Thursday, July 11, 2019

Walk

7.11.19

Sela Ward

Walk
with
Joy
高兴地走着 
Gāoxìng de zǒuzhe
喜びで歩く 
Yorokobi de aruku
ps1
Ambulate in gaudium

Walk with joy.
It's not a ploy.

There is an end for the one who follows a path.
Rambling without purpose is a loss as long as it lasts.

If you look for truth as an exclusion of you       
you will be removed by your search for what's true.              

I meet truthfulness everywhere I walk.       
I am in it to win it, but it speaks when I talk.

If you understand yourself in this way 
you will merge with the way that things play.

This union between the earth and sky
is grounded in love with wings from on high.

Dance and sing with the strength that you may
help us to enjoy the light of the day.

The darkness of the earth is a source for mirth and great girth.
The length of light from the sky lends grace and favor to warm worth.

The earth writes trees upon the sky.
The forest is a poem of power for the stately eye.

The daughters of dawn dance to the end of the world.
They stop to watch as the wind swirls
in the early summer breeze. The weather starts to unfurl
in their veins as wonder for the pleasure of their curls.

Wearing the tiara in the color of hair,
light is reflected for the cause of the fair.

Wisteria grows wild in the field outside the city.
The flower rises with love, sorrow and the beautiful lily.

Standing still in wonder, a brother stands outside the forest shadow
to act as a witness to nature's joy as nature nurtured and hallowed. 

The canopy of forest courses with the air
as a crown that reaches wide above the height of stairs.

Devils Millhopper, Gainesville, FL

The leaves wave as the robust virtue of trees.
The heart of the moment is happily seized.
Thousands of moments wave in the breeze.
Words fail only to describe the majesty of what was seen.

Beauty reveals herself as though she were hidden
by the ordinary form of the forbidden as bitten.

The sons of the summer sun assemble in a different way.
Their assembly is on a court with a level lay. 
A ball is at the center of their play.

The courage of creativity 
gives conscience conscious virility.

The constellation of clouds speak of star dusted constellations
steeped in an indigo gown that conceal or reveal consolation
sequestered over the sea of cultured imagination.

This is a gift from the universe.
The gift gives from his excess to reimburse
loss for the privilege of the privy purse.

The right to vote makes the state a republic. 
Democracy is something the economy must stomach.

Government can't afford to favor the rich or the poor.
Land lies in the distance between shores.

The power to declare war has been used to undermine rights.
The inception of the conception has caused many fights.

Racism is bad. Sexism is as well. 
Sectarian religion promotes strife as an earthly form of hell.

Profit from violence undermines authority more than power. 
Credibility glowers as the force of law sours by the hour. 

When war is declared or enacted without tact
rights are diminished beyond recognition in fact.

Outlaw invasion to preserve the representation of rights. 
The public will be seen as it is, made by billions of lights.

When the death penalty is used for oppression by terror, 
justice is pushed out of the legal system's stately stride for progression in error.

Reduce the death penalty to convictions of murder actually proven.
Protect justice in the legal system to make the state more human and less gruesome.

Counter-terrorism has to deter terrorist acts
to protect security in fact.

Morality has regarded racketeering as illegal.
This view sees law as regal as an eagle.

Plutocracy takes too much from everybody
and gives more to those who use it to lobby.

Rights are the fruit of power. 
Power is the product of labor by the hour. 

We pay for government with our taxes.
We have the right to free trade that waxes
as prosperity for the wealthiest relaxes. 

We have the right to liberty in the law with justice.
The charge for our security cannot bust us.

Happy are those who do not choose
the will to power over others by making them lose.

Happy are those who do not use 
death or damage for profit profuse.

We delight in moral law.
Scientific goodness as defined by needs is raw.
Science leads perception into objective perspective for all.

The crowd tried to touch the healer Jesus Christ.
Power had gone out to heal consequence from sacrifice.

Christ has been raised from the dead.
He is the first fruit for those who by faith have tread.

Personal perspective goes gonzo 
when prejudice drives action with bongos
to follow fake news into discrimination as a motto, 
but happiness rules when objectivity values virtue for the cosmos.

Abstraction with respect for kind leads to generalization.
It is not a claim to the infinite extension of sensation.

An object is not just a line, length, surface or solid. 
The perception is an extension for knowledge.

That which is common is alike in all.
The detection of reflection distinguishes big from small.

Cry out for insight to understand what's odd
to find knowledge with faith in God.

Blue is not green, red, yellow, white or black.
It is a color with a specific word attached.

If you are neither male nor female, free nor slave, one color or another
then you are defined as a kind with respect for difference in others.

A tree planted by the water is blessed.
The roots are by moisture in the soil caressed.

When heat comes, it produces fruit.
After winter has gone, green leaves still shoot.

We are like trees planted by the water.
We bear fruit in due season with our alma mater. 

Our leaves do not wither when nurtured by our kind mother. 
We prosper with achievement in performance for sister and brother.

Wisteria grows wild in the field outside the city.
The flower rises with love, sorrow and the beautiful lily.

Christ has been raised from the dead for us.
He is the first fruit for those who by faith have tread over root and ruts.

Our legacy will not be blown away.
Unlike dust in the wind, we will stay. 
Judgment will have mercy for the merciful day. 

Fortune will favor the mind 
that prepares a place for love in time.

Count the cost for your intent before you start to work
to avoid the ridicule bent to make you feel like a jerk.

Work and study produce efficient practice
for kindness in rank and restraint in the tactics of status. 

The way of the righteous is known to be shown
that wickedness may falter, fall and fail, not grow.

Walk in faith with joy for civility.
Your mobility in ability will increase your utility.      

Walk with confidence in joy.
Bad feelings will be destroyed.                                                                 

joy
喜悦  xiyue
喜び yorokobi

------------------------

1 Beatus vir qui non abiit
Happy are those who have not walked

1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of
the wicked,
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and they meditate on his law day and night.

3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither;
everything they do shall prosper.

4 It is not so with the wicked;
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when
judgment comes,
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked is doomed.

--------------------------
Proverbs 2:3,5

If you cry out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding;
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

--------------------------

Cry out for insight to understand what's odd
to find knowledge with faith in God.

===================
Luke 14:27-29

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Which of you with the intent to build a tower does not first sit down and
estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all
will ridicule him by saying, "This fellow began to build and was not able to
finish."

--------------------------

Count the cost for your intent before you start to work
to avoid the ridicule bent to make you feel like a jerk.

===================

The Call

Benedict of Nursia
b.  c. 3.2.480  Norcia, Umbria, Kingdom of Odacer
d.  c. 3.21.547 Monte Cassino, Kingdom of Ostrogoths.

Benedict of Nursia was the founder of the Benedictine monastic system. He founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, Lazio, Italy. The location is about 40 miles (64 km) to the east of Rome. He moved to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy later.

The Benedictines are not an "order" as commonly understood but merely a confederation of autonomous congregations.

The "Rule of Saint Benedict" was his main achievement. It contains a set of rules for his monks to follow. The rule was heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian. It shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master.

There is also a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness (ἐπιείκεια, epieíkeia). This persuaded most Christian religious communities founded throughout the Middle Ages to adopt it. It was not restricted to Roman Catholicism after the Reformation.

His became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom as a result. Benedict has been regarded as the founder of Western Christian monasticism for this reason.

Nursia

Norcia is traditionally known by the Latin name Nursia. It is a town in northeastern Umbria. It is located in a wide plain abutting the Monti Sibillini.

The monti is a subrange of the Apennines. Some of the highest peaks are near the Sordo River. The river is a small stream that eventually flows into the Nera. The town is associated with the Valnerina, the valley of that river.

The area is known for its air and scenery. People use it to mountaineer, hike and hunt. Wild boar are hunted there.  Sausage and ham are made from wild boar. Such products have been named after Norcia. They are called norcineria in Italian.

The town's known history begins with settlement by the Sabines in the 5th century BCE. The Sabines were a tribe that moved nomadically in the Apennines.  The settlement was conquered by the Romans in the 3d century BCE.

It was an ally of Rome during the Second Punic War in 205 BCE. It was known as Nursia then. The earliest extant Roman ruins date from around the 1st century.

Benedict

Benedict and his twin sister Scholastica were born in Nursia in 480. They were the children of Roman nobles.

The Roman Empire was disintegrating during his youth. The Italian peninsula was the scene of constant war between barbarian tribes.

The young Benedict moved from his birthplace to Rome for his education. He soon abandoned the "eternal city" when he became disgusted with the paganism and immorality he saw there. He abandoned his studies and left Rome in 500.

He does not seem to have left Rome for the purpose of becoming a hermit. He only wanted  to find some place away from the life of the great city. He took his old nurse with him as a servant. They settled down to live in Enfide.

The tradition of Subiaco identifies Enfide with the modern Affile. It is in the Simbruini mountains about forty miles from Rome and two from Subiaco.

A short distance from Enfide is the entrance to a narrow, gloomy valley. The valley penetrates the mountains and leads directly to Subiaco. The path continues to ascend from the entrance. The side of the ravine on which it runs becomes steeper until a cave is reached. The mountain now rises almost perpendicularly.

It strikes in a rapid descent on the right down to where 500 feet (150 m) below, lay the blue waters of the lake. The cave has a large triangular-shaped opening about ten feet deep.

Benedict met a monk on his way from Enfide. Romanus of Subiaco had a monastery on the mountain above the cliff overhanging the cave. Romanus had discussed with Benedict the purpose which had brought him there.

He had given him the monk's habit. Benedict became a hermit and for three years by his advice.  He lived in this cave above the lake unknown to men.

An ancient account of Benedict is found in the second volume of Pope Gregory I's four-book Dialogues (593). The description provides a spiritual portrait of the gentle, disciplined abbot.

Gregory did not set out to write a chronological, historically anchored story of Benedict. He based his anecdotes on direct testimony. Gregory explained that his information came from a handful of Benedict's disciples who lived with the saint and witnessed his various miracles.

Constantinus succeeded Benedict as Abbot of Monte Cassino. Valentinianus and Simplicius bore witness. Honoratus was the abbot of Subiaco when Gregory wrote his Dialogues.

History was not recognized as an independent field of study in Gregory's day. It was a branch of grammar or rhetoric. Historia was defined as 'story.' The story provided a basis for the consideration of reason in experience.

Gregory speaks of Benedict no longer as a youth (puer), but as a man (vir) of God. Romanus served the young man every way he could. The monk apparently visited him frequently. He brought him food on fixed days.

Benedict matured both in mind and character during his three years of solitude. He grew in the knowledge of himself and his fellow man. He secured the respect of those who lived near him.

When the abbot of a monastery in the neighborhood died, the community came to him and begged him to become its abbot. Benedict was acquainted with the life and discipline of the monastery. He knew that their manners were different from his. They would never be able to agree on how to live as a community.

He consented despite his prediction. The experiment failed. The monks tried to poison him. The legend goes that they first tried to poison his drink. He prayed a blessing over the cup and the cup shattered. He forgave them, but left the group. He went back to his cave at Subiaco.

Monks sought him out again. He had established 12 monasteries with 12 monks in each before long.
One of the local clergy, Florentius, was so envious of his reputation that he put poison in a loaf of bread for him. When Benedict prayed to bless the bread a raven swooped down and took it away.

He left Subiaco in about 530 to avoid further temptation. He founded the great Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino. The residence lies on a hilltop between Rome and Naples.

The emperor Justinian I of the Byzantine empire attempted to reclaim land that had been taken by the Ostrogoths from the western Roman empire. This resulted in the Gothic War between 535 and 554 on the Italian penisula and in surrounding areas.

Totila was the king of the Ostrogoths from 541 to 552. He reversed the tide of the Gothic war. He recovered almost all the territories in Italy that the Eastern Roman Empire had captured from his Kingdom in 540 by 543.

Totila's meeting with Benedict of Nursia at Monte Cassino occurred either before or soon after the siege of Naples in (543). Totila had ordered his sword bearer Riggio to dress in royal robes to see if the abbot could tell if he was an imposter. The impersonation was detected.

When Totila met with Benedict he was rebuked for his cruelty towards the conquered. Benedict told the king that it was time for his iniquity to cease. Totila asked Benedict to remember him in his prayers and departed. His cruelty toward conquered people was converted to clemency.

Benedict drew up a rule of life for monastics largely from the work of John Cassian and his own experience. He called it "a school of the Lord's service. " The hope was to order nothing harsh or rigorous.

The Rule gave instruction for how the community was to be organized. It  stressed communal living, physical labor, common meals and the avoidance of unnecessary conversation.

A division of time was drawn. An average day included about 4 hours to be spent in liturgical prayer in the Divine Office, 5 hours in reading and study, 6 hours in labor, 1 hour for eating and about 8 hours for sleep. The Book of Psalms was to be recited every week as a part of the Office.

A Benedictine monk took vows of obedience, stability and conversion of life. He vowed to live in accordance with the Rule, not to leave his community without grave cause and to seek to follow the teaching and example of Christ in all things.

A prospective monk would spend a week at the monastery as a visitor. He could apply to become a postulant. A postulant agreed to stay for 6 months. He could not leave without the consent of the abbot.

The postulant could leave or apply to become a novice for a year. The novice could leave or ask to become a brother for 3 years. The brother could leave, take a vow for another 3 years or take a vow for life as a monastic.

He is believed to have died of a fever at Monte Cassino not long after his sister, Scholastica. He was buried in the same place as his sister. This occurred on 21 March 547 according to tradition. He was named patron protector of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Pope John Paul II declared him co-patron of Europe, together with Saints Cyril and Methodius, 1980.

The chief source of power in Benedict's time was muscle, whether human or animal. Labor could always be done by oxen or slaves. Monks were both scholars and workers. A monk was likely to think, "There must be a better way of doing this" after spending a few hours doing some laborious task by hand.

The result was the systematic development of windmills and water wheels for grinding grain, sawing wood, pumping water, and so on. The rotation of crops (including legumes) and other agricultural advances were also originated or promoted by monastic farms. The monks taught the dignity of labor and the importance of order and planning by example.

An oratory was built so pilgrims could pray at St. Benedict’s birthplace in the 8th century. Monks traveled to Norcia in the 10th century. Contemporary monks care for the Monastery of St. Benedict, built over the Roman ruins of the house of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica.

The effect of the monastic movement was enormous. The preservation of the Holy Scriptures and other ancient writings was due in large measure to the patience and diligence of monastic scribes.
The life of Benedict of Nursia is celebrated on July 11 in the Anglican Communion.

Prayer

Gracious God, whose service is perfected with freedom and in whose commandments there is nothing harsh nor burdensome, grant that we with your servant Benedict may listen with attentive minds, pray with fervent hearts and serve you with willing hands so we may live at peace with one another and in obedience to thy Word, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Benedict Nursia
S. 本尼迪克特·托尼亚
T. 本尼迪克特·托尼亞

本  Ben   source               本  hon      book             Be   べ      ベ             Be  베  the                         
尼  ni       nun                   尼  ni         nun               ne   ね      ネ              ne  네  yeah             
迪  di       enlighten          迪   teki     path              di    でぃ  ディ         dig  딕  Dick         
克  ke      restrain             克   koku   kindly           ku    く       ク           teu   트  the                 
特  te       unique               特  toku    special          to     と       ト           Nu    누  fistula       
托  Tuo    base                  托  taku     entrust         Nu    ぬ     ヌ              si     시   city           
尼   ni       nun                  尼   ni        nun               ru     る      ル            a       아   ah         
亚  ya       second             亞   a          rank             shi     し      シ                   
                                                                                 a        あ     ア             

--------------------------

Work and study produce efficient practice
for kindness in rank and restraint in the tactics of status.

===================

Lectionary Benedict of Nursia
wiki Benedict of Nursia

No comments:

Post a Comment