Newsletter --- September 2010

This newsletter is a publication of the Mystical Order of the White Rose, a multi-faith devotional and spiritual support organization. We support and share information about mystical, monastic, contemplative and creative ways of living. We encourage prayer, the reading of sacred scripture(s), lectio divina, meditation, journaling, solitude, fasting, silence, kindness, hospitality, worship, simplicity, creativity,active involvement in spiritual and religious communities, and loving service to others. You can view past issues here and you can subscribe to it here .

Theme: A Tribute to September and Autumn in Poetry, Prayer and Song

Table of Contents

- September Poem by John Updike

- Song: Try to Rember the Kind of September ... sung by Harry Belafonte

- September Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers and Lovers of the Green Way compiled by Michael P. Garafalo

- Song: Mabon (Autumn Equinox) by Lisa Thiel (observed September 23)

- Poem: Ode to Autumn by John Keats

- Quotation: A Definition of Religion by Marsha Sinetar

- Song: On Your Shore by Enya

- Prayer in Honor of the Nativity of Our Lady by St. Anselm (observed September 8)

- Song: September Song sung by Jimmy Durante (1955)

- Quotation: About Memory by Truman Capote

- Poem: Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins

- Daily Multi-Faith, Multi-Mediat Devotionals for September 2010

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September Poem

The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.

- John Updike, September

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September Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers and Lovers of the Green Way

Please click here to browse in this delightful garden of words.

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On Your Shore by Enya

Please click here to listen to this song.

Strange how
my heart beats
To find myself upon your shore.

Strange how
I still feel
My loss of comfort gone before.

Cool waves wash over
and drift away with dreams of youth
so time is stolen
I cannot hold you long enough.

And so
this is where I should be now
Days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.

I know
of a dream I should be holding
days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.

Soft blue horizons
reach far into my childhood days
as you are rising
to bring me my forgotten ways

Strange how I falter
to find I'm standing in deep water
Strange how
my heart beats
to find I'm standing on your shore

written by:   Enya/Roma Ryan
from: http://www.elyrics.net/read/e/enya-lyrics/on-your-shore-lyrics.html

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Ode to Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

- John Keats

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A Definition of Religion

Whether we study on our own or with others, the crux of our work is discovering the images, conscious acts, language and ideals for our own spirituality and then expressing these in everyday life. Ultimately, what we think, say and do is our religion.

- Marsha Sinetar, from A Way Without Words (1992)

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Prayer in Honour of Our Lady's Nativity

Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin; give me strength against thine enemies, and against the enemy of the whole human race. Give me strength humbly to pray to thee. Give me strength to praise thee in prayer with all my powers, through the merits of thy most sacred nativity, which for the entire Christian world was a birth of joy, the hope and solace of its life.

When thou wast born, O most holy Virgin, then was the world made light.

Happy is thy stock, holy thy root, and blessed thy fruit, for thou alone as a virgin, filled with the Holy Spirit, didst merit to conceive thy God, as a virgin to bear Thy God, as a virgin to bring Him forth, and after His birth to remain a virgin.

Have mercy therefore upon me a sinner, and give me aid, O Lady, so that just as thy nativity, glorious from the seed of Abraham, sprung from the tribe of Juda, illustrious from the stock of David, didst announce joy to the entire world, so may it fill me with true joy and cleanse me from every sin.

Pray for me, O Virgin most prudent, that the gladsome joys of thy most helpful nativity may put a cloak over all my sins.

O holy Mother of God, flowering as the lily, pray to thy sweet Son for me, a wretched sinner. Amen.

- St. Anselm

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September Song sung by Jimmy Durante

Please click here to hear the song and see the video.

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About Memory - A Quotation

The true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes, lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons, memory, yes, it being the earth and water of existence, memory.

- Truman Capote

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Spring and Fall

to a young child

Márgarét, áre you gríeving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Ah! ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you wíll weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It ís the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Daily Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotionals for September 2010

Each day we should expose ourselves to the inspiration of others. Thousands of saints and wise men and women have left us messages of hope and encouragement. Read what is honest. Read the scriptures and the commentaries. Read great literature and poetry. Read the psalms. Read that which expresses the anguish and the exhilaration of experience, and teaches us that we are not alone.

- John McQuiston II, p. 88, Always We Begin Again--The Benedictine Way of Living

Additional resources:

Moon Phases for August 2010 Daily Celebrations Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Gnostic Calendar--A Mandala of Wholeness

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

The Writer's Almanac:-- Poems, prose, and literary history every morning from Garrison Keillor direct to your inbox. Delivered daily.

Orthodox Calendar from Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Celtic Wheel of the Year Druidic Holy Days

Esoteric Christo-Pagan Calendar of Events and Observances The Liturgical Calendar of the Celtic Catholic Church

Pagan Calendar The Goddess Lunar Calendar Islamic Holy Days & Calendar

Church of England Calendar of Saints Calendar of the Church Year According to the Episcopal Church

Living in Season - “Living in Season” is for anyone who is weary of the frantic pace of modern life, who wants to slow down, connect with the natural world, and live a life filled with heart and meaning. Each season has its own flavor, captured in the folklore of seasonal holidays, preserved in rituals and recipes, ceremonies and songs. This quarterly “Living in Season” e-zine helps you connect with the seasons through our articles, online courses (with suggestions on spiritual practices and creative pursuits that match the energy of each season), books and e-books on time management and the seasons.

September 2010

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September 5