Prayer of Thanksgiving for Columba

Columba of

the rocks and roots and rolling waves,

of rain-drenched earth, changing skies and empty horizons,

of coming home and moving on.

Columba of

the music of wind and seabird cries,

the poetry of wild geese and lowing cattle,

the vision of sharing bread and stories.

Columba

man of solitude and simplicity,

community and compassion,

soul friend.

We celebrate with gratitude and hope

your being and openness

to the blessedness of all things.

Columba who saw the blessing of beauty

and Iona as a light for all times,

with you

we weep

for depths of poverty

and pinnacles of wealth;

for hostility, impersonality,

suffering, indifference,

and all that harms people

and all living things.

With you

we laugh

for humaity's raucous energy

and generosity of spirit;

for angels, smiling faces

and all that heals people.

We celebrate with gratitude and hope

your being and your openness

to the blessedness of all things.

Because of imagination, legend and prayer,

because of love and grace,

no act is inconsequential

and no story without significance.

In our knowing and unknowing;

in the quiet held within

that is Columba's vision and forever Iona,

we hold memories, remembrance,

and the whisperings

of a people's pride.

We hold out for others

the poet's bread

and the people's poetry.

We celebrate with gratitude and hope

the holiness of being

and the blessedness of all things.

--Joy Mead, from In The Gift of This New Day: Praying With the Iona Community, edited by Neil Paynter, 2015

Image: Stained glass window from Iona Abbey