Faith slips - and laughs, and rallies
Emily Dickinson, This World is not Conclusion
Image: Butterfly detail Music: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings
In the experience of beauty we awaken and surrender in the same act. John O'Donohue
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24
Reconciliation
Love, beauty and suffering we are told are the most typical and the strongest means of substantial healing and reconciliation. They mediate some necessary yielding and softening. This is as true for a culture and a nation as it is for an individual.
Unless
Jesus's word 'unless' seems particularly apt. Maybe not all deaths are, or should be, unwelcome. The journey of faith that accompanies such re-formation is surely often turbulent and tricky as well as a source of wonder and awe. Invariably we resist, being of a somewhat contrary disposition.
Guiding the soul
We will aim to look at what witnesses through the years, in story and myth, have said about these agents and the pivotal role they have played in guiding the soul and the migration of faith.
For now...
Faith slips - and laughs, and rallies. Emily Dickinson