Dwelling with Wisdom

Monday, July 17, 2017

I am continuing my slow, contemplative reading of Rilke’s “Book of Hours: love poems to God.” The translators of the edition I am using are Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, and their work has a contemplative dimension itself and sometimes it seems to me that the beauty of their prayerful thought goes even beyond the poetry that Rilke has written. 

The poems are not long, yet it takes me more than a day or two to experience each of these works of art. I reflected on three little sections of the poetry, and I am going to continue doing the same this week. If you want to review the earlier reflections, go to my timeline on Facebook or to my blog at spiritualityforbeginners.blogspot.com.

Today’s gift is from the same poem I quoted on Friday:

In the softness of evening it is you she receives.

Who is this “she?” Is it lady wisdom, or Father-Mother God, or is it perhaps the individual soul---your soul, since in so much contemplative literature the soul is depicted as feminine, and the contemplative marriage is the union of God (male) and the soul (female). And I might even go so far as to suggest that “she” is the Blessed Mother. At any rate, over the next four days, I will comment on the quoted line with reference to all four understandings of who “she” is. Nonetheless, I must also confess that my own musings are taking me far beyond the words of the poem—but isn’t that what great poetry is supposed to do—to invite us to move even more profoundly into the mystery of life?

For today: “She” is lady wisdom. On a peaceful, solitary, reflective evening—the time shortly after the sunset—she takes you to herself, and when we spend time resting in that evening, she whispers to your soul and your being becomes more perceptive, more enlightened, more compassionate. As you emerge from the contemplative time, you become more sensitive—especially to the pain that others carry around with them, and you begin to learn to love even those you previously judged or found hard to even like.

King Solomon speaks of Wisdom:

Within my dwelling, I should take my repose beside her;

For association with her involves no bitterness

and living with her no grief,

but rather joy and gladness. (Wisdom 8:16)

And in today’s Gospel passage (Matthew 10:34-11:1), Jesus promises that “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” When read those words in light of my reflection today, I was given a new way of understanding them. When we dwell with Wisdom, when we are open to her teachings we also suffer a loss. Wisdom gently corrects our usual way of thinking, and that way must be lost so that we can begin to live with a new mind-set and perception.

Finally, I certainly encourage you to take the words above and use them as a springboard to your own meditation and contemplation.

God bless you!