Sparks

We live in one unending night
where thieves and brigands roam,
yet do we walk in endless light
whereby we see our home

and kindle from its hearth a flame
to guide us through the dark.
We take our measure and our aim
by that undying spark.

But staring ever at the light,
our vision blurs and swims
'til we see colors in the night,
and in all faces, him.

A weary world we see renewed,
redemption born of scars,
a thief who comes to do us good,
the night aswarm with stars

where every spark is, too, a seam
as earth and heaven touch,
and pouring through each tiny gleam
the kingdom come of love.

O Christ, feed all our little flames
until your sun shall rise.
Give us the eyes to see your day
in lanterns lifted high.

15th-century candle lantern from Germany, perforated metal By Wolfgang Sauber – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12738703

The Judge

Come, O Lord; come quickly:
Tear the skies apart.
Shadows here lie thickly:
Drive away the dark.
Come in all your glory;
come ascend your throne.
Finish now the story
whose end is yours alone.

Come, O Lord, with judgment:
Come to set things right.
Bring at last your justice;
end oppression's might.
Come and show us clearly
where we must atone.
Make your wounds a mirror
of all we've done and known.

Come, O Lord, with mercy:
Let its rivers run
through our desert thristing,
gleaming as the sun.
Let our barrens blossom
as once Eden bloomed.
Come, restore your garden,
and oh, come soon!  Come soon!

Day of Judgment By Gherardo Starnina – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2978136

The Foolish Virgin’s Song

At midnight, there was a cry,
‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
‘Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.’
Matthew 25:1-13

O God of day and God of night,
when Christ the bridegroom comes for me,
and if my lamp no more burns bright,
by your good grace then may it be,
O God of dark and God of light,
that he my shine a light for me.

For when these moments all uncoil,
no light will shine from my poor dust.
If ever I had any oil,
it flowed from him as he was crushed—
not by my strength, not by my toil,
but only his outpouring love.

So there must be, by your good grace,
a fountain that is flowing still,
whose drops anoint each human face
that waits upon the bridegroom's will,
where mercy ever flows in spate.
The bridegroom's love my flask must fill.

The waiting seems forever long,
O God of day and God of night,
and though the hours stretch on and on
while we await the bridegroom's light,
may we yet meet him when he comes
with lanterns he keeps burning bright.

Francken, Hieronymus the Younger – Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins – c. 1616 By Hieronymous Francken II – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6860120

Nothing Left

Today we renew the hope in eternal life, truly founded on Christ’s death and Resurrection. “I am risen and I am with you always”, the Lord tells us, and my hand supports you. Wherever you may fall, you will fall into my hands and I will be there even to the gates of death. Where no one can accompany you any longer and where you can take nothing with you, there I will wait for you to transform for you the darkness into light.
Benedict XVI, Angelus 11/2/2008

When there's nothing left but ending,
when your feet run out of road,
when there's nowhere but descending,
Christ is there before you go.

Where there's nothing you take with you,
empty handed in the dark,
hope is just a dying glimmer:
Christ is there to strike the spark.

He is waiting, Word eternal,
where the weeping make no sound,
so come all you heavy burdened:
Let your weary soul sink down.

Let the earth receive your grieving;
let it soak into the sands.
Deeper far than all believing,
there youa re within his hands.

There he cradles you in sorrow;
there he holds you to his breast.
Though you rise with him tomorrow,
yet for now you shall have rest.

Lay your burden down in darkness;
let the seed fall to the soil.
Sleep must come before the harvest;
you shall share the feast of joy.

Jakub Schikaneder – All Souls’ Day – Ophelia2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12453561

Adam Lay Imprisoned

Riffing on “Adam Lay Ybounden“:

Adam lay imprisoned,
captive held, and bound,
and we are held there with him
'til mercy may be found.

Bound to recall betrayal—
his own and Eve's that day;
bound to the death of Abel—
he cannot look away.

Bound to see us repeat it
each generation since.
Bound to the loss of Eden;
bound to lose all his sons

'til one shall come unbinding,
come breaking all the chains,
'til one whose light comes blinding
shall touch the heart of Cain.

And all who weep with Adam,
and all who tasted death
shall rise from deep in shadow,
shall taste of heaven's bread.

And all whose chains are broken
mourn Adam's choice no more
for heaven's gates stand open
now and forevermore.

By Anonymous 15th Century scribe, digitised by the British Library – http://www.headlesschicken.ca/eng204/texts/images/Sloane2593.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12139575

One Father

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Matthew 23:1-12

One Father, one who made us
and made us to be one,
one source and one creator,
and we are all his own.
We have no other Father;
we have no other god,
no other that we honor
with all our mind and heart.

One Son who came to lead us
when we were lost and gone,
to break the chains and free us,
and bring the captives home.
We have no other master;
we have no other king,
and we shall fear no shadows
who rest beneath his wings.

One Spirit, one who knows us
and one who makes us known,
who sighs and groans out for us
before the Father's throne.
We have no other teacher;
we have no other lord,
and we are all one people:
God's own forever more.

Rublev’s famous icon showing the three Angels being hosted by Abraham at Mamre. By Eloquence – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=158610

This Very Night

Inspired by the Lyke-Wake Dirge:

This night, this very night,
or any night at all,
the clock runs down, the flame burns out,
and Christ receive thy soul.

And all that you have said or thought,
any night at all,
shall be laid out before his heart,
and Christ receive thy soul.

And all that you have been or done...
shall be laid down before his throne...

And every gesture, every look...
shall be writ down within his book...

And then shall he that volume take...
and read whereat his heart shall break...

And then shall he rise from his throne...
to bear each wand'ring wether home...

And then shall he lay bare his heart...
to show where you are carven on't...

And all you are or could have been...
he makes his mercy to redeem...

And throws a feast of wine and bread,
any night at all,
then trust him and lay down your head,
and Christ receive thy soul.

Candle By Arivumathi – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24728169

Heartbeat

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22: 34-40

The breath of all the prophets
and heartbeat of the law
is love for one another,
for God with all we are.

We balk: Who is our neighbor?
How can we love our foes?
So God came as our savior,
and love is what he chose:

an infant with his mother,
or in a father's arms,
for each of us a brother,
a shelter in our storms.

And now love has a heartbeat
and prophecies a breath
who kneels and washes our feet
and makes a way through death.

And this is how we know him:
The breaking of the bread
where we can be forgiven
and we can all be fed.

Then we become the heartbeat
and we become the breath
of all the law and prophets,
by love disguised as bread.

A an etching by Jan Luyken from the Phillip Medhurst Collection of Bible illustrations housed at Belgrave Hall, Leicester, England (The Kevin Victor Freestone Bequest). Photo by Philip De Vere. https://www.flickr.com/groups/the_phillip_medhurst_collection_of_bible_prints

Same

A table song for enemies:

O Christ, the Son of God,
have mercy on us all.
Alike you drew us from the mud;
alike to death we fall.

And all alike we sin:
Before your gaze we stand,
marked by the blood of kith and kin,
with weapons in our hands.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
who all alike are lost,
and teach us to lay down our swords
and take, each one, our cross.

To follow where you led,
not just to Calvary,
but sitting where you broke the bread
to feed your enemy.

For we are all still dust,
in triumph or in shame;
as one we share an equal thirst.
Our hunger is the same.

Then let us break your bread
and share in it as one.
As one by mercy we are fed,
within your kingdom come.

Last Supper. Russian icon By Anonimous – http://www.sedmitza.ru/ index.html?did=32500, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3071693