In this conversation, former nurse and now professor John Swinton mentions the theme of accompaniment. Speaking of the experience of a depressed person, he said that accompaniment might not mean sitting with someone in their depression but rather helping them find the right medication for their condition. Much of the work I did as a chaplain could be characterized as accompaniment.

I found that each room I visited held a new way for me to journey with someone. Never was the company predictable in their need. That might sound obvious; yet, in doing the same thing of “showing up” to hospital rooms, one could easily assume that’s where the job ended. The essence of accompaniment is to move with another for a time.

Toward the city of God or man? Pilgrims paired for a time. “Love has its speed…” as Kosuke Koyama would say.

[Of the Cross] Its breadth lies in the transverse beam on which the hands of the Crucified are extended; and signifies good works in all the breadth of love: its length extends from the transverse beam to the ground, and is that whereto the back and feet are affixed; and signifies perseverance through the whole length of time to the end: its height is in the summit, which rises upwards above the transverse beam; and signifies the supernal goal, to which all works have reference, since all things that are done well and perseveringly, in respect of their breadth and length, are to be done also with due regard to the exalted character of the divine rewards: its depth is found in the part that is fixed into the ground; for there it is both concealed and invisible, and yet from thence spring up all those parts that are outstanding and evident to the senses; just as all that is good in us proceeds from the depths of the grace of God, which is beyond the reach of human comprehension and judgement.

St. Augustine: On I John.

"Concealed and invisible" alluding to the depth of the cross—its victim, and work— reminds me of (1)Jesus' and (2)Wendell Berry's words:

1. "Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

2. Put your faith in the two inches of humus
   that will build under the trees
   every thousand years.
   Listen to carrion — put your ear
   close, and hear the faint chattering
   of the songs that are to come...Practice resurrection.

It seems like Augustine cannot but help himself from interpreting St John's letter with the language of the apostle of the cross, St Paul. Did Paul have the multi-dimensionality of the cross in mind when he wrote to the Ephesians, Dear Bishop of Hippo?

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I love reading about the lives of the Inklings—the 20th century group of Oxford eccentrics. Some time ago I came across this website of quotes culled from two seprate devotional books collected by Charles WIlliams. Since I added the feed to my RSS Reeder, the snippets act like the best kind of desk calendar full of dank quotes each new day. Here’s two Pentacost Sunday gems:

A gift is properly an unreturnable giving … hence it is manifest that love has the nature of a first gift, through which all free gifts are given. So since the Holy Ghost proceeds as Love, He proceeds as the first gift. Gift … is the proper name of the Holy Ghost.

Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica.

The Holy Ghost is He whereby the Begotten is loved by the One begetting and love His Begetter.

St. Augustine: On the Trinity.