The Theory of Prayer

Not in the streets, not in the white streets
Nor in the crowded porticoes
Shall we catch You in our words,
Or lock You in the lenses of our cameras,
You Who escaped the subtle Aristotle,
Blinding us by Your evidence,
Your too clear evidence, Your everywhere.

Not in the groves, not in the flowering green groves
Where the pretty idols dwell
Shall we find the path to Your pavilion
Tented in clouds and fire:—
We are only following the echo
Of our own lyres.

The wise man’s blood
Freezes in every vein and artery
With the blue poison of his own indelible prudence.
And the lover,
Caught in the loop of his own lie
Strangles like a hare:
While the singers are suddenly killed,
Slain by the blades of their own song—
The words that clash like razors in the throat
Severing the tender strings.

For the things that we utter turn and betray us,
Writing the names of our sins on flesh and bone
In lights as hard as diamonds.
And the things we think have sold us to the enemy
Writing the names of our sins on the raw marrow
In lights as sharp as glass.
And our desires,
Uncovering their faces one by one
Are seen to be our murderers!
How did you break your jails, you black assassins?
How did you find us out, you numbered men?

Logic has ruined us,
Theorems have flung their folly at us,
Economy has left us full of swords
And all our blood is gone:
Oh, how like a death, now, is our prayer become!
We lie and wait upon the unknown Savior
Waking and waking in the guarded tomb. . . .

But the armed ocean of peace,
The full-armed ocean is suddenly within us.
Where, where, peace, did you get in?
And the armed ocean of quiet,
The full armed ocean, stands within us:
Where, from what wells, hid in the middle of our essence,
You silences, did you come pouring in?

But all our thoughts lie still, and in this shipwreck
We’ll learn the theory of prayer:
“How many hate their own safe death,
Their cell, their submarine!”
“How many hate Your Cross, Your Key, the only one
To beat that last invincible door
That will surprise us, Peace, with Your invasion
And let us in those soundless fathoms where You dwell.”

-- Thomas Merton (1915-1968) Roman Catholic monastic, priest, poet, and author

The O Antiphons and Prayers to accompany them

These “O” antiphons express the theology of Advent and are the season’s brightest jewels. The incarnation of the Son, salvation, the pursuit of our redemption until the end of time — these are the constant themes of Advent theology. From them we can see that the celebration of Advent, like that of Christmas, has its true center in the paschal mystery, wherein the death and resurrection of Christ accomplishes our salvation.

December 17 - 1st Antiphon: O WISDOM

O WISDOM, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with Your strong yet tender care. Come and show Your people the way to salvation.

Prayer: Christ, the Word of the Father, through all the ages You have cared for Your people as a shepherd his flock, as a mother her child, as a potter his clay. Be present to us who cry out for Your compassionate, helping hand. Help us to be faithful to those values which You taught us by Your life and Your love. May we find Your presence in the needs of the poor and abandoned around us. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 18 - 2nd Antiphon: O ADONAI

O LORD OF ISRAEL, who showed Yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: Come, stretch out Your mighty hand, to set us free.

Prayer: Lord, our God, reveal Yourself to us in the persons, circumstances, and events of each day, especially in those who need our time and talents. Open our eyes to recognize Your workings in all that happens to us; keep us open to Your coming to us in the unusual events and surprises of each day. May the place of our work become “holy ground” for we believe that You are present everywhere. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 19 - 3rd Antiphon: O FLOWER OF JESSE

O FLOWER OF JESSE, You have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in Your presence; the nations bow down in worship before You. Come, let nothing keep You from coming to our aid.

Prayer: O Christ, living sign of the Father’s love, we adore You as the Center of our lives. You are our model for grace, truth, and living in the light of the Father. Be our strength in times of sorrow and trouble; be our joy in times of sadness; be our light in the darkness of sin and our troubled world. We are in awe of Your holy Presence. May we rejoice and share the signs of Your coming with one another. Amen.

Closing Prayer:  We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 20 - 4th Antiphon: O KEY OF DAVID

O KEY OF DAVID, O royal Power of Israel controlling at Your will the gate of heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death & lead Your captive people into freedom.

Prayer: Christ Jesus, You are the key to the happiness of our hearts. The darkness of sin and the awareness of our weaknesses drag us down, but You have come to lift us up & redeem us. We place all our hope in You who have freed us from sin. Teach us to open the doors of our hearts to You and to one another through awareness of the mystery of Your Presence in others. Lead us into the light of Your love & grace. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 21 - 5th Antiphon: O DAYSPRING

O RISING DAWN, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Prayer: Radiance of the Father, light for our eyes, and guide for our souls, brighten our days by showing us the way to the Father, for You said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Your life showed us the way to live; Your words spoke of the truth of the Father; Your sufferings and death brought us to new life. May we be radiant with Your joy, as we begin to recognize Your coming to us in one another. We thank You for the gift of Your Body and Blood in the Eucharist which nourishes us and gives us renewed life. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 22 - 6th Antiphon: O KING OF ALL NATIONS

O KING OF ALL NATIONS, the only joy of every human heart: O Keystone of the mighty arch of man. Come and save the creatures you fashioned from the dust.

Prayer: Lord, every nation on earth adores You, for by Your passion, death, and resurrection, You have saved all humanity. Your constant love and friendship reach from the heavens to the ends of the earth. You alone have bridged the deep chasm created by sin; You have protected us from the grasp of the evil one. You are the source of all life; help us to be as one family in You, our God and Savior. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

December 23 - 7th Antiphon: O EMMANUEL, GOD-WITH-US

O GOD-WITH-US, Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, Come and set us free, Lord our God.

Prayer: Jesus, God-with-us, all compassionate and loving God whom we honor and adore, You have unlocked the gates of heaven and cleared the pathway for all humanity to come to You in the glory of the Father. Save us from the chains of sin and darkness. We thank you for the gift of redemption and look forward to the day of Your coming in glory. Amen.

Closing Prayer: We come here to call on our God to come to us, to be with us. The title Emmanuel, God-with-us, was given to Christ many centuries ago by the prophet Isaiah. Emmanuel symbolizes God’s great love for us -- so great that God put aside His Divinity and took on our humanity. We pray for our God to draw closer to us as individuals and as members of a community. We assemble before God as representatives of the people of the earth, eager to see peace and justice reign on the face of our troubled world. We pray to the Father, for the coming of the Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.




-- found at Cathedral of St. John, Cleveland, https://saintjohncathedral.com/o-antiphons

Prayer and Time

If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves. But for this we have to experience time in a new way.

One of the best things for me when I went to the hermitage was being attentive to the times of the day: when the birds began to sing, and the deer came out of the morning fog, and the sun came up – while in the monastery, summer or winter, Lauds is at the same hour. The reason why we don’t take time is a feeling that we have to keep moving. This is a real sickness. Today time is commodity, and for each one of us time is mortgaged. We experience time as unlimited indebtedness. We are sharecroppers of time. We are threatened by a chain reaction: overwork–overstimulation–overcompensation–overkill.

We must approach the whole idea of time in a new way. We are free to love. And you must get free from all imaginary claims. We live in the fullness of time. Every moment is God’s own good time, his kairos. The whole thing boils down to giving ourselves in prayer a chance to realize that we have what we seek. We don’t have to rush after it. It is there all the time, and if we give it time it will make itself known to us.

-- Thomas (Father Louis) Merton, (1915-1968), American Roman Catholic Trappist monk, mystic, priest, poet, and author, found at The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, from The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review,  https://merton.org/ITMS/Seasonal/35/35-3Thurston.pdf  

Indigenous Prayer over Oblations

Prayer over the Oblations

Our loving God, Your Son gave his life to gather your scattered children into one family. We offer you these gifts of our lives, our energies, our hopes and dreams. As we acknowledge them sacred, we consecrate them as the saving sacrament of life. May this sacrament heal those scarred by oppression and rejection. May it release those still unjustly deprived of liberty and give them freedom of mind and heart forever. Amen.


From https://www.dominicancenter.org/indigenous-peoples-day-liturgy/

Indigenous Prayer After Communion (Roman Catholic)

Prayer after Communion

Loving God,
One thing we know: You alone are God
And You reveal the richness of your Truth, Your Beauty, Your Love
Through the many cultures and faiths and peoples of Your creation.
Keep us open to the nourishment you offer us through them all,
That we may approach them with Eucharistic gratitude, and
That we may enter more deeply into the fullness of Your Life.
We make our prayer in the name of Jesus. AMEN.

Originally found at the Dominican Center,  https://www.dominicancenter.org/indigenous-peoples-day-liturgy/

Iroquois Eucharistic Prayer Source Material (Roman Catholic)

To Our Creator for all of Creation, I give thanks

Our God is with you.
And with your spirit.
Lift up your hearts.
We have lifted them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right and just.

We give thanks, Our loving God, to the people, our brothers and sisters, with goodness and health;
We give thanks to Earth, our Mother, who supports the people,
To the plants, our medicines, which grow on Earth;
To the waters that flow with life blood and nourish the plants and people;
To the air, especially the winds, that allow us to breathe;
To the trees that purify the air;
To the animals, our four-legged brothers and sisters, who also sustain us;
To the birds, our winged brothers and sisters, who sing to the Creator;
To the sun, our elder brother, who warms Earth and provides light;
To the moon, our grandmother, who guides the people and the cycles of life;
To the stars who provide us direction at night.
To all of creation we give thanks.

And to You, O God, Who gives them all to us, Who abides in them all, And who sustains us all through them. May we forever remember the interconnectedness and equality of all creation And our place in the Great Cycle of Life.

With gentleness and unity in body, mind and spirit, becoming one in harmony and balance with the universe, we give You thanks as we pray…

-- adapted from an Iroquois prayer, found at https://www.dominicancenter.org/indigenous-peoples-day-liturgy/

Image: Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy

Prayer of the Four Directions

Loving Creator God, we your people come before You. Thank you for today’s sunrise, for the breath and life within us, and for all Your creation: hear our prayer.

Great Spirit of Light, come to us out of the East, with the power of the rising sun. Let there be light in our words. Let there be light on our paths that we walk. Let us remember always that You give us the gift of a new day. Guide our steps and give us courage to walk the circle of our lives with honesty and dignity. And never let us be burdened with sorrow by not starting over again.

Great Spirit of Creation, send us the warm and soothing winds from the South. Comfort and caress us when we are tired and cold. Help us to walk our paths with joy and love, for ourselves, for others, for our four-legged companions, the winged ones,, the plants, and all creation upon Mother Earth. As You give to all Earth Your warm, moving wind, give it to us, so that we may grow close to you in warmth. We did not create the web of life, but we stand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

Great Life-giving Spirit, we face the West, the direction of sundown. Let us remember every day that the moment will come when our sun will go down. Bring into balance the physical, mental and spiritual, so that we are able to know our place on Earth, in life and death. Never let us forget that we must face into You. Give us a beautiful color, give us a great sky for setting so that when it is our time to meet you, we can come with glory.

Great Spirit of Love, come to us with the power of the North. Make us courageous when the cold wind falls upon us. Give us strength and endurance for everything that is harsh, everything that hurts, everything that makes us squint. Give us wisdom so we may be able to make wise choices in all things that are put in front of us. Let us move through life, ready to take what comes from the North.

Great Creator Spirit, we thank you for the beauty of Earth and for all You have given us in and through Earth, our home. Remind us never to take from Earth more than we need, and remind us to always give back more than we take.

Great God of the vast heavens, lift up our spirits to You. May our hearts worship You and come to You in glory. Help us to remember that You are our Creator God. Let all that is in Earth lift our minds, our hearts, and our lives to you so that we may come to You always in truth with a good mind and a clean heart.

God our Creator, We ask that we have the wisdom and patience to listen to one another and to learn the many ways You call us to live life. Teach us the ways to live it that heal and renew it so that we may hand it on to generations to come radiant with Your goodness and glory. Amen.


Originally found at the Dominican Center,  https://www.dominicancenter.org/indigenous-peoples-day-liturgy/

Image: Ojibwe Medicine Wheel depicting the Four Directions.

The Donkey

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.


-- G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English critic, novelist, poet, and convert to Roman Catholicism

Scripture Reference: Matthew 21:1-11, Palm Sunday, Lent A

The Annunciation

Ashes of paper, ashes of a world
Wandering, when fire is done:
We argue with the drops of rain!

Until one comes Who walks unseen
Even in elements we have destroyed.
Deeper than any nerve
He enters flesh and bone.
Planting His truth, He puts our substance on.
Air, earth, and rain
Rework the frame that fire has ruined.
What was dead is waiting for His Flame.
Sparks of His Spirit spend their seeds, and hide
To grow like irises, born before summertime.
These blue thinas bud in Israel.

The girl prays by the bare wall
Between the lamp and the chair.
(Framed with an angel in our galleries
She has a richer painted room, sometimes a crown.
Yet seven pillars of obscurity
Build her to Wisdom’s house, and Ark, and Tower.
She is the Secret of another Testament
She owns their manna in her jar.)

Fifteen years old -
The flowers printed on her dress
Cease moving in the middle of her prayer
When God, Who sends the messenger,
Meets His messenger in her Heart.
Her answer, between breath and breath,
Wrings from her innocence our Sacrament!
In her white body God becomes our Bread.

It is her tenderness
Heats the dead world like David on his bed.
Times that were too soon criminal
And never wanted to be normal
Evade the beast that has pursued
You, me and Adam out of Eden’s wood.
Suddenly we find ourselves assembled
Cured and recollected under several green trees.

Her prudence wrestled with the Dove
To hide us in His cloud of steel and silver:
These are the mysteries of her Son.
And here my heart, a purchased outlaw,
Prays in her possession
Until her Jesus makes my heart
Smile like a flower in her blameless hand.


--Thomas Merton (Father Louis) (1915-1968) American convert to Catholicism, Trappist monk, poet and spiritual author. 

Aubade: The Annunciation

When the dim light, at Lauds, comes strike her window,
Bellsong falls out of Heaven with a sound of glass.

Prayers fly in the mind like larks,
Thoughts hide in the height like hawks:
And while the country churches tell their blessings to the distance,
Her slow words move
(Like summer winds the wheat) her innocent love:
Desires glitter in her mind
Like morning stars:

Until her name is suddenly spoken
Like a meteor falling.

She can no longer hear shrill day
Sing in the east,
Nor see the lovely woods begin to toss their manes.
The rivers have begun to sing.
The little clouds shine in the sky like girls:
She has no eyes to see their faces.

Speech of an angel shines in the waters of her thought
like diamonds,
Rides like a sunburst on the hillsides of her heart.

And is brought home like harvests,
Hid in her house, and stored
Like the sweet summer’s riches in our peaceful barns.

But in the world of March outside her dwelling,
The farmers and the planters
Fear to begin their sowing, and its lengthy labor,
Where, on the brown, bare furrows,
The winter wind still croons as dumb as pain.


-- Thomas Merton (Father Louis) (1915-1968)- American convert to Catholicism, Trappist monk, poet and spiritual author. An aubade is a French dawn poem. Today is the Feast of the Annunciation-- 9 month before Christmas.

The Convert

After one moment when I bowed my head 

And the whole world turned over and came upright, 

 And I came out where the old road shone white, 

 I walked the ways and heard what all men said, 

 Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed, 

 Being not unlovable but strange and light; 

 Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite 

 But softly, as men smile about the dead.

The sages have a hundred maps to give 

 That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree, 

 They rattle reason out through many a sieve 

 That stores the sand and lets the gold go free: 

 And all these things are less than dust to me 

 Because my name is Lazarus and I live.


—G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English journalist, mystery novelist, and poet, convert to Catholicism at age 48.

Scripture Reference: John 11:1-45, Lent 5A

Image: Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Resurrection of Lazarus

Gratitude

A tempest threw a rainbow in my face
so that I wanted to fall under the rain
to kiss the hands of an old woman to whom I gave my seat
to thank everyone for the fact that they exist
and at times even feel like smiling
I was grateful to young leaves that they were willing
to open up to the sun
to babies that they still
felt like coming into this world
to the old that they heroically
endure until the end
I was full of thanks
like a Sunday alms-box
I would have embraced death
if she'd stopped near by

gratitude is a scattered
homeless love



-- Anna Kamienska (1920-1986), Polish Roman Catholic poet, children’s book author, translator and writer, from Astonishments: Selected Poems of Anna Kamienska, edited and translated by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon

A Prayer That Will Be Answered

Lord let me suffer much

and then die

Let me walk through silence
and leave nothing behind not even fear

Make the world continue
let the ocean kiss the sand just as before

Let the grass stay green
so that frogs can hide in it

so that someone can bury his face in it
and sob out his love

Make the day rise brightly
as if there were no more pain

And let my poem stand clear as a windowpane
bumped by a bumblebee's head


-- Anna Kamienska (1920-1986), Polish poet, translator, children's book author, and convert to Roman Catholicism; translated from Polish by Thomas P. Krzeszowski & Desmond Graham

On the parables of the Mustard Seed

Who ever saw the mustard-plant,
wayside weed or tended crop,
grow tall as a shrub, let alone a tree, a treeful
of shade and nests and songs?
Acres of yellow,
not a bird of the air in sight.

No, He who knew
the west wind brings
the rain, the south wind
thunder, who walked the field-paths
running His hand along wheatstems to glean
those intimate milky kernels, good
to break on the tongue,

was talking of miracle, the seed
within us, so small
we take it for worthless, a mustard-seed, dust,
nothing.
               Glib generations mistake
the metaphor, not looking at fields and trees,
not noticing paradox. Mountains
remain unmoved.

Faith is rare, He must have been saying,
prodigious, unique —
one infinitesimal grain divided
like loaves and fishes,

as if from a mustard-seed
a great shade-tree grew. That rare,
that strange: the kingdom

                                            a tree. The soul
a bird. A great concourse of birds
at home there, wings among yellow flowers.
The waiting
kingdom of faith, the seed
waiting to be sown.


-- Denise Levertov (1923-1997), Anglo-American poet and convert to Catholicism

Scriptural reference: Proper 21C, Luke 17:5-10; Proper 12A, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Prayers of the People for Indigenous Peoples Day

For Indigenous Peoples Day

In Thanksgiving for Mother Earth, who sustains our very life, especially during this season of bountiful harvest, we pray.

In Thanksgiving for Native Americans, who lived for millennia in harmony with Mother Earth, may the leaders of all countries listen to the wisdom of their native peoples and work to make the drastic changes necessary in how we live on Earth, we pray.

In thanksgiving for our Native American sisters and brothers of this region, as we remember that we live on the land, that the Potawatomi peoples once called home, we pray.

For Native Americans and 1st Nation Peoples, as they strive to bring back their languages and cultures and confront the problems of poverty and hunger on so many reservations and in so many cities and towns, we pray.

That the church gathered last year in the Synod on the Amazon will learn from the indigenous peoples of that region and speak out, acting to protect them from the attacks upon them and upon the rain forest that is their home, we pray.

That the Catholic Church may be forgiven for its colonial attitudes and destructive actions and be reconciled with indigenous peoples everywhere in respectful and mutual encounter, dialogue, and lived faith in our one God, we pray.

For those indigenous around the planet that are suffering so disproportionately from the Covid-19 Pandemic, for their healing and for an end to the systemic injustices that left them so vulnerable, we pray.

That our Church, responding with courage to the signs of our times, may embrace integral ecological conversion and preach it with prophetic urgency, we pray.


Presider: O God of all peoples, enlighten our minds and soften our hearts so that we will be open to healing and life-giving change. Enable us to see each other and all the creatures of our Mother Earth with eyes like Yours. Call us to a new awareness of the sacredness of creation and the beauty in its diversity so that we may contribute to a world where there is harmony, justice, and lasting peace. We make our prayer in the name of Christ and in the power of Your Holy Spirit where we live and move and have our being now and forever. Amen.

Found at the Dominican Center,  https://www.dominicancenter.org/indigenous-peoples-day-liturgy/

 

Oaks and Squirrels

Genesis18:27

“I speak to my Lord though I am dust and ashes,”
A Handful of Ashes the wind will soon send flying
Into the drifted oak-leaves under the hedge.
No gardener ever rakes there
Only the squirrels gather bedding there
When they stack up their rustling nests.

You have granted me more time
On earth than the squirrels, less time than the Oak,
Whose secret takes a hundred years to tell.
Out of the acorn in the dirt
Its wooden sticks come up
Already knowing how to grow their leaves
And when to spend them all,
Knowing exactly
How to thread up into a winter sky
A dark-veined map like that of a great river
Spun out in tapering streams,
Twig by twig ascending and unfolding
Until at night its topmost buds
Enter the country of the stars.

By day
The squirrels run like script along its boughs
And write their lives with their light bodies.
They are afraid of us
We can never hold them
And there's no room for us in their invisible ark,
our home is warring disobedient history.


--Anne Porter (1911-2011) American Roman Catholic poet, from Living Things: Collected Poems, 2006.

The Call of Abraham

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country.’ ” --Genesis 12:1 

Talk about imperious. 
Without a by-your-leave, 
Or, may I presume? 
No previous contact, 
no letter of introduction, 
no greeting, 
just out of the blue 
this unknown God 
issues edicts. 

This is not a conversation. 
Am I a nobody 
to receive decrees 
from one whose name 
I do not know? 
And at our first encounter!

I have worshipped my own god. 
To you I have addressed no prayers, 
offered no sacrifices, 
asked no favors, 
but quick, 
like sudden fire in the desert, 
without the most elemental ritual, 
I hear “Go.”

At seventy-five, 
Am I supposed to scuttle my life, 
take that ancient wasteland, Sarai, 
place my thin arthritic bones 
upon the road 
to some mumbled nowhere?

Let me get this straight.
I will be brief. 
I summarize. 
In ten generations since the Flood 
you have spoken to no one.

You give commands: 
pull up my tent, 
desert my home, 
the graves of my ancestors, 
my friends next door, 
leave Haran 
for a country you do not name, 
there to be a stranger,
a sojourner.

God of the wilderness, 
from two desiccated lumps, 
from two parched prunes 
you promise to make a great nation. 
In me all peoples of the earth
will be blessed.

You come late, Lord, very late,
but my camels leave in the morning. 

-- Fr. Kilian McDonnell, OSB (1921- ), American monk, poet, and theologian at St. John's Abbey

Relevant Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a, Lent 2A

Painting: Francesco Bassano, Abraham Leaves Haran, 1560-1592

Suburban Prayer

Grant us for grace
oppositions, stimyings
sand in our pet gears
a bubble in the cozy blood

Crowd our real estate
with the rag tag real, the world.
Marry us off, lonely girls
to Harlem and Asia. This Lent
celebrate in the haunted house, the world.

--Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016), American Jesuit priest, activist, pacifist, poet, and playwright, from And the Risen Bread, Selected Poems, 1957–1997 (1998).

The Cathedral of Rheims

(From the French of Emile Verhaeren)

He who walks through the meadows of Champagne
At noon in Fall, when leaves like gold appear,
Sees it draw near
Like some great mountain set upon the plain,
From radiant dawn until the close of day,
Nearer it grows
To him who goes
Across the country. When tall towers lay
Their shadowy pall
Upon his way,
He enters, where
The solid stone is hollowed deep by all
Its centuries of beauty and of prayer. 
Ancient French temple! thou whose hundred kings
Watch over thee, emblazoned on thy walls,
Tell me, within thy memory-hallowed halls
What chant of triumph, or what war-song rings?
Thou hast known Clovis and his Frankish train,
Whose mighty hand Saint Remy's hand did keep
And in thy spacious vault perhaps may sleep
An echo of the voice of Charlemagne.
For God thou has known fear, when from His side
Men wandered, seeking alien shrines and new,
But still the sky was bountiful and blue
And thou wast crowned with France's love and pride.
Sacred thou art, from pinnacle to base;
And in thy panes of gold and scarlet glass
The setting sun sees thousandfold his face;
Sorrow and joy, in stately silence pass
Across thy walls, the shadow and the light;
Around thy lofty pillars, tapers white
Illuminate, with delicate sharp flames,
The brows of saints with venerable names,
And in the night erect a fiery wall.
A great but silent fervour burns in all
Those simple folk who kneel, pathetic, dumb,
And know that down below, beside the Rhine --
Cannon, horses, soldiers, flags in line --
With blare of trumpets, mighty armies come.

Suddenly, each knows fear;
Swift rumours pass, that every one must hear,
The hostile banners blaze against the sky
And by the embassies mobs rage and cry.
Now war has come, and peace is at an end.
On Paris town the German troops descend.
They are turned back, and driven to Champagne.
And now, as to so many weary men,
The glorious temple gives them welcome, when
It meets them at the bottom of the plain.
At once, they set their cannon in its way.
There is no gable now, nor wall
That does not suffer, night and day,
As shot and shell in crushing torrents fall.
The stricken tocsin quivers through the tower;
The triple nave, the apse, the lonely choir
Are circled, hour by hour,
With thundering bands of fire
And Death is scattered broadcast among men.
And then
That which was splendid with baptismal grace;
The stately arches soaring into space,
The transepts, columns, windows gray and gold,
The organ, in whose tones the ocean rolled,
The crypts, of mighty shades the dwelling places,
The Virgin's gentle hands, the Saints' pure faces,
All, even the pardoning hands of Christ the Lord
Were struck and broken by the wanton sword
Of sacrilegious lust.
O beauty slain, O glory in the dust!
Strong walls of faith, most basely overthrown!
The crawling flames, like adders glistening
Ate the white fabric of this lovely thing.
Now from its soul arose a piteous moan,
The soul that always loved the just and fair.
Granite and marble loud their woe confessed,
The silver monstrances that Popes had blessed,
The chalices and lamps and crosiers rare
Were seared and twisted by a flaming breath;
The horror everywhere did range and swell,
The guardian Saints into this furnace fell,
Their bitter tears and screams were stilled in death.
Around the flames armed hosts are skirmishing,
The burning sun reflects the lurid scene;
The German army, fighting for its life,
Rallies its torn and terrified left wing;
And, as they near this place
The imperial eagles see
Before them in their flight,
Here, in the solemn night,
The old cathedral, to the years to be
Showing, with wounded arms, their own disgrace.

--Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), American Roman Catholic writer and poet, who was killed by a sniper at the Battle of Ourcq in northern France on July 30, 1918.

Illustrations:
1) The restored Cathedral de Notre Dame de Reims now hosts a light show on its exterior during the summer (May-Sept) depicting what it may have looked like when it was painted.
2) The Cathedral was targeted several times by artillery during World War I, destroying its roof and burning its wooden interior.
3) The 13th century Rose Window, depicting the creation and fall, was one of the few things in the priginalc Cathedral to survive the wars that have damaged the building.

In Silence

Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your

name.
Listen
to the living walls.

Who are you?
Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.

Rather
be what you are (but who?)
be the unthinkable one
you do not know.

O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you

speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the unknown
that is in you and in themselves.

“I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
and this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones they burn me.
How can a man be still or 
isten to all things burning?
How can he dare to sit with them
when all their silence is on fire?”


--Thomas Merton (Father Louis) (1915-1968) American Trappist monk, mystic, contemplative, and writer