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ARTS AND CULTURE

Liturgy translation prophecy

  • 01 November 2011

Discernment and wobbly knees

There are liminal spacescramped and soggylike old tomato sandwichesyou wouldn't give to next door's dog.There are spaces where I crouchand have to keep my head down.And spaceswhere God can dance,weak at the knees with love.

Indigenous

Dull winter blew open my soul.I heard the eucalypt speak in native tongueand felt her unconscious persuasion.I saw her arms raised in joyful surrenderwithout need for instruction on how to grow tall,how to flower or consummate love.

I observed she gathered her own, roots entwined,each tree bent and whispering to the cluster,welcoming the newcomer — a conifer,rigid and trimmed, lonely as a city.I saw the eucalypt commune with her desert-heart,and plead for space as an unruly convict or

a desperate refugee; loud and green,sure as the wind to speak from the grave.

Christ on the margins

He upturns the tableThey upturn the soapboxHe reads the raw undersideThey read the soapie sideHe speaks of love and vulnerabilityThey speak of law and certaintyHe is crucified__They are crassified.

Prophecy

Dominus vobiscum__The Lord be with youEt cum spiritu tuo__And with your spirit

Two blessingsone resurrectedone still in the tomb

We are not pre-Vatican

We think wholebody and soulin whom God dwells

We anoint you saying__And also with you

We are not parrots in a pew trembling__And with your spirit

unless we meanthat the body is deadin the body of Christ 

Marlene Marburg is a spiritual director and PhD research student with the Melbourne College of Divinity. Her area of interest is the relationship between poetry and spiritual direction.