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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
The saints got it wrong.
After some time being annoyed by people who like to quote statements that "God has no hands but ours," I am pleased to announce that this has finally come out right in my head...
We have no hands but God's.
There are any number of things I would really, really like to accomplish. These are invariably things that I lack the skills, smarts, wisdom and omnipotence to actually do.
Okay, I've got these nice tactily-pleasant things that come in handy for good stuff around the house & bedroom. They are even useful for such divine activities as art-making, where their very clumsiness provides a healthy challenge & a source of aesthetically-pleasing (or not) irregularities.
But for those really heavy-duty jobs like Saving the World, I have no hands but God's.
I thought of this the other night, lying in bed anguishing about the street newspaper I want to resurrect. I've had this grant almost a year, to cover printing costs; I've got a dedicated lawyer offering to find me an office for distributing copies to vendors (an essential need!) and pay for it!--and every time I break down & hassle him, he's "a few more weeks" from having it.
Plus I don't even know anymore, what I'd print. Terry Messman in the SF Bay Area has been putting out a consistently high-class monthly paper on poverty issues for decades now--and it's still the same sad news he was writing about when he started.
Anyway, for the first time in months I was seriously anguishing; I was going to have to give the money back after having uselessly sat on it for a year.
I was busy the rest of the day, not having much in the way of thoughts on how to proceed.
That night, a friend called me up to tell me: He'd just returned from a meeting of the local Catholic Worker organization, which (at last!) is going to be setting up a Catholic Worker house of hospitality downtown. Now that doesn't mean I've necessarily got the office, or a good bunch to collaborate with in a joint effort, but this just might be what I was waiting for.
And maybe I can wait til Monday to find out.
We have no hands but God's.
There are any number of things I would really, really like to accomplish. These are invariably things that I lack the skills, smarts, wisdom and omnipotence to actually do.
Okay, I've got these nice tactily-pleasant things that come in handy for good stuff around the house & bedroom. They are even useful for such divine activities as art-making, where their very clumsiness provides a healthy challenge & a source of aesthetically-pleasing (or not) irregularities.
But for those really heavy-duty jobs like Saving the World, I have no hands but God's.
I thought of this the other night, lying in bed anguishing about the street newspaper I want to resurrect. I've had this grant almost a year, to cover printing costs; I've got a dedicated lawyer offering to find me an office for distributing copies to vendors (an essential need!) and pay for it!--and every time I break down & hassle him, he's "a few more weeks" from having it.
Plus I don't even know anymore, what I'd print. Terry Messman in the SF Bay Area has been putting out a consistently high-class monthly paper on poverty issues for decades now--and it's still the same sad news he was writing about when he started.
Anyway, for the first time in months I was seriously anguishing; I was going to have to give the money back after having uselessly sat on it for a year.
I was busy the rest of the day, not having much in the way of thoughts on how to proceed.
That night, a friend called me up to tell me: He'd just returned from a meeting of the local Catholic Worker organization, which (at last!) is going to be setting up a Catholic Worker house of hospitality downtown. Now that doesn't mean I've necessarily got the office, or a good bunch to collaborate with in a joint effort, but this just might be what I was waiting for.
And maybe I can wait til Monday to find out.
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Comment by Ian Hughes on 6th mo. 13, 2009 at 7:32pm
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Seeing that of god in all people includes seeing that of god in me.
It really is beyond our understanding, so I know I have not got it right but the way I currently understand the big one is that god is the creative principle in the universe, god is ongoing creativity.
God has no human hands but ours but god does have trees, possums and lost of other creatures. And I think my work goes better when I am able to act in harmony, in synch, working with the flow not against it.
The I Ching has a hexagram called "Difficulty at the Beginning" When new ideas are thrusting upwards like a newly germinated seed they have to press against the hard packed soil before bursting out into the sun. It is important to start off correctly, ethically and to find good friends - if things are well ordered at the start this can forestall difficulties later. I think having good relationships with the right people is always more important than the financial aspects.
I hope you engage in good discussion with the Catholic Workers
In friendship
Ian (Wahroonga Local Meeting, Australia)
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Comment by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 13, 2009 at 11:40pm
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I don't think I've bothered the Ching these last few years. There are some good ideas there, but for me it's become time to ask the Old Guy more directly, when to apply which of them.
But God is not "the creative principle in the universe"; the universe is a manifestation of God's creative play. God is equally the yin screen on which our experience of the universe projects, poetically speaking.
Are the hands of a novelist in his book?
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Comment by Tom Brisson on 10th mo. 12, 2014 at 1:32am
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Amazing... I grew up in the Catholic Church, rarely, if ever hearing about Dorothy Day, until I joined a Friends meeting...
Comment
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