Lectio + Haiku Archives 

This index includes all posts from 2006 to 2010.

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November - December 2010 -- I chose this translation for its simple, direct language.  Ecclesiastes 2:24-25; 3:1-8  To eat simply, and drink moderately, and do work that satisfies the soul.  This is what reality offers us.  For who should eat and find satisfaction if not you...?...    more...

October 2010 -- These verses by Zen monk and poet Ryōkan Taigu are excerpted from "An Answer to Your Poem." The past and the present, the false and true are just thin clouds which obscure the mountain peak...    more...

September 2010 -- Paul riffs on the interdependence of all people.  I Corinthians 12:13b–22, 24–26  We were all made to drink of one Spirit.  Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many...    more...

August 2010 -- Selected Proverbs: Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another. Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another...    more...

July 2010 -- Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31  Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand...    more...

June 2010 -- On a Saturday in May, ten women came together at The Priory Spirituality Center in Lacey, Washington, to write haiku for spring and Pentecost. We used two different take-offs of Psalm 150...  Praise life! Praise life in our small selves and praise it in the vast universe...    more...

May 2010 -- For the lusty month of May, a portion of Solomon’s Song of Songs.  Song of Solomon 2: 8 – 17  The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall...    more...

April 2010 -- For the month of Easter, a passage with the promise that after famine comes abundance.  Joel 2: 21 - 29  Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!...    more...

March 2010 -- Lent is a season for coming to terms with who we really are. That thought led me to one of my favorite passages from the Apocrypha.  Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-6   I also am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth...    more...

February 2010 -- I met with twelve others in the Leffler living room on the campus of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle to write haiku inspired by themes of the Epiphany season. The focus of our inspiration was a poem by Jalaluddin Rumi.  The Dream That Must Be Interpreted.  This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real...    more...

January 2010 -- For the last days of the Christmas season and the first weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.  Psalm 139 : 1 - 18  O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up...    more...

December 2009 -- For the month of Advent and Christmas, a song of remembrance and hope.  Psalm 126 : 1-6  When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream...    more...

November 2009 -- An excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” in Leaves of Grass (1855).  The little one sleeps in its cradle, I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my hand...    more...

October 2009 -- The voice of Wisdom, present at Creation, speaks in this passage taken from Ecclesiasticus, a book of the Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 24   I came forth from beyond this world, And I covered the earth like a mist. I had my tent in the heights, And my throne in the clouds...    more...

September 2009 -- The wisdom of a Taoist sage, as interpreted by a Trappist monk.  "The Need to Win"  When an archer shoots for nothing / He has all his skill. / If he shoots for a brass buckle / He is already nervous...    more...

July/August 2009 -- Isaiah 42:16  I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them...    more...

June 2009 -- Matthew 5:13-16  You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot...    more...

May 2009 -- This month’s passage is taken from the Apocrypha. The Wisdom of Solomon 7:15-22  "Solomon Prays for Wisdom"  May God grant me to speak with judgment, and to have thoughts worthy of what I have received; for he is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise...    more...

April 2009 -- A prayer from the Haggadah.  Dayeinu – For that alone, we would have been grateful!  How many wonderful deeds did God perform for us!  Had the Compassionate one brought us out of Egypt and not split the sea for us – Dayeinu...!    more...

March 2009 -- SONG OF SOLOMON 3:1-5  “LOVE’S DREAM”  Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer...    more...

February 2009 --  EVERY PARTICLE OF THE WORLD IS A MIRROR by Mahmud Shabestari.  Every particle of the world is a mirror; In each atom lies the blazing light of a thousand suns...    more...

January 2009 --  I was led to this passionate passage from Hosea by the new book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness by Christine Valters Painter and Lucy Wynkoop, OSB.  Hosea 2:14-16, 18-20  Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her...    more...

December 2008 --  The passage for this month of Advent and Christmas is taken from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching.  We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move...    more...

November 2008 --  These verses strike me in a new way when I consider the possibility that God is Love.  Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17  Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to another...    more...

October 2008 --  Psalm 114  Hallelujah! When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange speech, Judah became God's sanctuary and Israel his dominion...    more...

September 2008 --  EZEKIEL 37:1-10  THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES.  The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.    more...

August 2008 --  Inspired by Psalm 62, from Psalms for Troubled Times: Prayers of Hope and Challenge by Barbara Gibson.  Psalm 62 "Waiting for Help"  My soul waits in silence for the One, for a message that can save me.    more...

July 2008 --  THE GUEST HOUSE by Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic poet.  This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.   more...

June 2008 -- Psalm 131: 1-3  O LORD, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me.   more...

May 2008 -- From Psalms for Troubled Times: Prayers of Hope and Challenge by Barbara Gibson.  Psalm 3  “Help from Sophia”  O Wisdom, how many are my doubts! My cynical thoughts disturb me, saying “There is no hope for the world.”   more...

April 2008 -- Psalm 148:1-14  Praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD from the heavens;  praise him in the heights!   more...

March 2008 -- Psalm 116: 1-4; 6-8  I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.    more... 

February 2008 -- HURRY TO THE SOURCE OF LIFE by Rumi, the 13th Century Sufi mystic poet.  How could the soul not take flight / When from the glorious Presence / A soft call flows sweet as honey, comes right up to her / And whispers, “Rise up now, come away.”   more... 

January 2008 -- Isaiah 35:1-8 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing...  more... 

December 2007 -- James 5:7-8  Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains...  more... 

November 2007 -- Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, 3:1-8  There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil...  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...  more... 

October 2007 -- Psalm 121  I lift up my eyes to the hills -- from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth...  more... 

September 2007 -- In this month's passage, Paul riffs on the interdependence of all people.  I Corinthians 12:13b–22, 24–26  We were all made to drink of one Spirit...  more... 

August 2007 -- Last month, Wisdom told about being present with God at the creation of the cosmos. For this month, I chose a variety of verses taken from the same book.  Selected Proverbs   Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another. ...  more... 

July 2007 -- Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31  Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand...  more... 

June 2007 -- On this page last month, the Bride sang to her Bridegroom. For the month of weddings, it seems only fair to let the Bridegroom respond.  Song of Solomon 4: 1-7, 9  How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful... more... 

May 2007 -- For the lusty month of May, a portion of Solomon’s Song of Songs.  Song of Solomon 2: 8-17  The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains...  more... 

April 2007 -- A passage with the promise that after famine comes abundance.  Joel 2: 21 - 29  Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!  more... 

March 2007 -- Lent is a season for coming to terms with who we really are. Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-6  I also am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth;  more... 

February 2007 -- Winter turns toward spring, and the heart of the psalmist turns toward God.  Psalm 42 : 1- 7   As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.   more... 

January 2007 -- For the last days of the Christmas season and the first weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.  Psalm 139 : 1- 8   O LORD, you have searched me and known me.   more... 

December 2006 -- For the month of Advent and Christmas, a song of remembrance and hope.  Psalm 126 : 1-6  When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  more...