1st June Trinity 2021, Waking Up

 

1^st June Trinity II

John 3:1-17

There was a man in the circle of the

Tissot

Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, "Master, we know that you are a high teacher of humankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with them in their deeds."

Jesus answered and said to him, "The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to him, "How can someone be born again when they are old? Can they return to their mother's womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, "The truth out of the Spirit I say to you: whoever remains as they are and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the Spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the Spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the Spirit is itself Spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The Spirit wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the Spirit."

Nicodemus replied and said to him, "How can one attain this?"

Tissot, Moses 

Jesus answered, "You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the Spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things, and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No
one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

"Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills themselves with his power shall perish, for they will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but so that the world be saved [or, healed] through him and not fall prey to ruin."

1^st June Trinity

May 30, 2021

John 3:1-17

The plants have grown enthusiastically. Their flowering has released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, the pollen is kissed by the life-giving power of the sun. When it returns to the plants, it will bring them the potential to create the seeds of new life.

We, too, have our times when we expand out into the universe. Mostly we do so unconsciously, in our sleep. When we return to our bodies in the morning, blessed and strengthened by an encounter with our angel, we are refreshed and ready for new life in a new day. 

Nicodemus comes to Christ in the realm of night. And Christ tries to make clear to him that it is now necessary to become aware, to work consciously with these spiritual forces of new birth from above with our day-waking consciousness. The Spirit-breath, the Spirit-wind, carries with it words of creation, the potential for the next step in humankind's evolution. The Spirit gives us the impulses for the new—a new way, a new direction, a new paradigm. For the old is falling away. But the Spirit needs our voluntary cooperation. 

It is time to open ourselves. It is time to receive the blessing and strength from the Spirit for what is coming. We may not know where exactly which direction the impulse for the new is coming from; we may not know where it will lead us. 

It will most certainly at first lead us through the death of the old way, just as following Christ led Nicodemus through the events of Christ's death and resurrection. For we hear of him helping to prepare Christ's body for the tomb (John 19:39). Nevertheless, we can listen for the sound of the Spirit-wind and rise to hear the words of becoming, sounding on the breath of the Spirit. As we do so, we will begin to share in Christ's timeless, higher life. 

As poet Antonio Machado said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.*

 

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

 

---

*Antonio Machado, The Winged Energy of Delight, translations by Robert Bly

 

1st June Trinity 2020, God Pours Light

2^nd June Trinity

John 3:1-17

 There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of humankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with them in their deeds.”

 Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

 Nicodemus said to him, “How can someone be born again when they are old? Can they return to their mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as they are and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not 

born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know?

Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things, and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for they will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but so that the world be saved [healed] through him and not fall prey to ruin.”

1^st June Trinity

June 7, 2020

John 3: 1-17

The blossom opens itself to the sun. Its pollen rises carried to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Enlivened by the warmth and light of the sun, it returns to earth, bringing new living forces, the power of germination, to the plants.

Nicodemus comes to Christ in the night realm, with soul and spirit open. Christ speaks to him about life renewed from above, from the warmth and light of the realm of the spirit. At first, Nicodemus confuses this renewal of life with the earthly level of physical birth. But Christ explains that being touched by the spirit’s power of eternal becoming, is what allows our lives to be ever renewed. It is our contact with the regions of moving light and warmth that is our entrance into the kingdom of the heavens, even as we still live in bodies on earth.

Our own eternal spirit, the drop of the divinity given to each of us at our beginning, has descended with us out of those regions of light. Our awakening to this eternal part of our being allows us to open and ascend again into the realms of spirit, now, like the pollen rising from the flower. It is the power in us of prayer, the power of mindfulness, the power of gratitude that helps us rise. This is the Christ power, the power of the Son of Man, working in us. As the poet Hafiz says:

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.

…God pours light

 

and the trees lift their limbs

without worry of redemption,

every blossom a chalice.

 

…as light

pours like rain

into every empty cup

set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.*

This is the power that lets us rise, even daily, into the realms of timeless life, to be renewed and refreshed, so that when we descend again, we can see to it that in Christ’s words, ‘the world can be healed and not fall prey to ruin.’

*Hafiz, “God Pours Light,” (Interpretive version of Ghazal 11 by Jose Orez)

 

 

1st June Trinity, 2019, Wake Up

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17 (adapted from Madsen)

Nicodemus, Hendrik Crijn

There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of mankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with him in his deeds.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as he is, and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it will; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

William Blake

Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

1^st June Trinity

June 19, 2011

John 3:1-17

Cedar Pollen

We are approaching the longest day, the shortest night of the year. The plants have released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, the pollen will be kissed by the life-giving power of the sun. When it returns to the plants, it will bring them the potential to create the seeds of new life.

We too have our times when we expand out into the universe. Mostly we do so unconsciously, in sleep. When we return to our bodies in the morning, blessed and strengthened by an encounter with our angel, we are refreshed and ready for the new life in a new day.

Nicodemus comes to Christ in the realm of night. And Christ tries to make clear to him that it is now necessary to become aware, to consciously work with these spiritual forces of new birth from above with our day-waking consciousness. The spirit breath, the spirit wind carries with it words of creation, the potential for the next step in the evolution of humankind. The spirit gives us the impulses for the new—a new way, a new direction, a new paradigm. For the old is falling away. But the spirit needs our voluntary cooperation.

As we approach the zenith of the year, it is time to open ourselves. It is time to receive the blessing and strength from the spirit, for what is coming. We may not know where exactly which direction the impulse for the new is coming from; we may not know where it will lead us.

It will most certainly at first lead us through the death of the old way, just as following Christ led Nicodemus through the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. For we hear of Nicodemus helping to prepare Christ’s body for the tomb. John 19:39 Nevertheless, we can listen for the sound of the spirit wind, and rise to hear the words of becoming, sounding on the breath of the spirit. As we do so, we will begin to share in Christ’s timeless, higher life. John 3:16

As poet said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.*

*Antonio Machado, The Winged Energy of Delight, translations by Robert Bly

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1st June Trinity 2018, Burning Thirst

Egbert Codex

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

1^st June Trinity

Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

May 27, 2018

John 4:1-26

If someone were to ask us for a drink of water, most of us would do our best to accommodate them. We know how basic and burning a need thirst can be. We also know that human interdependence means that we often need others to provide what we need.

Christ requests of the Samaritan woman, of all of us, ‘Give me to drink.’ Astonishing to think that He who created water has to ask human beings for a drink. Yet this demonstrates the tremendous generosity and respect that the Divinity offers us—that it asks and waits for us to respond.

Christ has a burning thirst for what we can give Him. He needs our noblest thoughts, our hearts’ love, our devoted wills. Offering them to Him creates a fountainhead within our own being. He joins with us in creating a fountain of love for God; He joins us in a fountain of creative, peaceful love for fellow human beings: He joins us in a fountain of wonder and amazement for the way God works.  So in the words of Rilke:

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions ... For the god

wants to know himself in you.*

* Rainer Maria Rilke, in Ahead of All Parting, ed. and translated by Steven Mitchell

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1st June Trinity 2017, Nuptials of the Soul

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17

There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of mankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with him in his deeds.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as he is, and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it will; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

1^st June Trinity

June 11, 2017

John 3: 1-17

Pine Pollen

Clouds of pollen rise into the upper atmosphere, to be inoculated with the living powers of the sunlight. The virgin queens of new hives ascend into the heights for their nuptials. When the pollen and the bees descend, they bring with them the possibility of new life.

Our lives, too, require an ascent. We offer the fragrance of our heart's prayers, our love, the purity of our thoughts, to Christ, the Sun-God, and His Father.

Our ascending heart offerings make it possible for the grace of a new kind of life to descend and to be born in us. This new life is born out of Christ's eternal capacity for becoming, developing, evolving. It is born out of the nuptials of the soul with humanity's Bridegroom. It is grace.

As Hafiz says,

…Now is the time for the world to know

hat every thought and action is sacred.

That this is the time

For you to compute the impossibility

That there is anything

But Grace.

Now is the season to know

That everything you do

Is sacred.*

*Hafiz ,"Now is the Time", in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 160.

1st May/June Trinity 2016, No Hands

June Trinity

Arild Rosenkrantz

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus, they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me, I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for humanity in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. [I am revealed in them.] I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

June Trinity

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

We have come to a particular moment in the cycle of the liturgical year. This moment represents both an ending and a beginning. We have completed our walk through the mighty deeds Christ did on and for the earth. We have accompanied him from His birth through His death, His Ascension, and His sending of the Father’s Spirit at Pentecost. This gospel reading is taken from the evening before His death. He had nearly completed His time in a material physical body and was about to inhabit another kind of body, His resurrection body of light, and ultimately, at Ascension, to take on the whole earth as His

body.

At this moment in time, it is as though we remember and reflect back on certain highlights, certain key points about His time with us before we move on to the next phase of the year.

This gospel passage, called the High Priestly Prayer, is the one we also heard at Confirmation, that moment in a child’s life which signals the end of childhood and the beginning of another life phase, the phase of youth. And the priest also reads this passage at the Last Anointing, just before a person’s death. In this prayer, Christ assures us that he remains watching us prayerfully, intimately and individually. And he commends us in prayer to the Father’s care.

We could say that this moment signals the end of ‘Phase One’ and the beginning of ‘Phase Two,' both in Christ’s life and in our lives in the cycle of the year. And what is Phase Two? It is an opportunity that depends on upon our openness and loving response to everything He has gone through. Will we continue His work? Will we open ourselves anew in wonder and awe of all he has done? Will we take up His compassionate, healing spirit? Will we act out of the promptings of our good angels, the promptings of our higher selves? He hopes we will take up His work. For as Teresa of Avila said,

Christ has no body now but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He looks

compassion on this world

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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First June Trinity 2015, Expectation

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

Antonio de Pareda

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

May 31, 2015

This reading is taken from Jesus’ conversation with his Father the night before He died. It is a summation of the inter-relatedness, the interweaving of the Father and the Son and us. Through this interweaving we can become those human beings filled with the healing Spirit, those out of whom the light of Christ shines. This particular reading is also read sacramentally two other times in a person’s life: it is read at the children’s Confirmation, when their individual souls and destines are born out of the family milieu. It is also read again just before death, at the Last Anointing. Jesus’ words thus can form the bookends of an individual human biography, if they so choose.

This reading also underscores once again the motifs of Pentecost: that each person’s individuality is to be preserved; that we are to live out of the power of our selfhood. And that our selfhood and our destiny, voluntarily connected to Christ, will lead us to the Father  and His unifying Spirit. As the poet John O’Donohue says:

May you recognize in your life the presence,

Power and light of your soul.

May you realize that you are never alone,

That your soul in its brightness and belonging

Connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.

May you have respect for your individuality and difference.

May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique,

That you have a special destiny here,

That behind the façade of your life

There is something beautiful and eternal happening.

May you learn to see your self

With the same delight,

Pride and expectation

With which God sees you in every moment.[1]

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[1] John O'Donohue, “A Blessing for Solitude” in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 112

June Trinity 2007, Forever Give

White Rose, Dore

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you.  Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one. 

First Trinity Sunday

June 3, 2007

John 17: 6-11

Some types of roses grow in great clusters. Yet this form is created by the ordering of many smaller individual blossoms, each complete and unique in itself.        

          Mankind is a great cluster. Yet the Gospel reading emphasizes that Christ prays to His Father, not for the greater cluster, but for the single individuals who are close to Him. What is important to Him, that out of which He operates, is a relationship of love, active from both sides. He is a Divine Human Being, a Human Divine, who wants an intimately personal relationship with each of us.

          In recent years there appeared a collection of modern Christ experiences.[1] One recurring theme in these accounts was each person’s experience of being seen, known by Christ, and at the same time being deeply loved, in spite of His full awareness of their weaknesses or failings. The overriding experience was of being intimately known, loved and supported. Out of this experience of being known and loved by Christ, we in turn can learn to love others in a similar way.

          Before His total sacrifice of Himself out of His love, Christ prays to His Father: “Keep in your Name and in your Being all whom you gave given to me, so that they may be One, even as we are also One.” John 17:11

How can we be One? The poet suggests a way:

…narrow the gap

Between you and God.

I [we] have many younger brothers and sister

Scattered upon this earth

There are always friends of God in this world.

Find on and offer service

For their glance is generous and cannot help

But forever give. [2]

---

[1] C. Scott Sparrow, I Am With You Always: True Stories of Encounters with Jesus, Bantam Books, 1995.

[2] Hafiz, “Narrow the Difference,” in The Subject Tonight Is Love, collected by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 37.