Lunchtime in a London Café

love this from michael o'saidhail

Table by table the café fills
till talk and the clap of plates
bulge with well-being; a dark
waitress's patchwork skirt
hurries behind the counter;
every face under the sun peers
at the window menu, more
voices join the steamy pentecost.

Here in the metropolis nothing
shocks. Out of its huge anonymity
worlds of strange gossip crowd
this lunch-time café. And I'm in love
with its mystery, the peculiar rapture
of life à la carte. The window mists;
after wine, the Basque in the corner
turns his smokey eyes on the waitress.

Outside the door, the buses shriek,
rush and judder; a city's jamboree,
hope and haphazard, limitless
chances, choices wait. Sitting
here I know I've felt the throb
of Jerusalem or Rome or any city
yet to come, where there's a café
and we, citizens all, break bread.

Community Life

Some more thoughts on the nature of community from Zizioulas...

'Ecclesial being is bound to the very being of God. From the fact that a human being is a member of the Church, he becomes an "image of God", he exists as God Himself as exists, he takes on God's way of 'being'. This way of being is not moral attainment, something that man accomplishes. It is a way of relationship with the world, with other people and with God, an event of communion, and that is why it cannot be realized as the achievement of an individual, but only as an ecclesial fact.'


His basic argument goes.

1) Ancient greek ontology was monistic - that is the being of the world and the being of God were inseperable, an unbreakable unity. So the world becomes an emanation from God.

2) Biblical faith proclaimed that God was absolutely free in relation to the world, that is there was a time when the world was not.  Therefore there was no ready made ontology which could accomadate biblical faith - neither gnostic nor classical greek. He argues that the creation of such an ontology was a genuinely novel and crucial contribution of patristic thought.

3) Through the pastoral, rather than academic, experience, the Fathers came to see God as a relational being. God is God is a tautology. It is meaningless to talk about God before speaking of God as communion.

4) However, just as substance does not exist by itself, neither does communion exist. IT IS THE PRODUCT OF A PERSON. So the personhood of the Father is responsible for the creative event of communion which gives life to the trinity.

Communion is an ontological category that arises from the free choice of the person.

5) The real horror of human existence is that we are ultimately not free. Even if we could free ourselves from every external constraint, we will never be able to overcome the basic biological fact of existence that we ourselves did not initiate. therefore camus was right - the only philosophical question is suicide.

more later....

Blogged with the Flock Browser

on greenwich's fair banks, next to mistress thames,
beyond the green of meridian lines and the stones of trafalgar,
sits a man, digesting kingly thoughts. crumpled
and sideways alooking, berret jaunting.
he melds with colannades and is steepled in velvet,
smoked in caverns of jazz and quiet deserted dawns,
are you art? do you dissolve into rhapsodies of despair,
and wallow dirty in indulgency's angst.
i wonder are you happy or mute?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

little liturgical thoughts

getting into liturgy. what a priveledge to articulate a communities' faith.  here is a communion prayer i prayed last sunday. first steps. need to learn.

Holy God, we come to this table as Easter people,
Tempted to tell only our stories of triumph of victory,
To muffle our cries and botox our worry
Tempted to move too quickly, impatient for gratification.

Holy God, we come to the table scarred from the world,
Bringing some vague awareness that all is not well.
Bringing some distant memory that the costly cross looms in the distance

Holy God we come to the this table offering all of ourselves,
Our loneliness, our failing bodies, our joys and hopes,
Our worries, our frustrations.
Knowing that nothing stands beyond the pale of your presence
Nothing beyond the power of your Spirit to recreate.

Holy God, meet us in the this meal
Bread of life feed us with the hope of resurrection
tears dried and warfare ceased.
Bless all who gather around this table,
That our eyes may be opened to see the Risen Christ in our midst, in each other.

Blogged with Flock