Eternal Seeping Through the Physical

We come into thy house, our home,
once more to give thanks:
for earth and sea and sky in harmony of colour,
the air of the eternal seeping through the physical,
the everlasting glory dipping into time.
We praise Thee.

For nature resplendent:
growing beasts, mergent crops, singing birds,
and all the gayness of the green.
We bless Thee.

For swift running tides, resistant waves, Thy spirit on the waters,
the spirit of the inerrant will,
striving with the currents that are also Thine.
We bless Thee.
O Lord: how marvellous are Thy works.
In majesty hast Thou created them.

As we look on man
we thank Thee above all that Thou hast been mindful of us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord:
that even as a man fell from Thy creation which was good,
so Thou didst send the Proper Man to restore in us the image:
that we find the road to harmony again in Him.

We praise Thee.
Yes: already vibrant with the everlasting,
we are enriched beyond the noblest works of nature.
That the spirit moves upon the turbulent waters of our lives:
We bless Thee.
Yes: that thou dost honour each of us
with a flowing tide and also with resistant waves,
and that the waves only engulf when we lose our trust in Thee:
We give Thee many thanks.
And that even Thou who hast set the stars on their courses
hast also sent each one of us within the orbit of Thy love.
The hairs of our head are numbered.
We give Thee humble praise.

By the awareness of Thy good creation round us,
by the intimations of Thy redemption in us,
by the pulsing sense of Thy spirit round about us and between us—
what else is left for us to do but to say sorry?
For our earthiness and our laziness:
our blindness and forgetting.
What else but to kneel when we see Thee hanging there
 bleeding there, but most certainly risen there
and waiting till we all get together there to take Thee down?
Give us life that we may be penitent.
Penitent that we may live.

--from The Whole Earth Shall Cry Glory: Iona Prayers, ed. by George MacLeod

Because He Gave Birth

So

precious

is a person's faith in God,

so precious;

never should we harm

that.

Because

He gave birth

to all

religions.

--St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Italian saint, deacon, and founder of the Franciscan religious communities of the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of St. Francis, from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, edited by Daniel Ladinsky.

Invocation to Convince a Baby Already Twelve Days Overdue to Come Out of the Womb

It's May. This is the month wild with choices.
You can rush into the strolling sunshine
to join forsythia bursting like popcorn,
and weeping cherry, and the woodthrush whose song
pulsed in southlight this morning.

Come with your hands open or shut.
Come with them slippery from blood.
Don't be afraid. Only slide down a cascade of water.
Come with your eyes azure as a piece of sky.
Or come with eyes a dark complication of gray.

Come trailing the leftover placenta.
Come with vernix like wax over pale new cheese.
Come with no clothes but the color rose
which quickens your flesh.
Come skinny or fat.

Come with hair black as a grand piano.
The count is up now, the game is over.
Come home to this small room.
You'll be as free
and as bound as the star that's framed

tonight in the window above your empty crib.

--Jeanne Murray Walker (1944- ), American poet and playwright, from Poetry magazine, May 1987, p. 92



On this day, 24 years ago, my firstborn was officially past her due date.  She would have to be induced 8 days later.

Passover Remembered

Pack Nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve 
and your willingness to be free.

Don't wait for the bread to rise.
Take nourishment for the journey, 
but eat standing, be ready
to move at a moment's notice.

Do not hesitate to leave
your old ways behind—
fear, silence, submission.

Only surrender to the need 
of the time— to love
justice and walk humbly
with your God.

Do not take time to explain to the neighbors.
Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.

Then begin quickly, 
before you have time to sink back 
into the old slavery.

Set out in the dark.
I will send fire to warm and encourage you.
I will be with you in the fire
and I will be with you in the cloud.

You will learn to eat new food
and find refuge in new places.
I will give you dreams in the desert
to guide you safely home to that place
you have not yet seen.

The stories you tell one another around your fires
in the dark will make you strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you, 
and some who follow you, 
and at times you will weary
and turn on each other
from fear and fatigue and
blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing for this for hundreds of years.
I am sending you into the wilderness to make a way 
and to learn my ways more deeply.

Those who fight you will teach you.
Those who fear you will strengthen you.
Those who follow you may forget you.
Only be faithful. This alone matters.

Some of you will die in the desert, 
for the way is longer than anyone imagined.
Some of you will give birth.

Some will join other tribes along the way, 
and some will simply stop and create
new families in a welcoming oasis.

Some of you will be so changed
by weathers and wanderings
that even your closest friends
will have to learn your features
as though for the first time.
Some of you will not change at all.

Some will be abandoned
by your dearest loves
and misunderstood by those
who have known you since birth
and feel abandoned by you.

Some will find new friendship
in unlikely faces, and old friends
as faithful and true as the pillar of God's flame.

Wear protection. 
Your flesh will be torn
as you make a path
with your bodies
through sharp tangles. 
Wear protection.

Others who follow may deride
or forget the fools who first bled
where thorns once were, carrying them
away in their own flesh.

Such urgency as you now bear
may embarrass your children
who will know little of these times.

Sing songs as you go, 
and hold close together.
You may at times grow
confused and lose your way.

Continue to call each other
by the names I've given you, 
to help remember who you are.
You will get where you are going
by remembering who you are.

Touch each other
and keep telling the stories
of old bondage and of how
I delivered you.

Tell you children lest they forget
and fall into danger— remind them
even they were not born in freedom
but under a bondage they no longer
remember, which is still with them, if unseen.

Or they were born in the open desert
where no signposts are.

Make maps as you go, 
remembering the way back
from before you were born.

So long ago you fell
into slavery, slipped
into it unawares, 
out of hunger and need.

You left your famished country
for freedom and food in a new land, 
but you fell unconscious and passive, 
and slavery overtook you as you fell
asleep in the ease of your life.

You no longer told stories of home 
to remember who you were.

Do not let your children sleep
through the journey's hardship.
Keep them awake and walking
on their own feet so that you both
remain strong and on course.

So you will be only
the first of many waves
of deliverance on these
desert seas.

It is the first of many
beginnings— your Paschaltide.
Remain true to this mystery.

Pass on the whole story.
I spared you all
by calling you forth 
from your chains.

Do not go back.
I am with you now
and I am waiting for you.
--Alla Renee Bozarth (1947- ), poet, priest, therapist, and one of the Philadelphia 11, from  Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey, 1988

Ritual

If God is the newest thing, the youngest
thing, as Meister Eckhart said, then look,
He's here as my son hands baby Maggie
to the priest, who crosses her with water.
Like tic-tac-toe: she entered the O
of eternity through the mudroom of birth
and the next move is to X her fontanelle
with God's good creature, water. See,
while she sleeps on, how fragile she is,
open to being pierced or blessed,
while outside the bright air trembles and a bell
start clanging the whole sky to pieces.

-- Jeanne Murray Walker (1944- ), American poet and playwright

Mary Magdalene and the Other Maries

OUR Master lies asleep and at rest:
His Heart has ceased to bleed, His Eye to weep:
The sun ashamed has dropped down in the west:
Our Master lies asleep.

Now we are they who weep, and trembling keep
Vigil, With wrung heart in a sighing breast,
While slow time creeps, and slow shadows creep.

Renew Thy youth as eagle from the nest;
O Master who has sown, arise to reap:
No cock-crow yet: no flush on eastern crest:
Our Master lies asleep.

--Christina Rosetti (1830-1894), English poet and supporter of the Oxford Movement



Image: Mary Magdalene Approaches the Tomb, by Gian Girolamo Savoldo.

For D----, Dead By Her Own Hand

My dear, I wonder if before the end
You ever thought about a children's game--
I'm sure you must have played it too-- in which
You ran along a narrow garden wall
Pretending it to be a mountain ledge
So steep a snowy darkness fell away
On either side to deeps invisible;
And when you felt your balance being lost
You jumped because you feared to fall, and thought
For only an instant: That was when I died.

That was a life ago. And now you've gone,
Who would no longer play the grown-ups' game
Where, balanced on a ledge above the dark,
You go on running and you don't look down,
Not ever jump because you fear to fall.

-- Howard Nemerov (1920-1999), US poet laureate 1963-1964, 1988-1990


Image: Diane Arbus (1923-1971), American photographer and artist, the poet's sister and the subject of this poem, who took her life on this day in 1971.

Arran of the many stags,

the sea strikes against its shoulder,

isle in which companies are fed,

ridge on which blue spears are reddened.

skittish deer are on her peaks,

delicious berries on her manes,

cool water in her rivers,

mast upon her dun oaks.

Greyhounds are in it and beagles,

blackberries and sloes of the dark blackthorn,

her dwellings close against the woods,

deer scattered about her oak-woods,

gleaning of purple upon her rocks,

faultless grass upon her slopes

over her fair shapely crags

noise of dappled fawns a-skipping.

Smooth is her level land,

fat are her swine,

bright are her fields,

her nuts upon the tops of her hazel-wood,

long galleys sailing past her.

Delightful it is when the fair season comes,

trout under the brinks of her rivers,

seagulls answer each other round her white cliff,

delightful at all times is Arran!

—ancient Gaelic, anonymous, from Celtic Nature Prayers Volume 1: Prayers from an Ancient Well, ed. by Kenneth McIntosh



Image: The Milky Way over Arran and the Holy Isle, from the Daily Record

Psalm of Protection: Psalm 28

Psalm 28

O God, I call to you;
my Rock, do not be deaf to my cry;
     lest, if you do not hear me,
     I become like those who go down to the Pit.

Hear the voice of my prayer when I cry out to you,
     when I lift up my hands to your holy of holies.

Do not snatch me away with the wicked or with the evildoers,
     who speak peaceably with their neighbors,
     while strife is in their hearts.
Repay them according to their deeds,
     and according to the wickedness of their actions.
According to the work of their hands repay them,
     and give them their just deserts.
They have no understanding of your doings,
nor of the works of your hands;
     therefore you will break them down
          and not build them up. 
Blest are you, O God,
     for you have heard the voice of my prayer.
You are my strength and my shield;
     my heart trusts in you, and I have been helped;
Therefore my heart dances for joy,
     and in my song will I praise you.
You are the strength of your people,
     a safe refuge for your anointed.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
     shepherd them and carry them for ever.

-- from the St. Helena Psalter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I cry out to you, Lord.
You are my rock; don't refuse to hear me.
If you won't talk to me,
     I'll just be like those going down to the pit.
Listen to my request for mercy when I cry out to you,
     when I lift up my hands to your holy inner sanctuary.
Don't drag me off with the wicked and those who do evil;
     the tyope who talk nice to their friends
     while evil thoughts are in their hearts!
Pay them back for what they've done!
     Pay them back for their evil deeds!
Pay them back for their handiwork!
     Give them back exactly what they deserve!
Because they have no regard for what the Lord has done,
     no regard for his handiwork,
     God will tear the down and never rebuild!

Bless the Lord
     because he has listened to my request for mercy!
The Lord is my strength and my shield.
My heart trusts in him.
     I was helped, my heart rejoiced,
     and I thank him with my song.
The Lord is his people's strength;
     he is a fortress of protection for his anointed one.
Save your people, God!
     Bless your possession!
     Shepherd them and carry them for all time!


-- from the Common English Bible

The Risen One

Until his final hour he had never
refused her anything or turned away,
lest she should turn their love to public praise.
Now she sank down beside the cross, disguised,
heavy with the largest stones of love
like jewels in the cover of her pain.

But later, when she came back to his grave
with tearful face, intending to anoint,
she found him resurrected for her sake,
saying with greater blessedness, “Do not –”

She understood it in her hollow first:
how with finality he now forbade
her, strengthened by his death, the oils’ relief
or any intimation of a touch:

because he wished to make of her the lover
who needs no more to lean on her beloved,
as, swept away by joy in such enormous
storms, she mounts even beyond his voice.

--Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German mystic poet and author, translated by Ann Conrad Lammers (1998), from New Poems, Second Part, 1908


for the transferred Feast of Mary Magdalene

Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.


--Joy Harjo (1951- ), current US poet laureate 2019- , member of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, from She Had Some Horses, 1983.

Walking the talk blessing

May God the maker bless you:
God who speaks words of freedom and justice,
God who walks what he talks forever.
May God bless you,
with hope.

May Jesus the teacher bless you:
Jesus who speaks of Good News for poor people,
Jesus who talks and does the business.
May Jesus bless you,
with truth.

May God the Holy Spirit bless you:
the Holy Spirit who speaks in fire and stillness,
the Holy Spirit who dances what she announces.
May the Holy Spirit bless you,
with joy.

May you walk and talk with God
who love you forever,
every step of your journey
every moment of your life.

Amen.

--Ruth Burgess, written for Church Action on Poverty, from Like Leaves to the Sun: Prayers from the Iona Community, 2013



Photo: Rainbow in the Cloud Forest, Monteverde, Costa Rica

Psalms of Protection: Psalm 27

Psalm 27

God is my light and my salvation;
     whom then shall I fear?
God is the strength of my life;
     of whom then shall I be afraid?
When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh,
     it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who stumbled and fell.
Though an army should encamp against me,
     yet my heart shall not be afraid;
And though war should rise up against me,
     yet will I put my trust in God.
One thing have I asked of you, O God; one thing I seek:
     that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life,
To behold your fair beauty, O God,
     and to seek you in your temple.
For in the day of trouble you shall keep me safe in your shelter;
     you shall hide me in the secrecy of your dwelling
     and set me high upon a rock.
Even now you lift up my head
     above my enemies round about me.
Therefore I will offer in your dwelling an oblation with sounds of great gladness;
     I will sing and make music to you.
Hearken to my voice, O Most High, when I call;
     have mercy on me and answer me.
You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”
     Your face, O God, will I seek.
Hide not your face from me,
     nor turn away your servant in displeasure.
You have been my helper; cast me not away;
     do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Though my father and my mother forsake me,
     you will sustain me.
Show me your way, O God, 
     lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.
Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries,
     for false witnesses have risen up against me,
     and also those who speak malice.
What if I had not believed that I should see the goodness of my God
     in the land of the living!
O tarry and await God’s pleasure;
be strong, and let your heart take comfort;
     wait patiently for God.

--from the St. Helena Psalter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Lord is my light and my salvation.
     Should I fear anyone?
The Lord is a fortress protecting my life.
     Should I be frightened of anything?
When evildoers come at me trying to eat me up--
     it's they, my foes and my enemies,
     who stumble and fall!
If an army camps against me,
     my heart won't be afraid.
If war comes up against me,
     I will continue to trust in this:
I have asked one thing from the Lord--
it's all I seek:
     to live in the Lord's house all the days of my life,
seeing the Lord's beauty
     and constantly adorning his temple.
Because he will shelter me in his own dwelling
during troubling times;
he will hide me in a secret place in his own tent;
     he will set me up high, safe on a rock.

Now my head is higher than the enemies surrounding me,
and I will offer sacrifices in God's tent--
     sacrifices with shouts of joy!
I will sing and praise the Lord.

Lord, listen to my voice when I cry out--
     have mercy on me and answer me!
Come, my heart says, seek God's face.
     Lord, I do seek your face!
Please don't hide it from me!
     Don't push your servant aside angrily--
          you have been my help!
     God who saves me,
          don't neglect me!
          Don't leave me all alone!
Even if my father and mother left me all alone,'
     the Lord would take me in.
Lord, teach me your way;
     because of my opponents, lead me on a good path.
Don't give me over to the desires of my enemies,
     because false witnesses and violent accusers
     have taken their stand against me.
But I have sure faith
     that I will experience the Lord's goodness
     in the land of the living!

Hope in the Lord!
Be strong! Let your heart take courage!
     Hope in the Lord!


-- from the Common English Bible

     

Psalms of Protection: Psalm 25

Psalm 25

(alphabetical acrostic)

To you, O God, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you;
     let me not be humiliated,
     nor let my enemies triumph over me.
Let none who look to you be put to shame;
     let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
Show me your ways, O God,
     and teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
     for you are the God of my salvation;
     in you have I trusted all the day long.
Remember, O God, your compassion and love,
     for they are from everlasting.
Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions;
     remember me according to your love
     and for the sake of your goodness, O God.
Gracious and upright are you;
     therefore you teach sinners in your way.
You guide the humble in doing right
     and teach your way to the lowly.
All your paths are love and faithfulness
     to those who keep your covenant and your testimonies.
For your Name’s sake, O God,
    forgive my sin, for it is great.
Who are they who fear you?
    You will teach them the way that they should choose.
They shall dwell in prosperity,
     and their offspring shall inherit the land.
You are a friend to those who fear you
     and will show them your covenant.
My eyes are ever looking to you,
     for you shall pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me and have pity on me, 
     for I am left alone and in misery.
The sorrows of my heart have increased;
     bring me out of my troubles.
Look upon my adversity and misery
     and forgive me all my sin.
Look upon my enemies, for they are many,
     and they bear a violent hatred against me.
Protect my life and deliver me;
     let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
     for my hope has been in you.
Deliver the people of Israel, O God,
     out of all their troubles.

-- from the St. Helena Psalter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I offer my life to you, Lord.
     My God, I trust you.
Please don't let me be put to shame!
     Don't let my enemies rejoice over me!
For that mater,
don't let anyone who hopes in you be put to shame;
     instead let those who are treacherous without excuse be put to shame.

Make your ways known to me, Lord;
     teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth-- teach it to me--
because you are the God who saves me.
     I put my hope in you all day long.
Lord, I remember your companionship and faithful love---
     they are forever!
But don't remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
     Remember me only according to your faithful love
     for the sake of your goodness, Lord.

The Lord is good and does the right thing;
     he teaches sinners which way they should go.
God guides the weak to justice,
     teaching them his way.
All the Lord's paths are loving and faithful
    for those who keep his covenant and laws.
Please, for the sake of your good name, Lord, fogive my sins, which are many!

Where are the ones who bonor the Lord?
     God will teach them which path to take.
They will live a good life,
     and their descendants will possess the land.
The Lord counsels those who honor him;
     he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are always looking to the Lord
     because he will free my feet from the net.

Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me
     because I'm alone and suffering.
My heart's troubles keep getting bigger--
     set me free from my distress!
Look at my suffering and trouble--
     forgive all my sins!
Look at how many enemies I have
     and how violently they hate me!
Please protect my life! Deliver me!
     Don't let me be put to shame
     because I take refuge in you.
Let integrity and virtue guard me
   because I hope in you.

Please, God, save Israel from all its troubles!

--from the Common English Bible