Category: Uncategorized

And Did You Not Look Back?

And to another he said, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”

But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.

But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,

but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”

To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow

and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9: 51-62
You set your hand upon the plow
and walked the furrowed track;
from heav'n to hell the road ran down,
and did you not look back?

From highest throne you sank to this:
no place to lay your head.
You left behind the Father's bliss,
as dead t'embrace the dead.

And did you never know regret
or wish the days rewound
to timelessness you'd not yet left
to till the barren ground?

For I could follow you in that,
in looking far behind.
On this relentless forward path,
what mercy can I find?

And mercy is my only hope,
unready as I am
to travel with you on the road
to face Jerusalem.

Forgive my lagging steps, my God,
and give me greater strength
to lift my eyes and look ahead
and love the journey's length.

Give me the courage, O my Lord,
to trail you to the grave,
if not with valor, then with myrrh,
though I should come but late.
Ancient Egyptian ard, c. 1200 BC. (Burial chamber of Sennedjem) By Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem – 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=154346

Sacred Heart 2022

I myself will pasture my sheep;

I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.

The lost I will seek out,

the strayed I will bring back,

the injured I will bind up,

the sick I will heal,

but the sleek and the strong I will destroy,

shepherding them rightly.

Ezekiel 34:11-16
But is this not enough?
You've ninety-nine in fold.
Why range the dales and hills above
one lamb the more to hold?

Why seek the ones who stray,
too foolish for their good?
The wolves will teach what all their prey
should well have understood.

The feeble and the lame--
these ones you ought to cull.
Instead, how senselessly you claim
they make your sheepfold full!

And so you seek them out,
abandoned on the hills.
From living springs they fled to drought,
and yet you seek them still.

O Christ, I'm just as lost,
and lame and foolish, too,
a fleece that isn't worth the cost
my care would be to you,

but you have gathered me,
a lamb within your arms.
Good Shepherd, gather every sheep
and keep us all from harm.
At the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome By Unknown author – http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/istos/walls/thesi/thesi_1.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=515973

Safety

Based on that bit in Romans 8:

Could anything the world can do
tear us out of the savior's hands?
When empty lies are full of truth;
when steps are firm on shifting sands.

When shadows quench the burning flame
and nothingness takes shape and form,
then Christ will turn from us in shame
and curse the hour that we were born.

Until that never day should come,
he speaks for us before the throne,
who made of us his chosen ones
and will not cast away his own.

Then nothing in the world he made
can separate us from his love,
and any world our thoughts create
that, too, he is the master of.

So we have nothing left to fear:
not sword or famine, life or death,
not future things or presence here,
or length or width or height or depth.

Then, O my frightened, feeble heart,
take courage in this, safe and sure:
within those hands forever scarred
you stand forever, held secure.
This is a photo of a monument in Brazil identified by the ID By Md mackinnon – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43226540

Where Could We Ever Find Enough?

Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God,

and he healed those who needed to be cured.

As the day was drawing to a close,

the Twelve approached him and said,

“Dismiss the crowd

so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms

and find lodging and provisions;

for we are in a deserted place here.”

He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.”

They replied, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have,

unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.”

Now the men there numbered about five thousand.

Then he said to his disciples,

“Have them sit down in groups of about fifty.”

They did so and made them all sit down.

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish,

and looking up to heaven,

he said the blessing over them, broke them,

and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

They all ate and were satisfied.

And when the leftover fragments were picked up,

they filled twelve wicker baskets.

Luke 9:11b-17
Where could we ever find enough
to feed the hungers here?
No food could satisfy but love
unfading through the years.

But oh, our hearts are far too small
and fickle as the tide.
How could so little feed us all?
What feast could we supply?

What meagreness we have, you take
to bless beyond our ken,
and though it hurts, this bread you break:
You feed the thousands then.

Our hearts and hands, our bread and wine
all scattered far as crumbs:
Though these, you share your life divine.
Like this, your kingdom comes.

And though we fear to starve on crusts,
we feast beyond our hopes.
Your gift is more than all our trust;
your goodness overflows.

Then, Christ, the giver of the bread,
take all that you have made
and give us 'til the world is fed
on what you bless and break.
А. Иванов. Умножение хлебов By Alexander Ivanov – http://religionart.narod.ru/gal9/photo45.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9087582

You Send the Rain

Jesus said to his disciples:

“You have heard that it was said,

You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you,

that you may be children of your heavenly Father,

for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,

and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

Do not the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brothers only,

what is unusual about that?

Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:43-48
You send the rain to all the earth;
you scatter it like ash,
and in its passing, life gives birth:
We spring up as the grass.

Or strong or gentle, showers fall;
they do not judge the ground
but only speak your constant call
and let your life abound.

And just or unjust, still we grow
or wither in our thirst,
bowed down by all the winds that blow
and by your sunlight nursed.

So heaven seeps into the world, 
a haze of sun and rain
that blooms in every leaf unfurled
and ripens into grain

or is cut down and cast aside,
a harvest havoc-wrecked.
But still the sun is steady-eyed,
the morning dew-bedecked.

Give us the courage of the sun,
O Father of us all,
to shine alike on everyone
before the sickle falls.

Give us the mercy of the rain
(O, do not close the skies!)
still, still to love through joy or pain
and with the green shoots rise.
Rain falling on a field, in southern Estonia By Aleksander Kaasik – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63681273

Nothing But Wonder

I ask you to show me what has never been hidden,
for eyes to behold what has always been there.
In the world you created, unbound and unbidden,
you have set there the seal of the love that you bear.

So I open my eyes but without comprehending
that you are the light which alone lets me see,
that my heart is too finite for love neverending,
that all I behold is a fraction of real.

But you fill every fragment with all of your nature,
and the little I hold has your presence complete,
so each minute creation contains the creator
as he kneels down before them to cherish their feet.

And I nothing but wonder at love I can't fathom,
and the eyes of my heart will forever be blind
as the maker of all somersaults in an atom,
while the ears of my heart hear him say he is mine.
Schematicky atom CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=165873

Days

Let your mercy rise above us in the morning;
let compassion be a light to guide our steps.
Let our memory of you be ever dawning;
let your grace be like a sun that never sets.

As we travel on the road you lay out for us,
give us all the light we need to see the way,
and be yourself the flame that goes before us,
that in the nights we see as clear as day.

As brightly as you shine, we still will stumble;
O Savior, do not let the light go dim!
But show us to ourselves when we have crumbled,
that we may see to get back up again.

And when the darkness falls so close around us,
the nights your goodness made come softly down,
come closer still, and with your love surround us,
and shelter us where midnight peace abounds.
Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. Taken on 20 October 1968 from Apollo 7. By NASA – https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/images/apollo_image_6.htmlDirect link to image file: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/337039main_pg26_as07-08-1933_full.jpgTransferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by TheDJ using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8807776

God’s Delight

Thus says the wisdom of God:

            “The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,

                        the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

            from of old I was poured forth,

                        at the first, before the earth.

            When there were no depths I was brought forth,

                        when there were no fountains or springs of water;

            before the mountains were settled into place,

                        before the hills, I was brought forth;

            while as yet the earth and fields were not made,

                        nor the first clods of the world.
“When the Lord established the heavens I was there,

                        when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

            when he made firm the skies above,

                        when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

            when he set for the sea its limit,

                        so that the waters should not transgress his command;

            then was I beside him as his craftsman,

                        and I was his delight day by day,

            playing before him all the while,

                        playing on the surface of his earth;

                        and I found delight in the human race.”

Proverbs 8:22-31
Before the deeps were hollowed out
to hold the rivers running down,
before the mountains rose above,
the Lord's delight welled up in love.

To set the sky and light the stars
and fix the sea within its shores,
to spin the world through night and day:
The Lord's delight was then at play.

And when the Lord a garden laid
and man and woman there wre made,
God filled them with the gift of grace,
delighting in the human race.

God's image sculpted out of dust;
God's spirit breathed in each of us,
our frail and fragile lives it fills—
oh, God's delight is in us still!

Then let us love each image here
with love that casts away our fear.
In every heart the Lord still plays:
Let us delight in all God makes!

To God the Father sing your praise
and God the Son in whom we're made
and God the Spirit whose delight
fills every hour of day and night!
Close-up of a triquetra on one of the Funbo Runestones. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168066

Elijah Mocked the Prophets

When it was noon, Elijah taunted [the prophets of Baal]:

“Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating,

or may have retired, or may be on a journey.

Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears,

as was their custom, until blood gushed over them.

Noon passed and they remained in a prophetic state

until the time for offering sacrifice.

But there was not a sound;

no one answered, and no one was listening.

1 Kings 18:20-39
Elijah mocked the prophets:
“Perhaps your god's asleep.
Perhaps he's on a journey
across the fathoms deep.
Call louder, then, to rouse him
and bid your god arise
and claim the gift you slaughters
with lightning from the skies.”

But Christ upon a cushion
sleeps now amid the storm,
at ease in our confusion,
at peace in our alarm.
Elijah, cease your mocking;
bow down in awe and fear!
Though chaos sets us rocking,
the still, small voice is here.

O Son of God, awaken—
not now to call down flame,
but as our hearts are shaken
to still the wind and rain.
Not as the fire of heaven
cast down to make us bow,
but tenderly to help us,
O Christ, awaken now!
Elijah destroying the messengers of Ahaziah (illustration by Gustave Doré from the 1866 La Sainte Bible) – Doré’s English Bible, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10724087

Creator Spirit

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,

they were all in one place together.

And suddenly there came from the sky

a noise like a strong driving wind,

and it filled the entire house in which they were.

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,

which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit

and began to speak in different tongues,

as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Acts 2:1-11
Creator Spirit, God's outrushing breath,
the mighty wind that stirs our little dust,
blow once again and lift us out of death.
Breathe in us still, the very air we trust.

In you we live; in you we move and are,
and yet you move in us: You fill our lungs.
You fire our minds.  You thunder in our hearts.
We breathe you out as music on our tongues.

You fill our bodies: Fill the one we make
as hands and feet of Christ sent to the field.
Come, blow in every breath his body takes.
Renew the whole, and let each part be healed.

O gift of God, come sanctify our gifts.
As we present them, may we be transformed.
Come make of us Christ's hands that upward lift;
we will become Christ's bread for all the world.  Amen.
Ingeborg Psalter 02f 1200 (cropped) Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106666589