Mess-Bless (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 20, feast day of Our Lady of Bolougne, of (above) Blessed Julia Rodzinska, Saint Mildred of  Thanet, and Saint Amata of Assisi. Image from here.)

Mess-Bless

mess (n.)

…from Late Latin missus 'course at dinner'...

--etymonline

The opposite of holiness: messiness. Least that's what I'd learn, "Don't be so messy!", it would resound (does still). My preschool art supplies they'd wind their way all round our home. With mess being actually, originally: a placing, putting on the table. It's pumpkin soup today, a rose accompanies.

Rose Fairy brandishes her stop sign —

                                                   traffic slows...

turns corner to today's beautiful mess.

*From prompt: After listening to Rainier Maria Rilke's Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to Go, and quote from  Ilia Delio, in Franciscan Prayer (“Spiritual desire is the experience of God’s presence in us or it may be the absence of God as well, since a feeling of absence may stimulate a yearning for God. It is the experience of delightful love and fearful emptiness”), freewrite about a seeming opposite/polarity in yourself. From Jamie Deerings's Spiritual Writing as a Pathway to Presence (Priory of Saint Placid, WA), February 19, 2022.

Key-song (WC)

  

(Wendy Cabell, February 10, feast day of Our Lady of the Doves, of (above) Saint Scholastica, Saint Austrebertha of Pavilly, and Blessed Clare Agolanti of Romini. Image from here.)

Key-song

(adapted quote from The Prologue, Homily of January 26

Saint Nikolai Velimirovic; used here as a chant)

Behold, I besought thee, and thou wouldest not hear; 

I besought my God, and He hath heard me.

–from the life of Saint Scholastica, here

From the glance

      of the Holy One,

        chains

                   fall,

Yes even from 

        the thoughts

           of the Holy One,

              chains  

                

fall…

*From prompt: Create one’s own chant as inspired by a quote or verse that are drawn to. An exercise from Paulette Meier’s Chanting Together as a Spiritual Practice (through The Hive) , a course given the Tuesdays of January 18-Febuary 8. 2022.

Mediatrix (WC)

  

(Wendy Cabell, Febuary 8, 2022, feast day of (above) Our Lady of the Lilies, Saint Josephine Bakhita, Saint Elfleda, Saint Kewe, Prophet Zachariah, Saint Sava ll. The Jewish calendar today commemorates Prophet and Lawgiver Moses, whose birthday and passing date are 7 Adar. Image from here.)

Mediatrix

A title of the Blessed Virgin

as mediator of grace.-- CatholicCulture.org

When in Mother’s arms, softened gaze

She changes everything.

She changes everything She touches

and everything She touches changes

till diverge, emerge -- so much simpler than before.

Not yet knowing what’s to be done. But

begun.

*The above “She changes… touches changes” from pg 107 of Circle of Song by Kate Marks, being the chorus from Lauren Liebling and Starhawk’s Kore Chant. There are traditions in both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox supporting pagan faith/philosophy as anticipating Christianity, eg here (note The Sybil of Erythraea top upper left). It's not hard to imagine the anticipation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in chants such as the one quoted.  

**From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by something in the etymology of mistake (I chose divergent). From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite, February 8, 2022.

Home Maintenance (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 1, 2022, Feast day of the (above) Weeping Icon of the Mother of God of Socola, Forefeast of the Meeting of Our Lord, Eve of Imbolc, Eve of World Day for Consecrated Life, Chinese New Year, Rosh Chodesh (new moon) of Adar, Saint Brigid’s Day, and feast day of  Saint Brigid of Fiesole, Saint Veridiana, Saint Perpetua,, and Blessed Anna Michelotti. Image from here.)

Home Maintenance

I’d make Heaven a cheerful spot

because the happy heart is true.

–Saint Brigid of Kildare, here

Behind the door, a cat.

Beside the cat, a bowl 

ever full yet ever giving–-

of sustenance, delight.

The cat mayhap the I.

The bowl mayhap the Heart.

*From prompt: Write as inspired by the life and miracles of Saint Brigid. From Kayleen Asbo’s Feasts of Light and Water, February 1, 2022. 

Beyond the Bright (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 1, 2022, Forefeast of the Meeting of Our Lord, Eve of Imbolc, Eve of World Day for Consecrated Life, Chinese New Year, Rosh Chodesh (new moon) of Adar, Saint Brigid’s Day, and feast day of  Saint Brigid of Fiesole, Saint Veridiana, Saint Perpetua,, and Blessed Anna Michelotti. Image from here.)

Beyond the Bright

(you know it hurts my eyes)

a softer light it is, ushers daily pilgrimage –-

trusty guide. Painting glow upon words unspoken

(you know the ears catch them anyway)

over what the hands love to brush against,

light touch. Over (or is it longing for?)

such empty, empty space, weaving vessel

for the filling on the morrow.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Mary Jo Bang's February Elegy. From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, February 1, 2022.