Though Gary Jansen has written numerous books, he had yet to fully integrate into a single volume his creative interests as a self-described "literary geek," film lover, and devotee of Ignatian spirituality. He finally accomplished that goal with his latest work, Meditations at Midnight: Poetry and Prose, which explores both Jesus's life and the human experience in ways that are both imaginative and memorable.
Via Dolorosa, the book's first section, consists of 14 exquisite poems in which Gary imagines what was going through the mind of Jesus during His Passion. The seeds of these poems were planted by the band U2's "Until the End of the World." Though the song is from the 90s, Gary only realized six years ago that the lyrics occur from the point of view of Judas talking to Jesus.
During a Christopher Closeup interview, Gary explained, "It got me thinking . . . 'What if I could use my imagination to get into the imagination of Jesus during the Passion?' So, there's 14 stations in the Stations of the Cross, and there's 14 poems in this first section . . . the Way of Sorrows. Each one is an interpretation of Jesus's Passion following the Stations. . . . [It was] such a spiritually fruitful experience for me to get into the mind of having the conversation with Jesus and Judas, Jesus and Pontius Pilate, and observations of when He's having memories of His mother and growing up as a little boy."
This kind of exercise is a regular part of Ignatian spirituality, which involves reading a passage of Scripture and using your imagination to get into the scene. Gary observed, "When you think about all the movies that have come out over the years - whether it's 'Passion of the Christ' or TV shows like 'The Chosen' or 'Jesus of Nazareth' - they're taking this Ignatian approach: let me imagine what this scene would be like , , , what Jesus would be like. . . . I wanted to engage in that and . . . create something that was artistic but also approachable."
Though Gary is a practicing Catholic now, he spent his young adult years wrestling with God. He revisits that time in the Via Memoria section of Meditations at Midnight. At age 27, he felt a deep desire to "go search for God" by visiting various churches in Europe. The only problem: he had no money.
Gary recalled, "I had a job, but I had no savings, and I struggled about what to do. This thing was eating at me. I wanted to go for 40 days and 40 nights, to make this my own pilgrimage. I remember thinking strongly about this and saying, 'God, I really need a sign.' And so, I was walking around Lincoln Center in New York City, and I stumbled upon this huge Dante statue, which I'd never known about before. And Dante was like a patron saint for me, even though he is not a patron saint. . . . When I stared at that statue, I felt like God had given me a sign, so I quit my job and went off on this journey."
urope was the site of numerous spiritual encounters for Gary, some of which make their way into Meditations at Midnight. Regarding his hopes for people who read the book, Gary concluded, "This book is supposed to be like the app Hallow, but in book form. You could open it anywhere, read a little bit, and then hopefully, it brings a sense of peace and a sense of connection with yourself, your creativity, and hopefully with God."
This essay is a recent "Light One Candle"
column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of
weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current
events.
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