Re - Ligio, Re - Connect

A TREE OF LIFE
WHERE ALL'S ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

"Creation itself, the natural world, already believes the Gospel, and lives the pattern of death and resurrection, even if unknowingly. The natural world believes in necessary suffering as the very cycle of life: just observe the daily dying of the sun so all things on this planet can live, the total change of the seasons, the plants and trees along with it, the violent world of animal predators and prey....Only the human species absents itself from the agreed - on pattern and the general dance of life and death." (77)

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"For me, that is what makes something inherently religious: whatever reconnects (re - ligio) our parts to the Whole is an experience of God, whether we will call it that or not. . . . also reconnecting [our] outer journey to the "inland" or [our] interior world, which is much of the task of the second half of life." (xxxiv - xxxv)from Falling Upward:
A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
by Richard Rohr, OFM
Author, Spiritual Writer, Franciscan Friar

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Ordinarily, I record current reading and favorite passages on my book blog; however, upon reading the first few pages of Falling Upward, I knew right away that I needed to share Rohr's intriguing definition of religion and his emphasis on connection here on my Fortnightly blog of connection and coincidence!

Looking at the etymology that Rohr gives of the word religious, I realized for the first time that the first two letters are a prefix -- re; and the root is ligio -- as in ligament or ligature, as in to bind.

Pastor and spiritual director Matt Mirabile
makes a similar connection on his blog, Medium:

"Ligament also shares its root with religion and as such binds muscle to bone. I always get a kick out of the whole 'spiritual but not religious' thing. While one can be religious without being spiritual one cannot really be spiritual without being religious. Spirituality hangs on religious discipline as muscles hang on bone. This comes as much from a modern misunderstanding of spirituality as a misunderstanding of religion. Of course, we Christians have created this misunderstanding. We have failed to convey what genuine spirituality looks like and therefore have misrepresented the value of religion. If we would see religion as that which vitally connects us to God through the power of the Holy Spirit, a deifying discipline, as blessed John Keble called it, then we would value it as the great treasure that it is, for we would be made more divine by it." [emphasis added]

I have puzzled long over the distinction that Mirabile makes here: spirituality requires religion, but religion does not require spirituality. Yet religion goes beyond mere rules and dress codes (that always exclude) creating a tie that binds and includes, making a crucial connection between humanity and divinity. My thoughts return once more to Rohr's insistence on inclusion:

"If your notion of heaven is based on exclusion of anybody else, then it is by definition not heaven. The more you exclude, the more hellish and lonely your existence always is" (101).

At the end of the day, everything meshes together into one connected (re - ligious!) conversation. Connect, only connect!

Backyard Sunset ~ March 24, 2020
First time for a week that we’ve seen the sun!

Next Fortnightly Post
Tuesday, April 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com

Pi Day

A PIECE OF PIE, SADLY DISCORDANT
WHEN WILL IT BE ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS?

Maybe one day that big blue part of the pie
will be used to confront the REAL enemies
such as bacteria and coronaviruses.
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A timely thought from Richard Rohr -- and just a bit
uncanny when you remember that he wrote these words in 2011:

“ . . . mature societies were meant to be led by elders, seniors, saints, and ‘the initiated.’ They alone are in a position to be true leaders in a society, or certainly in any spiritual organization. Without them 'the blind lead the blind,' . . . Those who are not true leaders or elders will just affirm people at their own immature level, and of course immature people will love them and elect them for being equally immature. You can fill in the names here with your own political disaster story. But just remember, there is a symbiosis between immature groups and immature leaders, I am afraid, which is why both Plato and Jefferson said democracy was not really the best form of government" (9).

from Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
by Richard Rohr, OFM
Author, Spiritual Writer, Franciscan Friar

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March 14th is the day for both pie charts and pi charts.
Whether numerical or edible,
political, poetical, or pie in the sky,
we have pie of all kinds!

Lets start with a Pi Pie.

Pillsbury Pi Day Pie

A poem for Pi Day (3 / 14 / 20):

Pi (3.14)

No one gives pi much thought.
Even after it has been dutifully taught.
The numerical pi goes on forever,
Like the swish of a baseball,
Flying through outer space.

Three point one four,
For some it's a bore,
But NOT to me.
The transcendental number is the code,
To unlocking the perfect memory.

Math it involves,
Area and circumference of circles, it solves.
Pi never repeats itself,
Pi is smarter than that,
That is a fact.

Twenty-two over seven is the equivalent fraction.
But to me that fraction is a distraction.
I prefer the original,
The decimal version.
Three point one four.

Rachel Mac

And now for that other less abstract kind of pie:

1. Artfully described but lamentably executed is the fiasco of blueberry pie baking recounted by Bich Minh Nguyen in Stealing Buddha's Dinner:

I used to wish Rosa would make lattice-top pies and cool them on a windowsill, as I had seen in comic strips. I loved the construction of a pie, the swell of pastry cradling fruit. It was easy to bake a cake from a Duncan Hines mix, but no one in our household had ever attempted an actual pie. So it was bizarre to see Rosa hovering over the pot of blueberries, mixing in cornstarch and a stream of sugar . . . she scooped the whole mess into the pie shells . . .

Later, all four pies sat cooling on the kitchen counter. They were heavy and purpled around the edges, and a tough skin had formed over the tops. . . . I overturned a gloppy portion onto my paper plate and took a bite. . . . I could not get past two bites and neither could anyone else . . . (216 - 17).

2. Poet Grace Paley (1922 - 2007) has better luck in her luscious pie poem:

The Poet's Occasional Alternative

I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead it took
about the same amount of time . . .

everybody will like this pie
it will have apples and cranberries
dried apricots in it . . .

. . . I decided to
settle this morning for a re-
sponsive eatership I do not
want to wait a week a year a
generation for the right
consumer to come along

3. Paley may charm the reader into thinking that it's more gratifying to craft a pie than a poem, but contemporary poet and scholar Punya Mishra offers a clever rebuttal:

Poem or Pie:

I just read this poem
about a poet who chose to
bake a pie,
than write a poem!

It was weird, since in my hands
was a poem, not a slice of pie!

Was this the poem
That was not written?

. . . Because in my heart I knew
that poets will do anything . . .

To . . . make the reader smile . . .

But the truth is
I know it, and you do too,
that some days, a poem beats a pie . . .

4. And some nights the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie:

A Few Nights Ago:
The Full Worm Moon

Previous Pies
Kiss Pie & Safe Pie & Flag Pie
Peach & More
Mince & More
Pumpkin & More
Raspberry & Chocolate Pecan
Next Fortnightly Post
Saturday, March 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com