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Logos2Go

Daily thoughts on aesthetics and theology, and the entire world in between.

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The hidden life of cathedrals and blogs

I told my wife I was up late last night writing my post on Logos2Go.

She said: "What, for all six of your readers?"

She is such a sweetheart. Once I was in Tibet and I emailed a poem I had composed for her under some sort of inspiration (the altitude in Tibet is very high). A day later I eagerly made my way back to the tent where the internet cafe was located, looking forward to a return email from my love. And yippee there it was!: "Glad to hear you are okay. As for that other stuff, write it in plain English..."

She is such a sweetheart. But I digress all in good fun ... ....

... "What, for all six of your readers?"

This threw me into deep reflection, as I am wont to do. My mind turned to the medieval cathedrals: to Notre Dame, Amiens, Reims, Chartres, Beauvais. Magnificent constructions of the human heart! The cathedrals were probably the high-water mark of Western architecture; a perfect union of immaterial ideals with material stone.

The medieval worldview regarded a cathedral as a Book of the Universe both symbolically and socially. Socially: the illiterate learned the lessons of the institutionalized Church through the stories carved into the stone.

But there are some carvings in niches and between walls that cannot be seen. Yet they are there. Removed from the eyes of men, they were carved for the eyes of God.

We have lost that love for a hidden life of communion, a secret life where contentment is found when one simply spends time with God behind shut doors. We live in a culture of instant display; we live in a look-at-me culture. Success is measured by hits.

Sure I'd like more hits on Logos2Go; at least seven of them. But I also carve for other Eyes, and as I send each one of these into the niches of cyberspace, I offer it to Him.

Logos2Go

Psalm 139.15
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth …

Psalm 11.4 The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.

Isaiah 49.5 And now the Lord says-- he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength ...

Matthew 6.6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who [is] in the secret [place]; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

2 comments:

Brad April 26, 2009 at 6:48 PM  

I am honored to be one of the six.

My guess is that after a few months It will not be just 6 regular readers. My experience is that it builds very slowly, but it dose build.

But you know there really is something so right about writing as if no one is reading it. Something very right indeed. So much of our ideas can be tainted by shaping them so man would find them interesting or entertaining.

keep on brother...

David Wang April 27, 2009 at 7:35 AM  

Hey thanks Brad. You are a real encouragement. We can both be monks together in the hidden niches of God's house. David.

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