This Rumi poem explains the mystical power of Ramadan fasting, which begins tomorrow or Tuesday.
Tag Archives: Rumi
Be Empty and Cry As a Reed Instrument
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Subsisting in Layla’s Subsistence
In this Ramadan poem, the Algerian Sufi mystic Ahmad al-Alawi uses erotic imagery to capture the relationship between humans and God.
A Mistake to Put God in the Sky
Mystic poet Celan Harkin tries to reimagine God and prayer in “The Worst Thing.”
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Empty Yourself, Taste Sweetness
In this Rumi Ramadan poem, the body empties so that the soul may be filled.
Beauty Reflects the Eternal Orchard
Spiritual Sunday I wrote last Sunday about the “centering prayer” workshops that former Sewanee Chaplain Tom Ward is running at the Ayres Spiritual Center in Sewanee. Centering prayer, Tom told us, is “a way of listening to the texts of Scripture as if we were in conversation with Christ and He were suggesting the topics […]
A Dark Grave Can’t Hold a Deathless Soul
Spiritual Sunday In response to a white terrorist’s slaughter of 49 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, I turn to two poems by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, and Rumi helps us move beyond our conventional understanding of death to a deeper understanding of how spirit works in […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "come on sweetheart", "you mustn't be afraid of death, Al Noor mosque massacre, New Zealand massacre, white terrorism Comments closed
Open the Love Window and Kiss the Moon
Thursday – Valentine’s Day Kathy Hamman, a dear family friend, alerted my mother and me to this wonderful Rumi poem for Valentine’s Day. (My mother ran it in her Sewanee Messenger poetry column.) I have used other poems suggested by Kathy in the past, but this is particularly meaningful because Kathy is currently fighting late stage cancer. That her […]
Strangers Are Guides from Beyond
Rather than fear strangers, Rumi says we should welcome them in.
