2023.05.14 Be a Poem, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

To be a poem is not the same as to write a poem. Being a poem takes lightness of mind and soul, weightless wisdom, boldness of heart. In other words, the branches are less weighty, but more supple, lithe, and limber than the vine. Together they create great spiritual choreography. Such is the embracing way of our mothering God.

*  *  *  *  

She had some horses she loved.

She had some horses she hated.

They were the same horses. 

Joy Harjo

A NAME

When Eve walked among

the animals and named them—

nightingale, red-shouldered hawk

fiddler crab, fallow deer—

I wonder if she ever named

them to speak back, looked into 

their wide wonderful eyes and

whispered, Name me, name me.  

Ada Limón

INSTRUCTIONS ON NOT GIVING UP

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out

of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s 

almost obscene display of cherry limb shoving

their cotton-candy colored blossoms to the slate

sky of spring rains, it’s greening of the trees

that really gets to me. When all the shock of white

and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave

the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,

the leaves come. Patient, plodding,  green skin

growing over whatever winter did to us, a return

to the strange idea of continuous living despite

the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,

I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf

unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

Ada Limón

BREATH IN ME

Breathe in me, breath of God

healing my lungs’ disease

So that I may in purest love

breathe in, and breath out with thee.

Breathe in me, breath of God,

For when my life is done

And my sweet lungs lose all their pow’r

My last breath and yours are one.

Lyn G. Brakeman (after Hymn #508)

And then the plant, fresh charged, would be

itself a vein of grace,

a way the keeper might extend

a hopeful, green embrace,

connecting child and foe and friend,

co-mingled and entwined,

to be and bear the fruit of god

in one life-giving vine. 

Michael Hudson

* * * *

And such are the many and varied ways of affectionate naming, guiding, breathing, mothering we recognize and celebrate on this 2023 MOTHERS’ DAY. 

2017.06.25 A Retreat To Consider

Words Matter: A Conversation About Theological Language and its Impact

Tuesday September 12- Friday September 15
Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York

Led by Rev. Lyn G. Brakeman and Rev. Richard J. Simeone

A young rabbinical student raised her hand, and the Rabbi gave her a nod. “Rabbi, does G-d have a gender?” Students laughed. The Rabbi answered respectfully: “No.” The student had more to ask: “Well then, if G-d has no gender why do we use only one gender when we talk about G-d?” To this the Rabbi had no answer. It’s not easy to stump a Rabbi. He could have said that the Hebrew noun for god was masculine, but that, he knew, was inadequate. The student had awakened the teacher. The Rabbi who told this story some years ago still ponders that question.

How does theological language and imagery shape the divine image? How does it shape our souls? What about all that familiar and beloved liturgical formulae? What about pronouns? What would you change? Why or why not? Is this simply a women’s issue? Is it an issue of spiritual formation of human souls? Is it just politics? Or is it a theological issue? What would Jesus do?

Cost: $ 350; deposit: $80

To Register, call the Guesthouse Office: 845.384.6660, ext 3002


Holy Cross Monastery is the mother house of the Episcopal order of brothers (yes, monks) The Order of Holy Cross. The Monastery, in West Park, New York, sits atop a sloping hill, often dotted with deer, overlooking the majestic Hudson River.

The house is comfortable (nice new bathrooms), the landscape alluring, the food near-divine. The regular worship in the monastery chapel led by the brothers gives rhythm and structure to the soul and peace of the mind. You can follow from the Book of Common Prayer easily, or you can sit and let the chanting of psalms and canticles flow over you.

The retreat will include meditations by the leaders with ample opportunity for conversation, questions, humor, experiential learning together.  There will also be plenty of time for quiet reflection and prayer on one’s own. It’s a chance to have fun together and relish a few days away from the pace of the world in silence, solitude and community.  The monastery website is:  www.holycrossmonastery.com

2016.05.22 Trinity Mystery

We live in a Mystery we do not understand, and we are grateful.

People say the Holy Trinity is a mystery, and so it is. But that doesn’t mean I do not keep on trying to understand it anyway. I am a wondering person. Possibly, I should be more afraid or humble, but I’m neither very well.

With divine mystery everything is up for grabs and too deep to measure. Nevertheless . . . the early Christians discerned a Divinity they called 3 in 1 and 1 in 3. Easy peasy, right? They experienced the ONE God as cosmic, close, and connected—all at once. This they called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and turned it into a doctrine about the triune nature of God. There followed creeds and liturgies and fights. Holy Writ was born—and a formula of blessing for all things holy. 

Over time calcification set in and the original experience was robbed of its brilliance. But not entirely. Wondering people, great and small, continued to come up with bright ideas for the Mystery we do not understand and for which we are grateful.

St. Augustine         Lover, Beloved, and Love itself.
                                God loves everyone as if each were all
           

Bernard of Clairvaux       Love of self for self’s sake
                                            Love of God for self’s sake
                                            Love of God for God’s sake
                                            Love of self for God’s sake


Jesus   “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. .  .
              the Spirit of  Truth will guide you into all truth . . .  (John 16: 12-15) 


Emily Dickinson     Tell all the truth but tell it slant -

                                 Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
                                 Success in Circuit lies
                                 Too bright for our infirm Delight
                                 The Truth’s superb surprise
                                 As Lightning to the Children eased
                                 With explanation kind
                                 The Truth must dazzle gradually
                                 Or every man be blind —


Douglas Witte, organist and music director, St. John’s Episcopal, Charlestown

 “The three section ‘Piece d’Orgue’ is Bach’s meditation on the idea of the Trinity. The first          section consists of a single voice executing a fleet series of three note figures. This represents God, three persons in one, and the non-stop nature of the section is omnipresence.”


Lyn G. Brakeman, priest and author

    Author, Book, Readers.

    The Author has a grand idea deep within;
    She muses upon it, ripens it, and writes it down in a Book;
    Readers read the book, digest it, and spread the idea, according to their own styles


The author dies, the book goes out of print, readers forget. The Idea lives on.