May

08

VIII or XIII?

Blog

Today — May 8 — is one of two possible dates for commemorating the anniversary of Julian of Norwich’s revelations. They took place on either May 8 or May 13, 1373. We’re not sure which, because the oldest manuscripts contain both dates. Obviously, at one point a scribe mis-copied the date, and of course we have no way of knowing which of the dates was originally recorded in Julian’s own hand.

The error makes more sense when you recall that in the fourteenth century, numbers will still written using Roman numbers; so the conflict is between May VIII and May XIII. Somebody at some point was a little sloppy in making a V look like an X (or vice versa), and then the error crept in — to at least some of the manuscripts.

As far as I’m concerned, all this means is that we may as well honor Julian’s visions on both the 8th and the 13th!

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May

08

Trying to Be Contemplative

Christianity / Mysticism / Spirituality

My dear friend Phil Foster forwarded me this link to a wonderful article by the late Gerald May, called Trying to Be Contemplative. It’s built around one of my favorite Zen sayings, “Quit trying. Quit trying not to try. Quit quitting!” Here’s a taste:

This summer I’ll be going into the desert alone again. I’m sure I’ll want to be contemplative. I hope and pray that I won’t impose my ideas and efforts about contemplation on whatever God has in store for me there. If my eyes seek the beauty of the sky, if my limbs want to move over the land, if my thoughts want to roam, I hope God will save me from the arrogance of calling such things distractions.

Amen!

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May

08

Father Tom, Fran and Me

Family

Here’s a photograph of Fr. Tom Francis, OCSO, with yours truly and Fran. This picture was taken at a reception honoring the lifetime promises of four Lay-Cistercians who made their profession this past April.

Fr. Tom is the author of an interesting booklet on the connection between angels and contemplative prayer, called Angels: Our Guides to Contemplation for the Third Millennium. The photo, incidentally, was taken by Fr. James Behrens, OCSO, author of several books, the most recent being Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

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