A series of poems on love would not be complete without Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 116. The sonnet appeared in Emma Thompson’s screenplay for the film of Sense and Sensibility, and is memorably quoted by Kate Winslet, who played romantic Marianne. Perhaps you would like to watch this delightful Jane Austin movie and quote the sonnet to your love this Valentine’s Day.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Today’s love poem The Good Morrow is from one of the greats of English literature, John Donne. (1572 – 1631) Amazingly this was probably his earliest poem. It weaves sensual and spiritual love together from the point of view of an awakening lover, while also making use of Biblical references.
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
by Christine Sine
A “true” or “canonical” icon is most often said to be “written,” for it is indeed theology written in the language of colour and form. Every line and each choice of colour, dispositions and relationships of persons, proportions and perspectives all have their deep and specific meaning in a true icon.
An icon is not merely an art object. It is not intended to be like a stained glass window, a so-called “bible of the poor,” nor is it merely for beholding. Rather, the icon is like a transparent window that is meant to be looked through. It is like a door one leaves behind as one crosses the threshold into another dimension of reality.(What is an Icon)
Theology written in the language of colour and form. I have always thought of theology as written or spoken words, but last week I attended an icon workshop and a whole new world opened to me. It was my first opportunity to write an icon and I found it to be both fascinating and frustrating.
icon template
We started by tracing an outline of the image on a white board and then added black shadows in the places that would later be dark in colour. Unfortunately my board would not absorb the colour and I soon ended up with black beads all across my board. Undeterred the iconographer, Peter Pearson, applied a yellow wash. Again my board reacted in a strange way — my wash made it look as though Mary and Jesus had measles. “It doesn’t matter.” Peter kept saying, the layers and highlights will cover it. I thought he was just trying to placate me.
icon with measles
Seek to become an instrument through which God can create something wonderful. For this to happen, you may have to suspend judgements, letting go of your need to create the best icon the world has ever seen. While you’re at it, let go the fear of creating something ghastly.” (Peter Pearson, A Brush With God xiii)
Suspend judgement, let go of the need to create the best icon ever – yep those were definitely words I needed to hear.
Then we applied our base colours and not only the mottling but the whole image seemed to disappear. “How will I ever get this to look the way it should?” I wondered.
What happened to the faces?
But Peter was right. As we added highlights, sometimes blocks of lighter color, sometimes just lines, the true image popped into being. It was amazing, a prayerful and profound experience.
Adding highlights
One thing I realized as I looked at my finished icon was that I was very aware of the imperfections — brushstrokes in the wrong places, messy paint, and some of the blemishes still visible, but the further away I got the better the image appeared and what others saw was a beautiful and they thought, professionally done image.
The finished icon
When I got home I ordered Peter’s books A Brush With God, and praying with my icon and reading the book has profoundly impacted me. Over the week I have spent much time reflecting on my image and the lessons it has and continues to teach me.
I am not Blemished beyond Redemption
How often I have felt like that board with the yellow wash – diseased and ugly without any hope of redemption and God says “It doesn’t matter, you are a work in progress, my colours, my highlights, will cover all your blemishes.” I didn’t believe it at the time but God has covered a lot of what I considered ugly with divine “paint” – layers of love and care that cover all my blemishes.
There Are Times When I Need to “Disappear”
There are times in my life that God has layered so much love over me that not only the blemishes but the whole image of who I was seemed to disappear. All I can see is a faint outline of the true image of whom God intends me to be.
God’s Highlights Make The Image Pop
As God adds highlights to my image, the divine image hidden within appears and the richness, the beauty and the wonder of God’s image within me is revealed.
There are other important lessons I learned from writing my icon
Icons Portray Community Tradition Not Individualism
There are proscribed ways to write an icon. Colours with meaning, shapes with a purpose. All of this to portray an image that is true to the community tradition, the cultural reality rather than my individual perception and imagination.
“We are not licensed to create images of Christ the Theotokos, the angels or the saints according to our private imaginations. Leave your ego at the door” (A Brush With God. )
Blessing the icons at church
Icons are a Form of Prayer
Icons – real icons — emerge as the fruit of a life of prayer and invite others into an encounter with God through prayer. (A Brush With God xiii)
Peter suggested that we pray with each brush stroke, allowing the rhythm of our brush to flow to the rhythm of God’s words emerging from within us. This week, all my prayers seem to emerge as a brush stroke adding to the divine image not only within me but within all I interact with.
My icon now sits on my desk as an inspiration for further refection and contemplation. I am not sure that I always look through it to the revelation of God it can inspire in me. It is still too easy for me to be caught in the imperfections of what I have created, but that in itself is a revelation. As I am able to let go of myself flashes of inspiration and at times breathtaking revelation seem to happen.
How often am I caught up in my own imperfections which hide the doorways through which God wants to reveal more of the divine image and the holy way of life intended for me? Perhaps that is a question that all of us should reflect on.
For those who are unversed in the art of iconography Windows to Heaven: Introducing Icons to Protestants and Catholics is a great place to start.
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What would it look like to fall in love with God for Valentine’s Day? Here is a great prayer/poem to read and reflect on.
Recognizing the depth of God’s love as it is expressed in the story of Jesus, falling in love with this God whose love has not limits, really does change everything in a way that is totally transformative of our lives.
The prayer is attributed to Father Pedro Arrupe (1903- 1991) from the Basque region of Spain who became the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. I was first given this prayer on a card several years ago but have recently also come across it on Ignatian Spirituality.com
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is,
than falling in love in a quite absolute final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekend,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love,
stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
As Valentine’s Day approaches I find myself thinking a lot about the real meaning of love. I feel this poem by Mary Oliver is a great one to reflect on at this season
Of Love
I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord.
Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not.
Sometimes it was all but ephemeral,
maybe only an afternoon,
but not less real for that.’
They stay in my mind,
these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me,
of which there are so many.
You and you and you,
whom I have the fortune to meet,
or maybe missed.
Love, love, love, it was the core of my life,
from which of course comes the word for the heart.
And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women’
and some – now carry my revelation with you –
were trees.
Or places.
Or music flying above the names of their makers.
Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best,
the most loyal for certain,’
who looked so faithfully into my eyes, every morning.
So I imagine such love of the world –
its fervency, its shining,
its innocence and anger to give of itself
I imagine this is how it began.
In her newest book of poems Heart Psalms: Songs of the Heart, which I am thoroughly enjoying reading at the moment as part of my morning meditations, Ana Lisa De Jong says:
Poetry is an expression of the heart’s journey. For the spiritual writer writing regularly means there is a record kept, an account made, a collation created of the ‘songs’ of the heart, the ‘breathings’ of the spirit and the ‘yearnings’ of the soul over a period of time. An account which testifies to the joys and struggles, faith and doubt filled moments of daily life and an awareness of God’s presence, made even more tangible and real, by the record that has been kept of it.
Within that record, for the spiritual writer, there are also the ‘songs’ of God’s heart that he sings over us. Threads of gold weaved through the pattern of the days, laid out in words, meanings to be discerned and understood as we attempt to unwrap what has been given.
Beyond that, there is also the awareness that sometimes we hold the privilege of tapping into a common song, whether of lament or hope, or joyful praise. And still again. on those occasions that we compose the words right, God may even seek to use our pen , as an instrument to communicate to the hearts of his creation, with a message from his own.
Ana Lisa’s poetry in Heart Psalms: Songs of the Heart, is rich, beautiful and worthy of our time and reflection. I love the way that she illustrates this book with her own photos of New Zealand. They too are worthy of meditation and reflection. I hope that you enjoy this book as I am sure it will nourish your soul.
As well as this, Ana Lisa has made her book Poems for Loss available as a free download from the Godspace store.
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate we receive a small amount for purchases you make through the links above. Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
By Steve Wickham —
Any parent who loses a baby wants to believe their baby is safe in heaven.
When we received the news that broke us in July 2014, that our baby in utero (22 weeks) would not
survive, we were devastated. I was a pastor in a largish community and an avid blogger. We knew
there would be many people interested in what was happening to us, yet how do we deal with the
awkwardness of loss? I chose to communicate our vulnerability and wrote blog articles for four
months before Nathanael ultimately passed away, then for another eight months after his funeral.
The expression of our grief not only helped Sarah and I reconcile our ambiguous loss, but I think it
made it easier for others to approach us, and there is no doubt that Nathanael’s life had a significant
impact at the time… and has since.
Our Memoir of the life of Nathanael Marcus emerges out of what we discovered in our grief. We only
had 179 hours with Nathanael before his funeral, but this book, and making the most of his physical
presence with us at that time, along with the other mementos we’ve gathered along the way, have
helped us make sense of our loss. It is our story. And we want our story to count for others, too.
We pray the book will be an encouragement to people who have grieved or are enduring loss and
hope it will provide insight for anyone who reads it. It could be something you buy for someone else,
or to keep on the shelf for a future time. Or, it could simply be part of your learning journey to
understand a little about how we grieved. The book is only part of our vision to support families. We
have a pastoral heart and want to draw near to those who are suffering, to listen and be present.
Funds raised from the sale of Nathanael’s Memoir go to the Pallister-Killian Syndrome Foundation of
Australia (PKSFA), which is what Nathanael had, and to Heartfelt, who generously supply professional
photographers free of charge to come and take family photos which become invaluable mementos.
You can also hear an interview from Steve and Sarah, here.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
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