Sunday Morning

~ Live & Learn

You are the doubter and the doubt,
worshipping a book you can’t read.

The awful quiet in your heart
is not the peace you were promised,

not the trembling hush before a revelation,
not a prelude to an earthquake,

not God’s silence, but his breathlessness.

~ Traci Brimhall, from “Gnostic Fugue,”  from Our Lady of the Ruins

 

Photo: Noell Oszvald.  Post inspired by quote from Mindfulbalance: “In our own lives the voice of God speaks slowly, a syllable at a time. Reaching the peak of years, dispelling some of our intimate illusions and learning how to spell the meaning of life-experiences backwards, some of us discover how the scattered syllables form a single phrase.” ~ Rabbi Joshua Herschel, Between God and Man.

 

24 thoughts on “Sunday Morning”

    1. Carrie, thank you. You pointed out the line that I was struggling to understand. How do you interpret what the Poet intended to mean by “worshipping a book you cannot read”?

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          1. My instant response was that it’s hard to make sense of…. I consider the Bible an esoteric and metaphoric book so I come to it differently than most.

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      2. David, is it not true that poets have a way of tipping us sideways. I mentioned being an Episcopal priest as I was highlighting the line. That first stanza speaks to a truth in my life. Like the Church of England, we use the Book of Common Prayer. A book so easily worshipped. In the rhythm of prayer do we always understand what we are doing? Is it not true, for most of us doubt rises much quicker than the calm of truth?

        Sometimes the repetition is what’s important.

        I also read Rabbi Herschel’s quote in Mindfulbalance. Brimhall’s quote was perfect!

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