Smells and Bells

Honeycomb s "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet"  Depending on the translation, God's sweetness flows from him like honey, an oozing sweetness that could mean bliss or joy, but could also be literally translated to sweetness. With the satiability of God's words and presence being connected to only sweetness, while things that may bring harm to us are considered bitter. What's interesting to me is the delectability of God despite his power and wrath. Where is the sweetness when he induces the flood? Would we every consider God any other flavors or tastes? To connect this back to what the author said about taste being a matter of perspective. Rachel Fulton also noted how sweetness can be seen as juvenile, with the connotations as follows could be perceiving the person tasting as immature.  Further elaborating on this idea that Bernard of Clarivaux introduced of our palate being tainted by the serpent's poison, providing a loss of tastes of goodne...

People claim to have heard God’s voice, even see Him. People feel God’s presence. It is the rare person indeed who claims to have tasted or smelled God. However, as Rachael Fulton suggests in her writing of The Flavor of God in the Monastic West, taste is vital. She states that “reading texts and looking at images may transform us intellectually, emotionally, or even spiritually, but eating food   This difference is thought to be due to all of the slight variations and meanings of words, but this book really looks into those that believed they truly experienced the taste of God. might poison us…” (173). The most repeated quote in the reading was “’Taste and see that the Lord is sweet’” (Ps 34:8), which in many other translations is translated to be “Taste and see that the Lord is good”. One example came from Beguinages and convents of northern Germany, most famously thirteenth-century Gertrude of Helfta. I found her descriptions to be frankly shocking. I quote ...