is full
 In our Parish Church of St. Andrew
It was built after Vatican II
 The option to put the tabernacle
In the chapel was done since the main church is ‘multi-purpose.’

Crucifix—a prominent cross with an image of Father Christ crucified
is usually located near the altar. Here in St. Andrew we don’t have this
Though we have the processional cross.

Statues—Statues and other forms of art of Father Christ Jesus, Mother Mary, or the Saints remind us of those who inspire us by their holy lives
Here in St. Andrew we have the movable statues located at the vestibule of
the Church and in the chapel that are placed in the altar on feasts 
Solemnities


Premium Member Marks of the Church

The Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic
Find these words from the Creed, Professed at Sunday mass
4 marks indicate the essential features of the Church
Each mark viewed as a reality and a challenge

Church is one
Bond of love between Eternal Father and Eternal Son 
Unites as one people of Eternal God
Church profess one Lord, one faith and one Baptism forms one body, the Church

Church is holy
In the Holy Trinity is the source of her holiness
It is holy from her founder, her saints and means of salvation
The Sacraments, 10 Commandments, charity and prayer presented as holiness of the Church

Church is Catholic
Catholic means universal
Have their own ecclesiastical disciplines, liturgical rites, theological and spiritual heritages
Dialogue is a form of evangelization

Church is Apostolic
Built upon the foundation of Apostles
The college is understood as the principle of their collegiality
Holy Spirit ensures she will not err in faith and morals

Premium Member Easter

“Easter is the holiest of the liturgical celebrations;
It is a time of farewells and renewal “ ~the poet




                    The body and blood of Christ is given up for you and me
                           He was crucified on a cross to set us free

                             Condemnation and sins washed away
                             By the faith we share in him each day

                               As mortals we try not to falter
                          Confessing our iniquities at the altar

                      Easter reminds us of our special grace
                       The Lord our savior took our place

           Our souls washed clean of the impurities of Earthly life,
                         Heavenly glory, will be ours with rife.

Premium Member Now I Have a Driveway and I'Ve Discovered I Can Unlock the Car From Any Room In the House

it's brilliant
i'm writing this in the living room
and i can use the car key
to unlock the car from 'ere

i tried in the kitchen
i tried it on the stairs
i can hear it unlock as it beeps
and when it happens

i can hear liturgical chorals
native drumming
a giant plume
of emotional perception

i tried it in the upstairs wardrobe
i heard the car faintly unlock
my wife came home and found me crouched in there 
there's been no fourth base since


Premium Member Aim High: Don'T Hide

Liturgical dance
speaks sacred ecological stories
through movement,
rhythm,
patterns of dipolar co-relationship.

"Aim high!"
carries multicultural WinWin yang postures
while
"You can't hide"
carries polycultural yin-flow
co-arising dipolar
WinWin bilaterality,
within double-binding
co-relationship,
non-violent communications,
co-defining ecopolitical co-operativity.

Cementerio

I've heard it said that if all the people 
who ever lived and died, were buried together, 
it would fill the size of Spain.

No gazpacho, no El Greco 
No Flamenco and no Bolero
Just row upon row, with nowhere to go
on a Saturday night
Dead all over, nothing to do

Of course Guernica might fit in 
as would certainly, the Inquisition
overseen by some church patrician
staking out his historical place
in God's eyes, of liturgical grace

But who would be then accepting
a place of Conquistadors amors
if all the American continents
couldn't be relied on to be invaded?
There's still the rest of Europe.

But stones and dates of birth and death
as far to horizon as can be seen
would be enough to put anybody off
Pablo Casals and his pals would
flee for less shaded climes
and maybe start again, in Portuguese

Pamplona's bulls unknown to run
would only be cast in marbled stone
above the heads of political deads,
world-famous and anonymous unknowns

So perhaps it's best to strew the gone
over on and around the world beyond
continental lands to north and south
to spread the wealth by word and mouth

We all in time will, without exception
join the breathless dance of sleep
Leave the Iberian Peninsula to  
Basques, the Castilians and Catalans
The lifeless can lie in hinterlands
peering up from past the Pyrenees

© Goode Guy 2013-07-27
© Goode Guy  Create an image from this poem.

Going Home With the One You Came In With

In the pew in front of me,  two gray heads, 
backs bent forward. The woman straightens her jacket 
over the bulge between shoulder blades, a ruby 
rosary resting on the seat beside her. At the Peace, 
they kiss like lovers they once were, but gingerly now, 
practiced at it. Directly behind me someone sings 
with a loud, shrill soprano. Challenging the choir, she 
knows all the words, her confidence unshakable. 
I wonder did I escape observation, discretely 
placing my fingers in my ears.  

At the back of the church, a baby gurgles, 
then escalates into a wail. The priest leaves 
the Holy Grail to quiet a loudspeaker gone viral. 
The baby's allowed.  I'm envious of a sheer 
black dress a young woman wears as if 
she had been born in it. There's no 
Confession today.  I need one. I'm in lust 
over two tall dark-haired guys visiting from 
a nearby high school, their tour bus 
parked prominently in our lot. 

Our pastor (not an Indian priest, a priest 
from India, says he) shares his homily, 
some syllables washed out, his accent strained 
through a colander.  He's Billy Graham 
in liturgical dress, so passionate his preach 
that despite the needy baby, the evidence 
of tenuous youth, the young studs 
just out of reach, he makes me believe 
when my time shall come, I'll go 
Home With The One I Came In With.
© Nola Perez  Create an image from this poem.

On Ash Wednesday

As many Catholics make a trip to church
on this particular day which marks the beginning –
Lent, in its threshold of another liturgical event,
they wear that smudge on their foreheads.

This calls everyone to a conversion journey
it means turning to all who suffer in their lives;
fasting and praying and giving alms to the poor,
form the essence of what Lent really means.
A particular discipline especially in prayer
provides a continuum in God’s focusing;
it’s something that shapes us from within
a constant encounter with His divine presence.

Sackcloth and ashes are signs of repentance,
like those incidents with some prophets
such as Isaiah , Daniel , Joel , Jonah , or Judith 
in their quest for a life worthy of God’s grace.

It’s a season of renewal as baptized Christians,
a reminder of our nature as mortal ones,
our identity that embraces to come to a fuller life
in the life of Christ who gifts us his love.

Described as a community of sinners,
with its strong need of repentance and understanding,
this event of Ash Wednesday that leads us to pray –
in our journey of conversion and transfiguration;
brings us to new life and closeness to Easter celebration.

Premium Member Permacultural Panentheism

I belong to metallic soiled Earth,
solar-fired water's atmosphere;
these oil and blood-fluent elements
would feel freer
not belonging to you,
to us.
They
we
are our belongings
but not our property,
commodity.
 
Our multicultural values
measure and calculate
design and develop
investing primal qualities of time
predicting secondary quantitative spatial outcomes.
Less time constrains freedom and value and love.
More freedom responds to surrounding needs and wants and relationships
with less dissonant restraint,
competitive response;
with more cooperative invitations
for mutual mentoring regenerate options,
our pacific path revealing positive intentions.
 
Missing freedom suffers,
as missing incarnation dissonates,
as absent polynomials disformate.
Incarnation's value grows enculturing time
measured with Earth's elements,
temporal functions,
systems design and development.
Each element
identity
system and set
contains regenerative potentiating value,
functionally forming network constellations
of prime-frequency, flow,
rhythmic relationships,
sustaining balanced harmonies,
an ecological economy
static until its season to unfold again.
Limited value decomposes from ego-systemic mortality.
Regenerate value emerges from eco-logical coincident, co-arising comprehension.
 
Space enacts time's liturgical rite of passage,
as time incarnates space's ambidextrous function
with fractal equivalent information.
Ambivalent eco-normic tipping points
out equi-valent ecological potential,
permacultural regenerate systemic nutrients
for sustaining polycultural maintenance.

We grow adeptly incarnating cooperative economies
as we become allergic to commodifying competition,
win-lose systemic incorporations.
Well-apprenticed permaculturalists,
Taoists,
Buddhists,
Fullerian Synergists,
enthymematic communicators
re-ligious self-with-other integrators,
economic ecological care of Other,
Earth Justice,
perhaps even Universal Intelligent therapeutic care,
evolves yeastfully prime rooted in multisystemic integrity.
 
We reach deeply and widely within remembering
our justice womb of poly-solidarity,
regenerate subsidiarity swimming
remerging toward light's bright flashing flight.
 
We belong to Earth
and feel freer longing with all of us together
in one Earth-bound network cycle.

Marxism For Dummies 8

Marx and Spencer

Were I to tell you what I think of Spencer
(the middle-manager, without the “man”,
and vilest cockroach since the world began),
my poem would incense the meekest censor.

But when our hands in insurrection join,
we arm ourselves to take back what is ours,
red banners streaming from the highest towers,
my first clip’s going straight in Spencer’s groin.

Don’t tell me that we’re going to do it clean,
that revolution’s flawed unless it’s surgical.
Old Shakespeare knew (and why not get liturgical?)
let slip the dogs, you get mujahideen.

Drag Spencer out and bludgeon him to death.
Revenge, and not reform?  I’ve seen Macbeth.

Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra- New Liturgical and Poetic Translation

The following is my poetic/liturgical translation of the Heart Sutra:

The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara,
Whilst in profound Prajna Paramita 
Saw illume the void of the five skandhas 
And prevailed over all pain and peril.

Sariputta, image and void differ not, 
Image is void and void is image,
So too sense and thought,
Conduct and consciousness. 

Sariputta, the manifold dharmas 
Are void and neither arise nor cease,
Are neither defiled nor pure and neither
Swell nor dwindle.

Thus, voidness has no image ; no sense, 
Thought, conduct and consciousness. 
Without eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind ;
Without sight and sound, or scent, taste, 
Feelings of touch, and dharma.
With no realm of vision or realm of awareness,  
Neither dullness nor the end of dullness,
Neither decline and demise
Nor the end of decline and demise.
Devoid of pain, its causes, and need to cease it,
Without wisdom or gain
And with nothing to attain.

Bodhisattvas with Prajna Paramita 
Have easeful hearts free from fear. 
Forfeiting minds of mirage like dreams, 
They achieve ultimate Nibbana. 

The Buddhas that were, are now, and yet to come 
Shall all through Prajna Paramita achieve 
Anuttara- samyak- sambodhi.   

Hence, know that Prajna Paramita
Is the greatly divine mantra,
The most luminous mantra,
The unsurpassed mantra,
And the peerless mantra.
Able to banish all misery;
Forever true and never false!

Thus, proclaim the Prajna Paramita Mantra,   
And chant it so:


Jie dì  jie dì  

bo luó  jie dì  

bo luó seng  jie dì

pú tí  sà pó he

All rights released into public domain, please feel free to share.

Stymied By Moral Transgressions

While the church of today continues to wrestle with prominent issues,
like those of leadership, moral credibility, or fidelity of her members;
society remains critical to address certain weakpoints already at hand,
those seeming endless lawsuits against the clergy and religious members.

Moments in time unfold the wreckage of moral credibility, trust, and confidence;
it’s like a downfall of the human castle formed with the sanctity of wisdom –
continuity in liturgical sacraments, prayer, and reliance on biblical life;
with faith that God is involved in many events both ecclesial and personal.

It’s on a soaring journey where the Jewish concept of bitachon   is needed,
to move on amid the struggles and other evolving deal of human problems;
so inextricable that make one stronger to cope with what life really means,
in this generation where a culture of arguments abounds in moral situations.

It’s sad to think of what’s going on; it’s painful to experience those afflictions,
the church grieves and suffers with all her leaders’ and members’ transgressions;
with the abuse of power, freedom, and prestige of being one of Christ’ ministers,
heaven weeps as evil triumphs to lead those priests into the world of failures.

The turbulent waves of scandals that have wounded the sacred priestly life,
people’s trust and faithfulness to the sacraments of life – a great turmoil!
the whole Catholicism has been shaken and struggled to redeeem her reputation;
her running sore of afflictions – so widespread that only time can heal the wounds.

With the words of Jesus at his farewell discourse in Johannine literature,
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”   It’s reassuring so far;
the Spirit of truth  is Christ himself who’ll walk with his own people of all races,
his covenant with them, promise to his disciples, and assurance to all who believe in him.

The church echoes hope and perseverance in the throes of sufferings and tribulations,
She calls everyone to look for the true light – Christ, in hiddenness and humility;
His epiphany  in a continuing journey of faith, in the gospel cries, in various events,
Christ shines in one’s heart, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit – the Paraclete.

Premium Member Who Are We

First and last, Mom's parasite,
resonantly peaceful tumor
with built in obsolescence.

Then, a moment between exodus 
from symbiotic womb
into Earth's promised Eden,
democratic trees for GoodLife 
and not autocratic EvilDeath.

Then time to exhale again
one last self-regulating 
timeless
fertile eternity,
regenerous nativity.

In between, economically driven politicians
hoping to improve our cooperative tribal improvisations
on Gaia's liturgical soul-dance theme

With occasional speaking parts
after learning deep-listening wholes
on EarthTribe's polycultural
life and death 
light and dark
revolving stage

Reproducing embryonic ego-tumors
with built-in obsolescent peace;
a moment between dancing exodus
and cooperatively sung regenesis.

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