Poetry and Transcendence

"How does the ordinary person come to an experience of the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. There are many ways, however, of coming to the transcendent experience.

"A significant approach is the way of ritual. A ritual allows us to participate in the enactment of a myth. One prepares internally to move with the image and the transcendent comes through."

                                                                        ~ Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p.92-93

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Monday Music: All Creatures of Our God and King

Yesterday, over at Music of the Spheres, I posted this one for the Feast of St. Francis:

On the Feast Day for St. Francis of Assisi, an old hymn with the words of St. Francis set to the tune  LASST UNS ERFREUEN. Originally written in Italian ("Laudato sia Dio mio Signore"), the text is also known as the "Song of All Creatures" and as the "Canticle of the Sun." Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment titled, "Laudato Si" (Praise Be to You) has as it's subtitle, "On care for our common home." The document's title, of course, harks back to the words of St. Francis in praise to God for creation.

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