Are you familiar with songlines? Songlines are a part of the aboriginal life. The aborigines tell a creation story in which creation ancestors wandered the continent singing out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, caves, desert brush, waterholes - thereby singing the world and all creation into existence. It’s akin to Adam naming the animals (Genesis 2:19-20). The paths their ancestors charted are called songlines. In every life there is a songline waiting to be sung. We all have one. We may each sing in different keys and use verses particular to our lives but it is the same song. It is the primordial melody of God carrying God’s eternal Word for each of our lives.
Tag: Monasticism
Deliver Me From The Hand Of My Brother – A Sermon On Genesis 32:3-31
We all have an Esau. Individuals, communities, parishes, religious orders, nations, you, and me - we all have an Esau. I am not talking about a literal Esau but a symbolic and metaphorical Esau. That does not mean, however, that Esau is not real. He is absolutely real. Esau is the face of our past guilts and regrets. Esau is the temptation to believe that we are not enough and we need to be someone or something else. Esau is our fear of the future. Esau is the one with whom we wrestle in the depths of our soul to discover our true name and identity, and to find the blessing that is uniquely ours.
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Episcopal Monastics, the Order of St. Helena
“There has never been a renewal of church life in western Christianity without a renewal of prayer and Religious Communities, in some form or another, often different.” - Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, 7/5/13 In some ways the monastic has always stood…
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Extreme Pilgrim – A Journey to St. Anthony’s Monastery
The following video (about an hour) is a BBC production documenting the journey of Father Peter Owen-Jones, an Anglican priest, to the monastery of St. Anthony in the Egyptian desert. Father Peter is going to the desert where “there’s no…
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The Seven Rules of a Monk
These are the seven rules of a monk: In the first place, as scripture says, “Love God with all your soul and all your mind.” Then, love your fellow human beings as you love yourself. Fast from all evil. Never…
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Feast of St. Antony
Abba Antony said: "I saw the snares of the enemy spread out over the world and I sighed wondering who could ever escape such snares. Then I heard a voice, saying to me: 'Humility.'" Today is the Feast of St.…
Interrupting the Silence 