The Writings of Robert Daniel Smith
                        and Home of the Iona House Catholic Worker
                                    Inspired by Celtic and Creation Spirituality 
         Informed by the Primordial Tao, the Findhorn Vision, Mahatma Gandhi and Nonviolence, Rumi, Matthew Fox, and the World Mystics                                

                                            

                                              Burning

                                                                                                           
There is a burning that is neither   flame
nor touch   but something direct from Mystery

we are certainly made from   That

Words sometimes serve   but only as distractions

Pass straight on through form   even
through that which is formless
into essence   dying   we begin Here

Nothing exists   only This

Sometimes described as soul   sometimes
as angels or the color red   sometimes seen
in the tumbling waters of an insignificant river
and sometimes   as the breath of a Kiss

It cannot be possessed   it cannot be held
but only let go   always let go   like the difference
of gender   or the wind that lifts and then tears away
the flying kite   to disappear into the endless blue sky

Looking up   you might think you see the tail
of something   going away from the corner of your eye
But there is only   This   and the burning of the soul

Would you kneel if you saw the Beloved   or
would you instead   do something entirely different
like run naked in the other direction   hoping
for a chase and a sweet entanglement   somewhere
in the bushes   under the trees   and beside the river

It does not matter if   this or that   not
if you've already surrendered to the burning
that gives steady potency to   Sacred Imagination
settle into the question without an answer

Live as a blind beggar   with her back to the shrine
she may or may not already know it   but
she is the shrine   the offering   and the sacrament too
for the Communion of Love   that is the happy feast
of Everything and of Nothing   so live free
of the counterfeit reality that would steal your heart
and leave you   naked   for all of the wrong reasons

But surely the knife is coming to look for you   as it is for me

So there is really no choice   but to become a rose
hyacinth   or lady's slipper   and accept the cutting   and
after the vase of time   if not before   just give evidence
of the soul within you   living as a sample of Beauty

The soul   as the essence of Mystery   and as the quality                  
that validates every hunger   and every striving for union                                            
is the only garment we wear to keep

There is   Nothing else besides   so

When you see the flight of the Monkey
wait                                                                                                                                                           
When you are carried aloft   don't
​look back into the ashes  

Do not doubt 
as soul   you are the Tree   at the top of the world
and you are the Earth  
​and the Mother of God


[Soul is the Consciousness that is both You and Quantum... soul is skin, hair, and playful genitals... soul is empathy, mercy, and compassion... soul is the Beauty within which we all live... soul is that which is expansive within us... soul is the Sacred Fire that compels our breath in a steady flow... soul is the awareness that awakens when the breath ceases and we jump out of our bodily residence... soul is the Oneness that is "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One"... soul is Infinite Desire, Infinite Pleasure, and Infinite Giving... soul is the will to pursue -- to the point and beyond of nonviolent self-sacrifice -- for equality, justice, and peace... soul is the Burn of Love's Hand -- in gratitude -- for Every Other...

"Burning" has nothing whatsoever to do with the pernicious proposition that Quantum Consciousness -- who self-identifies as Infinite Love -- has within Her Sacred Imagination a "place" of everlasting fire: in which unworthy, unsaved, souls will burn forever in the fires of hell... Do we really need the fear of hell to love with all of our being? Does Infinite Love need to motivate love by fear? Ridiculous! The "Burning" of this poem is the "burn" of passion unleashed from every fear: the "burn" of the complete surrender to loving: the "burn" of Love's Hand in living compassion, kindness, mercy, and nonviolence... and the "burn" of turning away from the illusions of separation... The "Burning" is the root of the root of the root: it is perhaps best described as sacred Yearning or Longing...] 

-- Robert Daniel Smith

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Stunning love is where the soup boils. Justice and Mercy stand in the breadline. The Blissful Mother receives there Her bowl of soup and piece of bread. Kitchen theology is getting up out of the easy chair and going where the onions need to be chopped! Kitchen theology is the understanding that "salvation" is not the profession of a creed or a "personal relationship" with Jesus, Allah, Krishna, the Buddha, the Torah, the Way or even the Goddess. Rather, it is the radical commitment to not enter Paradise until everyone among us has found their fill of bread and roses, and entered first. -- Robert Daniel Smith   Resplendent In Rags


If we believe in the Incarnation of the Son of God, there should be no one on earth in whom we are not prepared to see, in mystery, the presence of Christ. -- Thomas Merton

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Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement which continues to operate Houses of Hospitality throughout the world, with the workers publishing newspapers, building farms, serving and advocating for the poor, and witnessing for peace and justice.

​The price of the kingdom is the food you give to those who need it. -- St. Leo the Great

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. -- Dorothy Day, Saint of the Gutter Beautiful

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                                                                                   I care, therefore I am
                                             I care, therefore I build community
                                             I care, therefore I practice beauty
                                             I care, therefore I build the New Creation

Creation was fashioned to be adorned, to be showered, to be gifted with the love of the Creator. The entire world has been embraced by this kiss. Limitless love, from the depths to the stars, flooding all, loving all. It is the royal kiss of peace. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God. -- St. Hildegard of Bingen

​Divinity is everywhere and within everything: it is the Holy of Holies, the Secret of Secrets. It is both above and beneath, within and without. It is before and it is behind: it lurks behind every veil -- always ready and waiting for the perfect moment, the surprise of the perfect pounce... -- Robert Daniel Smith   Resplendent In Rags
                                     

Every single act of kindness is a call into Being for the Divine Beloved -- the Source is born -- again and again throughout all of time -- by every moment and movement of Love from "one" to "another". We become the Mothers of G-d by our Love and through our Love! We give birth to G-d when through a thought, word, or action we exist -- in that specific and precious moment -- not for ourselves, but only for the "other"...

The whole universe is contained within a single human being... you.  
​-- Rumi

I raise up my voice -- not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard... we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.
-- Malala Yousafzai 


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