Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
(Psalm 107)
The foe: the kingdom of illusions, undisciplined activity, the reign of unbridled « doing »
Gathered in the midst: present at the center, the hub of the wheel, the Tao,
The center of the heart of existence
From East to West, from North and South
The Psalm anticipates the outline of the cross
The one traced on the foreheads of the saved (Tav) in the center literally personified by Christ. The center from which he will transcend the torments of existence and bring salvation to those who find him there…
The center, a point of passage,
A vortex from which one emerges from the wanderings described in the following paragraphs,
From which one soothes anxieties, places pierced by light, from which one emerges from shadow and night.
The place where one truly resides (« the city » 107:4).
The center from which one exercises compassion, from which one realizes the suffering of beings on the periphery of themselves,
Trapped in their chains, locked behind their doors,
Confined by locks.
The sick, suffering sinners, walled up in morbid circles.
Suddenly (a single word 107:25), they are healed.
©FJ August 2025
Recueils / Participation/
Notes & Silence 
You puzzled me momentarily with the reference to Tav – which can refer to a Greek letter not in the word shown in the image.
You also momentarily amused me with an image of a Catherine Wheel next to the word « fish »…!
But, enough of my mind’s peculiarities…
The point to all this, to my mind, is that gathering anyone out of the periphery of mundane preoccupation into the central being and consciousness is both an act of mercy and utterly unnecessary. We are there already, if only we open our eyes.
I’ll leave aside my general antipathy to referencing texts so much misused by those with mundane preoccupations.
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Oh…I do not know who Catherine Wheel is.
I’ll look that up.
Tav: I read, somewhere, that the primitive writing of that Hebrew letter was a cross…which later became T shaped.
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The instrument by which St Catherine was executed, if I recall correctly.
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