{"id":965,"date":"2014-12-01T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=965"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:01","slug":"dec-2-an-advent-angel-bill-pauly-sj-november-29-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/12\/01\/dec-2-an-advent-angel-bill-pauly-sj-november-29-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Dec 2 — An Advent angel — Bill Pauly sj (+ November 29. 2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday December 2 \u00a0“imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty”<\/p>\n

The Advent Season began yesterday. \u00a0Readers from last year may remember that these 3+ weeks leading to the Christmas feast run deep in me. \u00a0Since late childhood I\u2019ve kept a precious family gift on a shelf in my room, a Hummel titled\u00a0\u201cAdvent Angel.\u201d The angel shields a candle flame that gutters in the wind, taking care for Advent\u2019s privileged time of stillness and inner attention. \u00a0 \u00a0Each year, I take the angel off its shelf and put it in the center of my room\u2019s prayer space. \u00a0This angel shows some wear from a half-century of living where I live; a few decades ago I broke off the tip of one wing. \u00a0Close inspection shows a pretty good glue job, certainly enough to take whatever would be its current market value down close to the ground. \u00a0Me? \u00a0I love beautiful gifts that acquire some history of dents and bruises.<\/p>\n

Today has a second focus in my life. \u00a0Last Saturday, November 29, was the anniversary of Bill Pauly’s sudden death at 59 of a heart attack while taking a lovely sabbatical after years of demanding pastoring on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in western South Dakota.\u00a0 Before Pine\u00a0Ridge\u00a0Bill was pastor in a South Milwaukee Hispanic parish. Bill is a soul friend and I miss him at especially at this time. \u00a0 Bill loved beauty, \u00a0 and hospitality, \u00a0 \u00a0and play, and sacred stillness. \u00a0He stays in my memory and imagination as another Advent figure. \u00a0He did not fear grief or fatigue.<\/p>\n

Bill introduced me to the poet Mary Oliver. \u00a0There\u2019s a lot of him in\u00a0\u201cWage Peace\u201d\u00a0and a lot of Advent too.<\/p>\n

Welcome to these last days of Term One.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post – Mary Oliver – \u201cWage Peace” <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wage peace with your breath.
\nBreathe in firemen and rubble,
\nbreathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
\nBreathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
\nand fresh mown fields.
\nBreathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
\nBreathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
\nWage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
\nRemember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
\nMake soup.
\nPlay music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
\nLearn to knit, and make a hat.
\nThink of chaos as dancing raspberries,
\nimagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
\nSwim for the other side.
\nWage peace.
\nNever has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
\nHave a cup of tea and rejoice.
\nAct as if armistice has already arrived.
\nDon\u2019t wait another minute.<\/p>\n

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

Monday December 2 \u00a0“imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty” The Advent Season began yesterday. \u00a0Readers from last year may remember that these 3+ weeks leading to the Christmas feast run deep in me. \u00a0Since late childhood I\u2019ve kept a … 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\/965"}],"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=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":970,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}