The title “BergenBeats” is a reminder: “These Bergens each march to the beat of a different drum”. Rhythms move us deeper than words, melodies take us up out of ourselves. Erin and John recently used songs to explain the journeys they are on, songs that may also inspire you.
John‘s tattoo is a phrase that has guided him through 4 years’ preparation: tending sheep in the cold, praying day and night with monks through a winter term, assisting some of the most innovative community healers of the decade, cooking for thousands, writing hundreds of pages of reports. Disciplines, useful skills, but just tools for the quest.
Abbot Lot came to Abbot Joseph and said: “Father, to the limit of my ability, I keep my little rule, my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and to the limit of my ability, I work to cleanse my heart of thoughts; what more should I do?” The elder rose up in reply, and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: “Why not be utterly changed into fire?
The phrase is also the title of a parable song reflecting the facets of our calling. You can read the lyrics here, listen to the song while reading the lyrics here, and take the images a step further with Ingmar Bergman’s cinematic reflections here.
Erin and many others who have been through Camp Mennoscah have rooted their lives in Zephaniah 3:17 (words in the picture above). The melody came to a staff member during a night-time prayer as campers settled under the vast quiet starry sky; it captures the tender, dedicated love of an almighty parent’s lullaby. The song helps bring into post-camp life that awareness of a power that holds all we know, a power that rejoices in who we each are, who in Incarnation reminded us that God knows the life of each bird and even the hairs on our head. And if this Love be for us, what can be against us? What Good News could be more valuable to share? Alleluia!
BergenBeats 