CowPi Journal

Homesick

· Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 1 am · Saint Margaret of Hungary, pray for us

Do you still get homesick?
Do you dare let yourself feel that ache,
That deep emptiness of longing, a hole of nothingness?
Or do you cover it up,
With half promises, with misdirected hopes, with distractions?
Do you still long for wholeness,
Completeness, oneness, with another?
Do you still hunger?
Do you still long for God, for heaven, for home?

Live as a Contingent Being

· Thursday, 7 Jan 2010, 7 pm · Saint Raymond of Penafort, pray for us

“Live as a contingent being” — caught this phrase from a post by Fr. Stephen. Interesting.

con•tin•gent |kən’tinjənt|
adjective
1 subject to chance : the contingent nature of the job. See note at accidental.
• (of losses, liabilities, etc.) that can be anticipated to arise if a particular event occurs : businesses need to be aware of their liabilities, both actual and contingent.
• PHILOSOPHY true by virtue of the way things in fact are and not by logical necessity : that men are living creatures is a contingent fact.
2 (contingent on/upon) occurring or existing only if (certain other circumstances) are the case; dependent on : resolution of the conflict was contingent on the signing of a cease-fire agreement.

noun
a group of people united by some common feature, forming part of a larger group : a contingent of Japanese businessmen attending a conference.
• a body of troops or police sent to join a larger force in an operation : a contingent of 2,000 marines.

DERIVATIVES
con•ting•ent•ly adverb

ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [of uncertain occurrence] ): from Latin contingere ‘befall,’ from con- ‘together with’ + tangere ‘to touch.’ The noun sense was originally [something happening by chance,] then [a person’s share resulting from a division, a quota] ; the current sense dates from the early 18th cent.

Image and Likeness

· Saturday, 5 Dec 2009, 3 am · Saint Gerald, pray for us

Is “image and likeness” a redundant phrase, or does it mark a distinction? Arguably the latter. To be created in God’s image is to be granted the potentiality for sharing in the divine life, a potentiality that may or may not be actualized and is shared in equally by all human beings without their consent. Likeness, however, results from man’s free actualization of that potentiality. Whereas the image of God is imposed on man, likeness to God is not, but requires the free cooperation of the creature.

— Bill Vallicella (via)

Passion Play

· Sunday, 22 Nov 2009, 1 am · Saint Cecilia, pray for us

Accidentally and pleasantly discovered this song by William Fitzsimmons called “Passion Play.” (listen)

I should not have hid
Where my heart can’t follow
Cause this grace gets so far
And too hard to swallow
I’ve been running from Saul,
He’s been giving chase
When I look in his eyes
All I see is his face

Are you still on my back
After all these years?
Chasing my out of hell
And my nice veneers
I don’t know how you stand
When you’ve got no floor
Or how you can breathe
With your hands on boards

I just want to be not what I am today
I just want to be better than my friends might say
I just want a small part in your passion play

Do you hear when I call
    In the midst of wrong?
Do you hear these here words
    While I sing this song?

Are you caught up in me
Like I heard you say?
Or just some big cashier
That I’ll have to pay

I just want to be not what I am today
I just want to be better than my friends might say
I just want a small part in your passion play

— William Fitzsimmons

When someone deeply listens to you…

· Friday, 20 Nov 2009, 10 pm · Saint Edmund the Martyr, pray for us

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you,
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!
When someone deeply listens to you,
your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

— John Fox, from Finding What You Didn’t Lose (via)

We Plead with Time to Change the Rules…

· Sunday, 11 Oct 2009, 9 am · Saint Bruno the Great of Cologne, pray for us

In the fallout now
It’s hard to feel like we can turn around
With the damage done
It’s hard to see how far we’ve come
We could not be proud
Of where our feet have walked along the ground
In the silence now
We play it back and forwards again

There’s a sound in our guiltiness
It’s a warning bell that rings
It’s a call to our loneliness
And we can’t see

We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the rules
It’s like a hurricane is coming our way
We’ve all been warned but we still chose to stay

I can’t believe it now the time has come

Play the victim here
You know it’s nothing but your pride and fear
But the more you hurt
The more you love the one you were

There’s a sound in our guiltiness
It’s a warning bell that rings
It’s a call to our loneliness
And we can’t see

We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the rules
It’s like a hurricane is coming our way
We’ve all been warned but we still chose to stay

I can’t believe it now the time has come

In the light of the morning
Can we change what we felt and heard
Can we turn it into the glory
Break the paths of our fathers before us
Though we stand on the outside
We will find what we once believed
And will crawl our way to the clear skies
Standing up we are
Standing up we are

We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the rules
It’s like a hurricane is coming our way
We’ve all been warned but we still chose to stay

I can’t believe it now the time has come

— “Hurricane” by Needtobreathe (sound clip)

Assurance

· Sunday, 27 Sep 2009, 3 pm · Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or in the silence after lightning before it says
its names - and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles - you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head—
that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.

— William Stafford