#LentenSnapshots2017
Category: Prayer
Let your love play…
Prayer for today:
Let Your love play upon my voice and rest on my silence.
Let it pass through my heart into all my movements.
Let your love, like stars, shine in the darkness of my sleep and dawn in my awakening.
Let it burn in the flame of my desires and flow in all currents of my own love.
Let me carry Your love in my life as a harp does its music, and give it back to You at last with my life.
Rabindranath Tagore [1861-1941]
Chip off the old block
Another lovely picture of Ailsa Craig today, taken by Brian Johnstone. This one is called (appropriately) “chip off the old block”.
“May every sunrise
bring you hope.
May every sunset
bring you peace”
Summer is here…
Well it is hot and sunny here in Scotland, not something we experience that often!
So I think it is time for a little Mary Oliver…
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
(from New and Selected Poems, 1992)
Picture is ‘flow[er]” by Jonny Baker on Flickr
Lent reflection…
We live in borrowed time,
says Lent.
i have lived on borrowed truth for a while
as well,
and borrowed faith when necessary
i know I have taken certainty from places that shouldn’t have given it to me
and probably wouldn’t have, willingly.
I have tried to make it my own.
all of it.
i have given it the names of my gods,
and scratched in deep to its essence my name and my claim
that it’s mine
and it’s me.
i have held it fast with fear and determination,
and close as to make it mine forever
but here now
you ask for it back
and i give it.
the left over shape of a life
and a faith
tarnished, scratched and battered
with the indentations of my clasping
grasping
fingers
and i say
sorry for messing what was beautiful
and
thankyou for trusting me with what’s yours.
Let there be light…
In the darkest night
it is not possible to believe
that light will come.
Because light has come before,
doesn’t mean it will again.
Hold faith tonight
for those who see the darkness
stretch before them –
who know no other truth than that –
whose barren-ness prevails,
who are buffeted by despair,
who cannot breathe for fear.
Join your prayer to God’s:
let there be light.
“It has to be dark for the stars to appear” (unknown)
(Picture: Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes)
The gift of a moment…
I ask for the gift
of a moment
to sit by Your side
The work that I have in hand
I can finish afterwards.
Now it is time to sit quiet
alone with You
and to Sing
a re-dedication of my life
in this Silent
and overflowing joy.
(Rabindranath Tagore)
A poem for Monday.
If you are already clutching your ‘to do’ list and wondering how you will make it through the week then this is for you – ask for the gift of a moment 🙂
Picture is ‘rhythm of the tides’ by Jonny Baker on Flickr
The Untried Melody
I will sing a new song.
I must learn the new song for the new needs
I must fashion new words born of all the new growth in my life – of my mind – of my spirit.
I must prepare for new melodies that have never been mine before,
That all that is within me may lift my voice unto God.
How I love the old familiarity of the wearied melody,
How I shrink from the harsh discords of the new untried harmonies.
Teach me, my Father, that I might learn with the abandonment and enthusiasm of Jesus,
The fresh new accent, the untried melody,
to meet the need of the untried morrow.
(Howard Thurman)
This is a favourite prayer of mine (because I love to sing and the imagery appeals). Also it reflects my experiences of ministry so far. There have been so many transitions to live through with my congregation in such a short time and I have learned new songs for the new needs.
Sometimes I long for a period of stability – to have time for a melody to get wearied! But maybe it is better to be kept on my toes, to expect the unexpected in the dawn of the untried morrow?
Picture is ‘st cuthbert’s cross’ by Jonny Baker on Flickr
Easter blessings
If you were not risen,
Lord Christ, to whom would we go
to discover a radiance
of the face of God?
If you were not risen,
we would not be together
seeking your communion.
We would not find in your presence
forgiveness,
wellspring of a new beginning.
If you were not risen,
where would we draw the energy
for following you
right to the end of our existence,
for choosing you again and anew?
Brother Roger of Taize
A prayer for Tuesday after Holy Week and Easter, for all those who now draw breath and seek rest and renewal.
Those of you following the blog will know that Lent, Holy Week and Easter have happened without me this year. It has been strange observing rather than participating in worship.
It has been a virtual journey through the season for me, following Lenten blogs and observing how others have prepared and participated through their postings on social networking sites.
I have especially enjoyed the posts and comments on Revgalblogpals blogspot and on their Facebook page. And I have stored away some ideas for next Easter. Thanks ladies (and gents too) for creating sacred space in the blogsphere.
After nearly three months of coughing – day and night – it seems to have eased off at last over the past week or so and I am beginning to feel human again! My residual worry is the effect all this coughing has had on my voice which is still rather hoarse, so your prayers for this are appreciated – for obvious reasons!
A belated happy Easter to all, especially the bloggers and posters who have shared the journey with me – without even knowing it 🙂
(Photo taken in the Lake District by the Husband)
He will walk
Palm Sunday… Lent ends and Holy Week Begins.
And to take us through this week, a wonderful meditation from The Wild Goose Resource Group . I adapted it slightly a couple of years back for my voice and spit it into parts.
This is my Holy Week post as I am away and the internet access is painfully slow,
He will walk
A little in front of us
Towards Jerusalem.
He will not be scared
Though we are apprehensive.
If we try to discourage Him
He will recognise the Devil in our voice.
And He will tell us as much
In no uncertain terms.
Then He will go on again,
In faith,
Towards Jerusalem.
He will walk
A little in front of us,
Into controversy.
He will be scared
Though we are apprehensive.
He will argue with the intelligent,
Stop the self-assured in their tracks
He will touch the scabby.
He will upset bank balances by his outlandish behaviour in the sanctuary,
He will weep in public.
Then He will go on again,
In faith
Towards Jerusalem.
He will walk
A little way in front of us
Into Gethsemane
He will not hold back
Though we are apprehensive.
He will sweat blood
He will ask God if there is another way.
And when God says no,
He will take the traitor’s kiss,
The soldiers’ spit
The vile and venom from the princes of religion.
Then He will go on again,
In faith,
Towards the cross.
He will walk
A little in front of us
Towards Calvary.
He will not turn back
No, he will not turn back
He will feel the pain
Of wood and nails;
But more than this He will feel the weight
Of all the evil,
All the malice,
All the pettiness,
All the sin of the world
Heaped upon His shoulders.
He will not throw off the weight,
Though he could.
He will not give back evil for evil.
He will not return malice for malice.
He will not take revenge on the petty-minded
Or spew out hate on all who have despised or rejected Him.
He will not give back the sin of the world,
He will take it away…
Into death, into hell,
So that He can lead us to heaven.
Then He will go on again,
In faith,
Towards the resurrection.
He will walk
A little behind us,
Through the graveyard.
And he will wait
Until we realise that He has died
Until we admit our complicity in His life’s ending.
Then He will come up behind us,
He will say our name,
So that we can be His,
Forever.
Sunshine and Shadows 