A thousand "reasons I should not spend my time with you"

Only When I Lose Myself

by Depeche Mode

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It's Only When I Lose Myself in someone else
Then I find myself
I find myself

It's Only When I Lose Myself in someone else
Then I find myself
I find myself
Something beautiful is happening inside for me
Something sensual, it's full of fire and mystery
I feel hypnotized, I feel paralyzed
I have found heaven

There's a thousand reasons
Why I should not spent my time with you
For every reason not to be here I can think of two
Keep me hanging on
Feeling nothing's wrong
Inside your heaven

It's Only When I Lose Myself in someone else
Then I find myself
I find myself
It's Only When I Lose Myself in someone else
Then I find myself
I find myself

I can feel the emptiness inside me fade & disappear
There's a feeling of content that now you are here
I feel satisfied
I belong inside
Your velvet heaven

Did I need to sell my soul
For pleasure like this
Did I have to lose control
To treasure your kiss

Did I need to place my heart
In the palm of your hand
Before I could even start
To understand

It's Only When I Lose Myself in someone else
Then I find myself
I find myself...

There's a thousand "reasons I should not spend my time with you" is among the lyrics to this meditation. The song succinctly describes the experience of many in this life.
The feeling of being, captured by love. A love that surprises, that overwhelms, lowering the normally defensive ego to allow the brilliance of a sun-filled day into our heart.
"Do I need to sell my soul for pleasure like this?"
 No, love is not bought or sold; it's given freely. We learn none of these fears are justified; if it is God who is the great creator of all, then it is god, who casts light among the beloveds.
All of creation is free in his reign. Love requires faith; it requires that we act though we cannot see; that the "evidence" lies only in a heart.
"Something beautiful is happening inside for me, Something sensual, it's full of fire and mystery I feel hypnotized, I feel paralyzed, I have found heaven..."

There is something to it: For those demanding a sign, Saint Matthew tells us in Chapter 16 that

"When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples,“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied,“Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life? "

 Bible, St. Matthew 16:13-20; 24-26

A Taize Kind of Day

On a recent visit to the very important pilgrimage center in Europe-- Taize, France, as a simple mind I was brought into direct experience with what it is that makes this monastery Taize tick, bringing more than 80,000 pilgrims each year. But after a week there, I can explain it no better than frere Paolo who has made Taize his life: the simple way, the way of Saint Ignatius Loyola is his way.

 Frere or Brother and monk of Taize, Paolo is quoted as explaining their lives at Taize:

“The monastic commitment is to three things: to celibacy – to say as a life commitment that you are not going to have any one person in your life to whom you belong or who belongs to you. To simplicity – not having bank accounts, not always looking to acquire more things. To obedience – accepting the decisions made in community, not looking out for your own career, not living together for convenience: trying to take part in the same creation together, the same work, ministry, whatever you want to call it. 

 

Those three things, which are questions of sex, money and power, are the very things which human beings want to be able to control. And the thing is, that, if you live it well, and wholeheartedly, it quite often leads you into times when you feel very, very empty, lonely, at a loss. And you wait there, in the Prayer, in the silence, in the singing of the psalms, in these songs that go round and round, and you wait and you discover that it is actually there, when it is very empty, that the roots of your life arise again.

And the thing is that I actually think that this resonates with the experience of young people It is young people’s experience that life is empty and they want it to be filled, and they wonder where that fulfillment is going to come from, where they are going to discover the direction for their lives, and so I think there is something here in our life at Taize that resonates for them.”


Some 'song-prayers' of Taize: Ubi Caritas, the words are a simple chant: 'ubi caritas, deus ibi est'; where there is charity, there is love, god is.
There are many others such as Stay with Me.... and the chant   Oh, You, You Are Everything  whose sound and images record the simple beauty of the monastery herself.

The voices you hear are not those of professional singers. They are the voices of the many, simple pilgrims who come each day to pray in chant at the worship center. Praying as one voice, chanted in many different languages, the prayers are often spontaneous and many linger an hour or more chanting after the monks have retired to their other tasks, in addition prayer.