By Philip Quirke
The great teacher, the human condition, will lead you
to unlearn the forms and rituals you inherited.
Let them go. Feel the nakedness which comes as they moult. Swim in doubt and uncertainty. Hold tentatively to an anchor.
Apprehending the scriptures transcends reason and logic.
It is intuitive. Epiphanies reveal themselves. Imagination expands,
and words laden with possibilities take flight.
A thousand soft feathers clothe a sturdy wing.
The ‘something new’ reveals shades of the ‘something lost’ –
there is only so much transfiguration the soul can abide.
Liberation of the spirit emerges in the wedding
of the wounded past with the critical present.
When the new threads are woven into a new carpet,
orient to the east and pray with open hands.
Begin again to unlearn forms and rituals.
Rejoice in mystical interludes,
when wholeness, and holiness, is tasted as a gift,
and as witness to God’s great compassion.