{"id":1442,"date":"2015-08-26T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:21","slug":"1442","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/08\/26\/1442\/","title":{"rendered":"Aug 26 – Freshmen Move-in Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday August 26 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u201cthe soul laughs . . . “<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not difficult to hear brutally contentious and contemptuous language flung about in the world\u2019s various public forums. \u00a0At the moment, too, it\u2019s hard to avoid other signs of distemper and anxiety, like this week’s stock market plunge and the uncompromising positions playing out in the US Congress. \u00a0Hard times incline people to choose words that trend gloomy, anxious, bitter, cynical, hostile. \u00a0In hard times it can be a stretch to imagine words that are patient, kind, playful, tender, mutual and brave.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, freshman move-in day on campus stirred in me an alternative energy to Hard Times’ Blues. \u00a0It\u2019s like the buildings on campus are waking up from the dreamy days of summer, when there was more time to do untended maintenance and long term planning, and sitting on the beach dreaming of a soft pace to life, dreaming of the loves of our lives.<\/p>\n

Suddenly: \u00a0 \u00a0wham! . . . energy! \u00a0. . . curiosity! \u00a0 . . . \u00a0 playfulness! \u00a0 Students everywhere!\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0But just because the freshmen students are mostly late teenagers does not still mean that they, too, must work at finding a balance between gloom and delight.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post from 14th century Europe takes all this energy and fear and ambiguity and hope head on.<\/p>\n

Best to read it out loud, with pauses. \u00a0 Maybe try dancing it.<\/p>\n

Happy new year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Indeed I say, the soul will bring forth Person
\nif God laughs to her and she laughs back to him.
\nTo speak in parable, the Father laughs to the Son
\nand the Son laughs back to the Father;<\/p>\n

And this laughter begets liking,
\nand liking begets joy, and joy begets love,
\nand love begets Person,
\nand Person begets the Holy Spirit.”<\/p>\n

{attributed to Meister Eckhart}<\/p>\n

Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican, theologian, philosopher and mystic, was known along with his writings for sermons addressed to ordinary people as well as to \u00a0women and men\u00a0more more visibly engaged\u00a0in Church life. \u00a0 Eckhart died just twenty years before the peak of the European pandemic known as “The Black Death” which killed 30% to 60% of Europe’s people. \u00a0One might be inclined to see his intuition about the identity of God as embodied in laughter and affection as an antidote before the fact for the terrified and violent fears that convulsed \u00a0Europe in the mid-14th century \u00a0as the living worked to bury some 100 to 200 million of those who died around them. \u00a0A grim time badly in need of a rebirth for Europe’s sense of humor and \u00a0playfulness.<\/p>\n

Eckhart von Hochheim<\/strong>\u00a0O.P.<\/a>\u00a0(c. 1260 \u2013 c. 1328[1]<\/a><\/sup>), commonly known as\u00a0Meister Eckhart<\/strong>\u00a0[\u02c8ma\u026a\u032fst\u0250 \u02c8\u025bk\u02b0a\u0280t], was a German\u00a0theologian<\/a>,\u00a0philosopher<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0mystic<\/a>, born near\u00a0Gotha<\/a>, in the\u00a0Landgraviate of Thuringia<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Holy Roman Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Eckhart\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday August 26 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u201cthe soul laughs . . . “ It\u2019s not difficult to hear brutally contentious and contemptuous language flung about in the world\u2019s various public forums. \u00a0At the moment, too, it\u2019s hard to avoid other signs … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1448,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions\/1448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}