#(g)arden core

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

“August is the Sunday of Summer”

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

There’s something so beautiful about nonexistence being the default state of existence, about the inherently gratuitous nature of creation, about love in excess of nature.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Part of what it means to image God is to look for beauty amidst the ugliness of the world, and to nurture that; to meditate upon that which is revealed by God as true, honorable, equitable, clean, friendly and loving, reputable, virtuous, and praiseworthy; that which leads us in theosis. We desire to know Truth and the do Good, but first we must sit and contemplate in awe of Beauty.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

A hedge of trees overlooks me; a blackbird’s lay sings to me (an announcement which I shall not conceal); above my lines book the birds chanting sings to me. A clear-voice cuckoo sings to me (a goodly utterance) in a grey cloak from bush fortresses. The Lord is indeed good to me: we’ll do I write beneath a forest of woodland.

An Early Irish Lyric, a favorite of mine alongside

Let us adore the Lord, maker of wondrous works, great bright Heaven with its angels, the white-waved sea on earth.

@apilgrimpassingby both of these remind me of you.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

There’s this idea that we should love the Creator more than their creation. But beyond that, I think, we must love the Creator through their creation. The way we love the Creator more than his creation is not by loving her creation less, but by loving the creation in such a way that love of the material creation is at the same time in its highest form love of the Transcendent Creator.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

There’s a question I’ve seen posed before that’s like, “would you rather marry someone with the Same Religious Beliefs but Different Political Beliefs, or someone with the Same Political Beliefs, but Different Religious beliefs?” Basically, a conservative Christian or a secular leftists.

And I’ve made it a point before that, marrying someone without the same religious beliefs for me was lowkey a nonstarter. G.K. Chesterton said that “religion is not just the church a human goes to, it’s the cosmos they live in.” And it’s really for that reason that marrying and raising kids with someone whose not Christian is like uhhhh yeah no maybe that’s not gonna happen lol. And even then, not just Christian: I’m Orthodox. If you’re not Orthodox, Catholic, or Anglo-Catholic, possibly Methodist or Lutheran if I like you enough, yeah this is a nonstarter. All of these denominations are closer in cosmology than, say, Orthodoxy and Presbyterian or Baptist.

But ofc, the “cosmos a person lives in” isn’t merely immaterial: I have the political beliefs I do because, in no small part, of my metaphysical convictions. I’ve said this before but I was radicalized by the Holy Scriptures and Traditions of the Church. If you do not believe something at least somewhat close to “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is the Son of God, the King of Nations, and the Lord of the Cosmos, which means that all earthly authority is fundamentally illegitimate and all states and constructed governments are acts of blasphemous defiance against our rightful ruler - God - who holds us all equal regardless of station or circumstance and who has come to bring joy to the poor and powerless, to liberate those who are captive and imprisoned, to bring care and life and health to those whose bodies are held captive to decay and death and sickness, to set free those who are oppressed and marginalized; and the Church — as an immortal multiethnic sacrament-based sociopolitical educational egalitarian philanthropic family of other-centered, life-giving, erotic and agapic love — is commissioned to bring that mission to the world, and to do so noncoercively and nonviolently” — of what you believe isn’t at least 75% aligned with that, we do not practice nor do we believe in the same religion. We believe in two different cosmoses and are faithful to two different gods.

I guess the point is unless you are a high church Christian leftist, it doesn’t matter what denomination you are or what party you vote for, we have two different religions.

tl;dr: to the Christian anarchist, “christian anarchist” is needlessly redundant and “christian statist” is a contradiction in terms.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

One of the things I’ve heard scholars of Shaker history tell me is that the hardest thing about being a Shaker is learning to live in community with other people. And Brother Arnold, who’s like the senior Shaker at Sabbath State Lake will say that as well. It’s not the theology, it’s not the celibacy, it’s not any of the other doctrines or tenants. It’s just that it is really hard to live day in and day out with the same humans.

Professor Jennifer H. Dorsey

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

I am the Shepherd's favorite lamb and my Shepherd is the Perfect Lover: In fresh fields he fills me full, to cool creeks in leads me. Life to my bones, and pleasure to my flesh he returns at last. I am so ecstatic and enthusiastic and my bleating is very loud and I cannot be quieted from the raw burning in my viscera as he kisses me and puts the collar around my neck. "Holy", he said, "Belonging to Love". To the Altar in the Bridal Chamber he leads me in pilgrimage. As he leads me through the Valley of Kings to the Temple of the Shepherd to die, I am not afraid: I love only him. His manhood I take comfort in, his holy rod I embrace. I long to be set upon the Lord's Table, to become the greatest sacrifice so that I can be filled with the most divine ecstasy and experience greatest love that one can experience: to achieve transcendent continuity. Let me be conjoined to you. Let me be eaten. Let me die. Absorb me into your being and let no one drive us apart. My flesh is meat to eat indeed. My blood, drink like wine. Grind my bones like grapes in your teeth, suck out the marrow like honey, and my blood, drink like a wild beast that I may make glad your heart. Upon my head lay the palms of your scarred hand, chrism my cloven hooves with virgin olives, bathe me in my mother's milk, taste and see the sweetness of my circumcised heart of flesh. Goodness - oh! - what sweet pleasure shall fill me full as I dwell in the house of your soul - forever.