“Perhaps the saints became holy because they never made peace with the impossibility of seeing God in this life. Among the poor, or in the midst of hostile or indifferent souls, they went in search of his face, only to return again to the silence of prayer where God once more hid himself. These souls lived as though always on the verge of finding a treasure and never succeeding. Blind and groping, cast back into darkness after refusing every partial vision–this was always preferable to taking comfort in a brilliant shadow.”
–Fr. Donald Haggerty, from Contemplative Provocations
“It is yearning that makes the heart deep.”
–St. Augustine
I had a very intense week-long retreat at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, followed by a very intense day and night in the city.
Now that I’m back I can begin to “process.” And continue to make travel plans for NYC (Aug. 5-13) and Ireland (Sept. 5-30).
I left LA at 4:30 am Monday, stopped in Indio where I’d accidentally left behind my toiletries a week before, gassed up once, booked it, and was back in Tucson by 11:30. After which I spent three hours raking up the mesquite pods and other detritus that had been spread all over the front yard, back yard, and patios by a storm that took place over the weekend.
This week I need to work on a piece on Maria von Trapp for Magnificat and a piece on the solitary bee and other creatures from the animal kingdom who “go their own way.” I have books on the painters Giorgi Morandi and Édouard Vuillard I’m dying to dig into, and am listening to a 24-part series on The Divine Comedy–“Dante in Translation” with Giuseppe Mazzotta (put out by Yale Courses–check it out!) on YouTube.
But mostly I’m proof-reading and line-editing the “galleys” for my next (self-published) book: CONSUMED; The Joys, Sufferings and Débacles of a Life Ordered to Art.
Sufferings is right.
Leave a Reply