Greenflame

Steve’s posting, e~mergent kiwi: world:views, about the Hoiho (Yellow-eyed Penguin) has been rattling around inside my head this week as I think about “the new heaven and the new earth” found in the Christian hope.

Made me stop and think about the penguins, who appear on cheese wrappers sometime – buy this brand of cheese and help save the penguins. Realized I didn’t know anymore than that about them so went and did some looking for more information on them.

Some good web links can be found at:
Hoiho resources. They have links to most of the other NZ penguin related sites and images of them.

Also the children’s section of the local library had the book Helping the Hoiho. by Dean Schneider. (Published by Shortland Publications, 1995.) on display today – looked like it had some good practical information too.

You can hear the penguins by clicking: here (.au file)

Prodigal’s been blogging a bit about desert spirituality over at: Prodigal Kiwi Blog: Another Desert Story.

The spirituality of the desert fathers and mothers has interested me since I was introduced to it in a Christian spirituality paper a few years ago. In one particular exercise our lecturer had pinned various sayings from them around the room (with each one having an image attached to them). For an hour or so we wandered from saying to saying until we found one we wanted to meditate upon and then sat or stood by that one.

I’ve also used their sayings when introducing people to different types of prayers. In a similar fashion I pinned a wide range of prayers around a large room and had people move about them reading and thinking about their content and style. Some desert sayings were included along with Kiwi psalms, various prayers from the NZ Prayer Book and other sources from around the world.

I often come back to the desert fathers and mothers. Just flicking through, seeing something, reading, thinking and then moving on. In some ways it’s a journey into an alien environment and in other ways it connects deeply. And it’s the short, pithy stories of real life and faith. This saying has always struck me from sayings about prayer.

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and he said to him, “Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and streched his hands toward heaven; his fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.”

If you hunt on the net then there are various collections of sayings, information and images out there on desert spirituality. (Search with Yahoo rather than Google as the Google search seemed to index bookshops for the first 100 entries).

• The Desert Hermits
• Desert Fathers
• Sayings of the Desert Fathers
• Sayings of the Desert Fathers (2)
• The Paradise of the Desert Fathers

Pray, meditate, feed, rest.

I’m lecturing next week on the Christian hope for creation. (Specific title “Cosmic Eschatology”). It reminded me of this meditation that I’ve used before by Terry Falla that draws us back to God as creator and sustainer.

Alpha and Omega

Before galaxies burned in empty night,
planets hurled through deepest space,
waves broke upon primeval shores,
volcanoes roared with molten rock;

Before lightning split an angry sky,
glaciers cut through tortured steeps,
flowers danced in zephyr winds,
streams chattered by forest glades,

You were already God.

And when in unimagined aeons
the earth ignites in flames of dying sun;
or missiles flash to cities doomed,
ash drifts, boughs break, unheard, unseen,

You will still be God.

Christ risen, what futile, cold assurance,
if he were not our God! But Alpha, cosmic,
crucified, he comes in grace confounding:
Omega, Father, Saviour, Friend;

Our Judge, our Breath, our Joy.

From: “Be Our Freedom, Lord.” by Terry C. Falla (p.42)

A good, thought provoking article in this week’s Listener by David Young on the lack of Pakaha ritual and spirituality in relation to the land. He argues that Pakeha may try to meet as equals in a bicultural setting but that they have lost the knowledge and practice of ritual that would allow them to contribute as participants rather than observers.

Have a read and a think about it: NZ Listener | A spiritual bypass by David Young