For the interim time

When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,

No place looks like itself, loss of outline
Makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come. 

In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems TO believe the relief of dark.

You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.

The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.

"The old is not old enough to have died away;
The new is still too young to be born."

You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror.

Everyone else has lost sight of your heart
And you can see nowhere to put your trust;
You know you have to make your own way through.

As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow your confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
That you might come free
From all you have outgrown.

What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
The more refined your heart will become
For your arrival in the new dawn.

-- John O'Donohue (1956-2008), from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, 2008

Evening Winter light at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Ellisville

Hearth Keeper Prayer

Brigid of the Mantle, encompass us,
Lady of the Lambs, protect us,
Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us.
Beneath your mantle, gather us,
And restore us to memory.
Mothers of our mother, Foremothers strong.
Guide our hands in yours,
Remind us how to kindle the hearth.
To keep it bright, to preserve the flame.
Your hands upon ours, Our hands within yours,
To kindle the light, Both day and night.
The Mantle of Brigid about us,
The Memory of Brigid within us,
The Protection of Brigid keeping us
From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness.
This day and night,
From dawn till dark,
From dark till dawn.

-- From the Order of St. Brigid of Kildare (453-525), one of the patron saints of Ireland. Her feast day is today, February 1.

Prayer (for discernment)

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

-- Thomas Merton, OCSO (Father Louis) (1915-1968), from Thoughts in Solitude, 1956-- born this day in 1915.

Recorded version of prayer, read by The Rev. James Martin, SJ, on NPR's On Being with Krista Tippett

Prayer for the Sick

Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son our Lord took upon himself our infirmities and had compassion upon all sick and suffering: Hear our prayer for all who suffer in body or mind or spirit; and especially we pray for 

​______

. Grant to 

​her/him

 relief from pain, strength in 

​her/his

 weakness, light in 

​her/his

 darkness and, if it shall please you, restoration to health. Enable 

​her/him

 now to trust you though your way is hidden from their sight; and let 

​her/him

 know

​ that peace which is the gift of your Holt Spirit. Amen.

--from Prayers for All Occasions, by Forward Movement

The Flower

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
       are Thy returns! Even as the flowers in spring,
    to which, besides their own demean,
       the late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
          Grief melts away
          like snow in May,
    As if there were no such cold thing.

    Who would have thought my shrivelled heart
       could have recovered greenness? It was gone
    quite underground, as flowers depart
       to see their mother-root, when they have blown;
         where they together
         all the hard weather,
    dead to the world, keep house unknown.

    These are Thy wonders, Lord of power,
       killing and quickening, bringing down to hell
    and up to heaven in an hour;
       making a chiming of a passing-bell.
         We say amiss
         this or that is;
    Thy word is all, if we could spell.

    Oh, that I once past changing were,
       fast in Thy paradise, where no flower can wither!
    Many a spring I shoot up fair,
       offering at heaven, growing and groaning thither;
         nor doth my flower
         want a spring shower,
    my sins and I joining together.

    But while I grow in a straight line,
       still upwards bent, as if heaven were mine own,
    Thy anger comes, and I decline.
       What frost to that? What pole is not the zone
         where all things burn,
         when Thou dost turn,
    and the least frown of Thine is shown?

    And now in age I bud again;
       after so many deaths I love and write;
    I once more smell the dew and rain,
       and relish versing. O my only Light,
         it cannot be
         that I am he
    on whom Thy tempests fell all night.

    These are Thy wonders, Lord of love,
       to make us see we are but flowers that glide;
    which when we once can find and prove,
       Thou hast a garden for us where to bide.
         Who would be more,
         swelling through store,
    forfeit their paradise by their pride.

-- George Herbert (1593-1633), English priest and poet, from The Temple (1633)

A mother's prayer

May you always be
a strong arm to the weak;
and may you always be
a comfort to the crying;
a smile to the lonely,
a blessing to the grieving;
and may you always be
a haven for the anxious.

May your life be full of Jesus
and His love;
may you be God-driven by the
Father and the Spirit;
and may you be His hands
and smile
and be His arms of comfort.
And may you always be
His blessing to the world.
Amen.

--Neil and Gerlinde Kennedy-Jones and Andrew M. Seddon, from Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2, from the Northumbria Community. p. 1090

A telling place

Blessed be God who lifts us up,
Blessed be the Father of Heaven,
Blessed be the risen and ascended Lord,
Blessed be the Christ in glory.
Blessed be the Spirit of Truth and Love.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit.

Bless us this day with vision.
Bless us this day with faith.
Bless us this day with hope.
May this place be a sacred place,
a telling place,
where earth and heaven meet.
Amen.

--Telling Place Community team, found in Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2, from the Northumbria Community, p. 1090

Losers

If I should pass the tomb of Jonah
I would stop there and sit for awhile;
Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark
And came out alive after all.

If I pass the burial spot of Nero
I shall say to the wind, “Well, well!”—
I who have fiddled in a world on fire,
I who have done so many stunts not worth doing.

I am looking for the grave of Sinbad too.
I want to shake his ghost-hand and say,
“Neither of us died very early, did we?”

And the last sleeping-place of Nebuchadnezzar—
When I arrive there I shall tell the wind:
“You ate grass; I have eaten crow—
Who is better off now or next year?”

Jack Cade, John Brown, Jesse James,
There too I could sit down and stop for awhile.
I think I could tell their headstones:
“God, let me remember all good losers.”

I could ask people to throw ashes on their heads
In the name of that sergeant at Belleau Woods,
Walking into the drumfires, calling his men,
“Come on, you … Do you want to live forever?”

--Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), from "Playthings of the Wind," in Smoke and Steel, 1922.

Paradox Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths, superficial relationships,
so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression and exploitation of people,
so that you will work for justice, equity, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed
for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war,
so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them
and change their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with the foolishness to think
that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you will do the things that others tell you
cannot be done.

 --from Celtic Daily Prayer, Book 2, from the Northumbria Community, p. 1088

The blessing of light

May the blessing of light be upon you,
light without and light within...
And in all your comings and goings,
may you ever have a kindly greeting
with any you meet along the road.

-- from Old Gaelic, found in Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2, from the Nortumbria Community, p. 1091