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Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.  -Luke 15:6

 

Seeker,

Who looks out for you? Who are you looking after?

 

We need not

search too hard for

the Source of All Being,

 

for the Holy One

relentlessly

seeks us out.

 

This is the surprise of salvation—

that we are healed, held,

and brought back together,

 

by a persistent, ever-patient Presence,

unperturbed by waywardness,

who forever looks us up and tenaciously tracks us down.

 

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
 -Psalm 139:7

 

 

For a time, we might cast our measured moments

into the chasm of mass distraction,

thinking we are untouchable.

 

For a while we might let our souls be held captive

by the shadow-play of plasma screens,

or gorge on sound-bite reactions to life’s tragic wonder.

 

But, in due time, even here,

joy can unseat us, mystery unsettle us

forgiveness up-end us.

 

The meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond the span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, a generation, or an era. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.   -Abraham Heschel

 

Every seeker understands

what it means to be found and found out;

sought, caught and caught out by life.

 

Those on a quest

are content to be enticed into the dark

by penetrating questions.

 

And the lonely soul

finally finds home

by welcoming others.

 

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.   -Matthew 10:40

 

When we allow ourselves to be found,

we become seeker;

a beacon in the densest night.

 

We cease pursuing that “Other”

when finally we are caught up

in the hurt or hope of a sister or brother.

 

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms, 

But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.

–Francis Thompson

 

New-found by forgiveness,

the hungers of the sorely afflicted lead us out,

unshackled from spiritual self-seeking.

 

Now free to feel

with families horrified at murderous sons,

fevered by the sickness of war,

 

and free to follow those fearful in flight

risking desert and stormy sea-crossing

to escape disaster and death.

 

Forgiving brings us to our knees,

not to beg but to revere,

to stop and let ourselves be found, without the trace of shame or fear.

 

Holiness is no longer hidden, except in plainest sight.

Joy cries out to rouse us,

and hope hangs on every smile.

 

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts, where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are.  If only we could see each other that way all the time. – Thomas Merton

 

Where, with whom are you most likely to be found and found out?

joe

 

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