The Beatitudes Revisioned
with Glasses Borrowed from Ron Dart
in Honour of His 75th Birthday
by Tara Boothby
To Ron on your 75 th Birthday. You are loved.
You have planted legacy in my life and in the lives of so many that I hold dear.
Thank you, dear teach. Thank you, dear friend.
A wise good friend on the trail, helping us all to hold n to hope for friendships, as we trek and meet divine friendship.
With much love,
Tara
I
“This is the wisdom of the divine life:
Die to ego and be made alive to
Friendship with me,
And with those like me.
Move through unknowing
To experience
God’s suffered and suffering love.
God’s suffered and suffering love for you.
II
Meet me in the middle,
Meet me in the mess of it all,
And,
Meet me in the un-meet-able.
A wild horse do not drag away;
May the spirit be
Unbound,
Unbridled,
Unfettered;
Yet compassionately befriended.
That the soul may
Run anew on the new earth,
To sense with all the senses:
Earthy freedom.
Hear it!
See it!
Feel it!
Taste it!
Smell it!
Be celestial in it:
Soulful Freedom!
III
Do not be a slave to the belly of your mind.
Do not let your brain have bad gut health.
Do not indulge in fat-gutted intellect.
Do not sit on your ass and admire your golden cross and cup.
Get up!
Do Justice!
Love Mercy!
Walk Gently!
Turn your thoughts to these things:
The un-thwarted cry of a pious mother,
Holding her dead child;
This is your cry now.
And,
Do cry!
Call out!
Crave to know the sound of piety in your throat.
Turn your thoughts to these things.
May the celestial and the saints of the republic
Surround you in the here and now,
The before and the after.
May this mother’s milk nourish you.
Turn your thoughts to these things.
IV
Train your ears.
Gather up Justice and bring her to hear the music of the cloud of witnesses.
Meet Mercy on the dance floor.
Let Justice and Mercy dance with you,
Dance near you,
Dance around you,
Dance over you.
Let them Dance!
Justice!
Mercy!
Play their music.
V
Turn the lights on in your inner chambers,
Search out every broken ideology,
Every past ignorance,
Your fallibility.
And,
Ferociously love yourself;
Love your whole self,
Your very wholeness,
As you love the wholeness of your fellow human,
As you are loved by and
Love the wholeness of
The Holy Three.
This synagogue is your dwelling.
This Holy place smells of you,
And of God,
Celebrate your inner Cathedral;
For its beauty and for its ashes.
For the weeping mother,
For the unbroken Jesus,
For the face of God smiling down on you,
And for
The dust,
The torn,
And
The blind.
Weep over this Cathedral
That is
You.
VI
May inner peace be your compass.
Due north your crown,
Due south your root,
(There is no crown without soil,
The crown grows from the root),
In your right-hand non-violence,
In your left-hand humanity.
VII
May Paradiso within you collide with the
Idol of human ambition;
The gold as much as the
Not-gold.
May Paradiso within you collide with
Paradiso in the here and now,
The before and the after.
The collision of Paradiso and Love,
The Father’s provision of food,
Of shelter,
Of coin.
The Father fill’s his child’s purse.
And He prays:
“May Mother call to you from Paradiso,
And may you find her smiling there.”
Thank you Father.
VIII
Carry with you the provisions of the Lord.
Walk through the forest,
Ascend the seven-story mountain,
Pluck the rose from the sacred tree.
Set your feet and your path by the compass of peace.
Listen and hear the liturgy of the Saints singing over you.
All of the Saints,
And all of God,
Sing.
Dance in the prophecy of mercy and all that follows after it
You Beautiful Child.
You Beautiful Child,
The Lord make His face to shine upon you,
As if,
There Is
Only
One of You.
Beautiful,
Beautiful,
Beautiful,
Baby Boy.
References:
Alighieri, Dante (2009). The Divine Comedy. (H. F. Cary, Trans.). Wordsworth Edition.
Eliot, T.S. (year not given). Four Quartets. Valde Books, Acheson, Alberta.
Eliot, T.S. (1963). Murder in the Cathedral. A Harvest Book.
Eliot, T.S. (1962). The Waste Land, And Other Poems. A Harvest Book.
Dart, Ron (2005). The Beatitudes: When Mountain Meets Valley. Fresh Wind Press.