HAUNTED BY THE HOLY GHOST

Of what use was it to be loved...if it all ended like this?

 

 
"And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Rabbit lay among the old picture-books in the corner behind the fowl-house, and he felt very lonely. The sack had been left untied, and so by wriggling a bit he was able to get his head through the opening and look out. He was shivering a little, for he had always been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat had worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any protection to him.
Near by he could see the thicket of raspberry canes, growing tall and close like a tropical jungle, in whose shadow he had played with the Boy on bygone mornings.

He thought of those long sunlit hours in the garden–how happy they were–

and a great sadness came over him.

He seemed to see them all pass before him, each more beautiful than the other, the fairy huts in the flower-bed, the quiet evenings in the wood when he lay in the bracken and the little ants ran over his paws; the wonderful day when he first knew that he was Real.

He thought of the Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that he had told him.

Of what use was it to be loved and lose one's beauty and become Real if it all ended like this?
And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground."...

 

Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew warm and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood behind the house. And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the other had strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had been spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that the Boy thought to himself:

"Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!"

But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.

 

From:

THE Velveteen Rabbit

by Margery Williams

 

 

 To My Brother, lovingly known to all as"Rabbit"

Another 365 sunrises without you and I keep looking for you; at times I see or hear something that seems familiar and I think to myself...do you ever come back and look at the child that is me who loved you so dearly?  I hope in some way that love, which often times left you worse for wear, also helped you find out what it is to be real, to be loved, and that you are frolicking, without pain and weariness with other "real" rabbits.

 

Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew warm and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood behind the house. And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the other had strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had been spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that the Boy thought to himself:

"Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!"

But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.

 

NO COMMENT

Sometimes you are left speechless, sometimes you impose speechlessness on yourself.
This is one of those days both are true.

An old poem......
written more than 10 years ago
under very different circumstances;
but somehow feels the same.

holocaust

THEY HAVE DRAINED THE COLOR OUT OF MY WORLD.
PALID FACES OF DEMON-GHOSTS
AND IVORY SHADOWS
FLOAT ON THE DEAD DRY WINDS .
REMAINS OF AMBER SUNSETS
SEEP INTO THE SEWERS.
GLOWING CRIMSON CURSES SINK
INTO BLEACHED WHITE SANDS OF CRUSHED BONE;
AND SILVER-WINGED  VISION-SONGS
FALL SILENTLY 0N THE PLAIN.

WH0 ARE THESE MEN WITH PIERCING  PROMISES,
WHO BID ME TO FEAST ON COLD ASHES,
TO BUILD A FORTRESS OF SANITY
OUT OF STONE THAT HAS TURNED TO DUST?
THEY HAVE SLAIN MY DEMONS,
BUT MY ANGELS FELL IN RECKLESS PITY.
THEY WHISPER OF CRYSTAL BLUE SKIES,
BUT OFFER NO AMENDS FOR STEALING THE STARS
GAZE ON THIS WASTELAND
THE VERY AIR WAILS AND MOURNS;
WHO WILL UNDERSTAND WHY I DO WHAT I DO ?

2/96

It's Trinity Sunday, I think...... I'll let you know after The service this morning....

COLLECT FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

O God the Father, who, sending into the world
the Word of Truth and the Spirit of sanctification,
declared Thy wondrous mystery to men,
grant us, in a confession of true faith,
to recognize the glory of the eternal Trinity,
and to adore Its Unity in the power of majesty.   

The sage needs to hit the fool with his stick, with his weapon.

Revelations from the Russian Archives
Library of Congress Home Page

Letter from Gorky to Stalin

Dear Iosif Vissarionovich:
     ....

     The emigre and bourgeois press bases its perception of
Soviet reality almost entirely on the negative information which
is published by our own press for self-criticism with the aim of
education and agitation....... 

It is furthermore imperative to put the propaganda of
atheism on solid ground.  You won't achieve much with the weapons
of Marx and materialism, as we have seen.  Materialism and
religion are two different planes and they don't coincide.  If a
fool speaks from the heavens and the sage from a factory--they
won't understand one another.  The sage needs to hit the fool
with his stick, with his weapon.

     For this reason, there should be courses set up at the
Communist Academy which would not only treat the history of
religion, and mainly the history of the Christian church, i.e.,
the study of church history as politics.

     We need to know the "fathers of the church," the apologists
of Christianity, especially indispensable to the study of the
history of Catholicism, the most powerful and intellectual church
organization whose political significance is quite clear.  We
need to know the history of church schisms, heresies, the
Inquisition, the "religious" wars, etc.  Every quotation by a
believer is easily countered with dozens of theological
quotations which contradict it.

     We cannot do without an edition of the "Bible" with critical
commentaries from the Tubingen school and books on criticism of
biblical texts, which could bring a very useful "confusion into
the minds" of believers.

     There is a fine role to be played here by a popular book on
the Taborites and the Husite movements.  It would be useful
to introduce here "The history of the peasant wars in Germany,"
the old book by Zimmerman.  Carefully edited, it would be very
useful for the minds.

     It is necessary to produce a book on the church's struggle
against science.

     Our youth is very poorly informed on questions of this
nature.  The "tendency" toward a religious disposition is very
noticeable--a natural result of developing individualism.  At
this time, as always, the young are in a hurry to find "the
definitive answer."

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