Carried splinters

Carried splinters

The splinters that we carry

I have mentioned Leonard Cohen many times over the years.  There’s no denying he was a gifted writer and an able performer.  Neither is there any denying that my knowledge of him barely scratches the outermost point of the surface of his life.  He wrote with, and seemingly lived, passion.

One of his songs “COME HEALING” has to be rooted somewhere very deeply in his desire for that healing.  He knows the benefits healing can bring and speaks to it wonderfully.  Yet, it’s likely, the same healing eluded him for much of his life.  He spoke one time about the day his father was buried – he was very young at the time – and was puzzled by this idea of his father going into the ground.  Returning home after the funeral, he went to his father’s room and took out one of his bow ties.  He cut a piece from it and buried it in the garden of their home.  He said that he often felt the rest of his life was trying to remember where he buried it and what exactly he buried.

He speaks too, in the song “Come Healing” about the cross and the pain it brings to life.  More than that, he speaks of the cross having been left down but the splinters carried, bring their share of pain.

Ideally it seems, cross and splinters should be left behind.

Lenten thought:  what can we do today to leave behind the cross and their splinters?  I know it’s not easy and a struggle but surely it’s worth thinking about …..

 

How the light got in

How the light got in

Last night I put a few words here when I heard that Leonard Cohen had died.  Somehow I managed to delete them.  Not the biggest loss in the history of writing for sure!  I was sorry to hear he had died.  About ten minutes before I heard this news I had mentioned him in conversation with some people.  I was saying how much I admired him.

He was a wonderful weaver of words and so gracious in their sharing and maybe even openness to interpretation.  I can’t pretend to know everything he ever wrote, or anything close, but the bits I got to know and love made a huge difference to me.  For many years I have used his words in various settings as I tried to shape some of my own around them.  I felt he had a wonderful gift and I am a firm believer in the power of tune and lyric when brought together.

Certainly his music and words will continue to be part of my own journey and wondering about life.  Leonard said of himself one time that, as a child he had buried something in the garden at his family home and that he felt he had spent the rest of his life trying to find what was buried.  I have no idea what he referenced there but the journey sits well with the man.  In the coming days, I will link again to some of my favourite YouTube videos (many of them already on the blog – just put Leonard Cohen in the search bar) and bring a few of them and some of the thoughts around them together.

I travelled from Dublin airport tonight, having spent the past days in Honduras, and remembering some of what I met there, I coupled these memories with many of Leonard’s songs that are in my music collection.  Words like “The sprinters that we carry and the cross we left behind, come healing of the spirit come healing of the mind” and “Going home without my sorrow, going home sometime tomorrow, going home to where it’s better than before, going without my burden, going home behind the curatain, going home without the costume that I wore” – these, with some of the songs from his most recent album, speak of a man searching, trusting, doubting, wondering, dismissing, finding, believing …. in short, a man living.

He brought many sides of life with him, and travelled many roads of exploration but my prayer for him now is that in response to his lyrics in the first track of his new album (You Want It Darker) “I’m ready My Lord!”, the Lord smiles and says, “Leonard, I know ….”

Ring the bell that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in

I can’t say this is my favourite piece but I like it because it’s Leonard making something of another’s words – respecting the author and keeping him centre stage, whilst allowing the message reach other ears and take the hearer to a place of wonder.  He does it well.

https://youtu.be/VGEWQRL2sJk?rel=0

You’d wonder what his speech would have been like, had he received the Nobel Prize (which I think he should have received) given the graciousness of these words.  If you’ve heard them before, listen again and, if not, prepare to be touched by a man’s gratitude.

Cohen was right!

Cohen was right!

I think Leonard Cohen should have been awarded the Nobel Prize! There, I’ve said it.  I have no axe to grind with Bob Dylan of course.  Chances are neither is too worried about what I think.

“Forget your perfect offering, (Cohen said in Anthem), 
there is a crack, a crack in everything
that’s how the light gets in.”

I like those lines.  If we wait for perfection a lot of life will pass us by.

We had a very interesting talk yesterday (Diocesan gathering) on the history of monasteries in our diocese and country.  The talk, linked with a few days we had together and a theme of “hope”. finished with an image of the Ardagh Chalice.  The speaker, Colmán O Clábaigh OSB, told us that though the chalice is revered as one of our finest historical treasures it has been discovered that the chalice leaks and most likely always did.  With that in mind, it’s certain the “chalice” could never have been used at the celebration of Eucharist and yet it survives as a symbol of our faith, culture and heritage.  A leaking chalice!

Cohen was right … a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

Thanks be to God!

Daily Lenten Thought March 3rd

Daily Lenten Thought March 3rd

Next Saturday I’m due to lead a Lenten Retreat at the Galilee Centre, Boyle. I’ve been there before and it’s a very special place – lovely location overlooking the lake.

The nearest landmark to it is the “GAELIC CHIEFTAIN”, that noble horse and horseman overlooking the Curlews.  I like that piece of art a lot, not least because I know the man who created it – Maurice Harron.  Maurice lived in Cloonloo for a number of years and was a family friend.  Though we’ve lost contact in recent years, I still number him in that category and know that were we to meet tomorrow there’d be plenty to speak about.

The Community in Galilee asked me for a theme for the day and one of Leonard Cohen’s songs came to mind.  It’s called “COME HEALING” and there’s a powerful line in there that says: “The splinters that you carry, the cross you left behind” and that struck me as a good title for the day.

Now to put something with that title!  I wonder would any of you be willing to offer a few suggestions?  I won’t publish them if you don’t want me to but maybe they’d help me to focus on what people might want, having taken a day out of their lives, to come to Galilee.

So the thought for today: The “horseman” is a landmark, made all the more real and meaningful because I know the hands behind it.  We need landmarks in life and we need to know “The Creator” too.

__________________

These are Cohen’s Lyrics for “COME HEALING”

O gather up the brokenness
And bring it to me now
The fragrance of those promises
You never dared to vow

The splinters that you carry
The cross you left behind
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
The cruelty or the grace

O solitude of longing
Where love has been confined
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

O see the darkness yielding
That tore the light apart
Come healing of the reason
Come healing of the heart

O troubled dust concealing
An undivided love
The Heart beneath is teaching
To the broken Heart above

O let the heavens falter
And let the earth proclaim:
Come healing of the Altar
Come healing of the Name

O longing of the branches
To lift the little bud
O longing of the arteries
To purify the blood

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

___________________________

A fine version with “The (Sublime) Webb Sisters”

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