Via Negativa

While hunting for other things, I stumbled across this piece. It resonates strongly with me today. I think I'll shut up now, and let it speak for itself:

On Giving Up

I gave up negative remarks for Lent,
It took the whole first week
for me to grasp
this single imperfection.
But then it came,
served up on its little platter
neat as an omelet: NO VIA NEGATIVA
FOR SIX WEEKS. TRY IT,
YOU’LL LIKE IT.

Indeed, it sobers me
to hear myself complain:
I rise to praise all sun and water
flowing over rock, seek out wines
to go with pasta. And wit --
I’ll never have enough of wit,
it radiates good vibes.

And yet, re: sober thoughts:
what’s wrong with no, not, isn’t,
never will: They have their truth:
God said, I AM, but
so am I,
and I’m not God. Nor,
as far as I can see,
is any other name now known:

God IS but thrives on being ISN’T,
and in just such terrifying,
nonaffirming ways as ours,
who probe the dark, then stumble,
then cry out in heaps of helplessness.

I ponder thus on Thursday of Week Six.

-- Sr. Mary Virginia Micka, CSJ
St. Paul, Minn.

J.