O gather up the brokenness
And bring it to me now
The fragrance of those promises
You never dared to vow
The cross you left behind
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
The cruelty or the grace
Where love has been confined
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind
That tore the light apart
Come healing of the reason
Come healing of the heart
An undivided love
The heart beneath is teaching
To the broken heart above
Let the earth proclaim
Come healing of the altar
Come healing of the Name
To lift the little bud
O longing of the arteries
To purify the blood
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb
I just finished listening to A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen by journalist and esotericist Liel Leibovitz. I recommend you read this book, or better yet listen to it on CD or via Audible (where you can get it for free for trying it). As my Living School teacher Cynthia Bourgeault recently posted, “Pondering the state of the world through the eyes of Gurdjieff, Jacques Lusseyran, Karl Jenkins, and Leonard Cohen.”
Indeed, Cynthia. For me, I’m processing the grief and disorientation of 2016 through the lenses of Gurdjieff, Bonaventure, and – yes, certainly the recently–ascended Cohen, a priest indeed for how to live well with ‘defeat.’ “This is not a biography,” Liel begins, and then proceeds to open us to Leonard’s soul – a Canadian soul, and a Jewish soul, which, for all its blessed particularities, speaks across cultures, faiths, and generations. I didn’t want Liel to stop reading to me – I think you’ll feel the same.
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