Jerusalem, Be Joyful

Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain,
for the old order has passed away.”
The One who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”
Revelation 21:1-5a

Jerusalem in mourning,
a widow's tale did tell,
but now in bride's adorning,
has love with her to dwell.

And he will stay forever,
her groom for all her days.
No more will they be severed,
for death has passed away.

The bridegroom in his glory
is making all things new.
He tells another story:
“Go, love as I've loved you!”

Now every king's a servant,
and all the world's a bride,
because a new commandment
the older world rewrites.

A newer earth and heaven
have sprung up in his wake,
and they will bloom wherever
we love for his love's sake.

Jerusalem, be joyful
and let him enter in:
The king of glory joins you!
The feast of love begins!

**The New Jerusalem**. Armenian manuscript by Malnazar and Aghap’ir in New Julfa bible, 1645. – Donabédian, Patrick (1987) (in French) Les arts arméniens, Paris: Mazenod, p. 346 ISBN: 2850880175., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98280941

Airport Prayer

Good Shepherd, you who guide and guard,
who call my name and lead me out,
keep every creature safe from harm
and bring them home, through flood or drought.

The flocks I know and other flocks
you call in tongues I do not speak,
oh, shelter them upon the rock
and be the safety they all seek.

For long and hard the homeward road
still stretches out before our feet,
and we have all so far to go
before our ways can be complete.

Through meadows where your mercies run,
Good Shepherd, give us daily rest
where streams reach out to everyone,
and every heart can be refreshed.

Through deserts barren, brown, and sere
where every soul sometime must go,
through days and nights of pain and fear,
still let your mercy overflow.

As rain to earth from heaven falls
then rises back again to you,
rain down your goodness on us all
and let it shepherd us to you.

A crowd leaves the Vienna station on the Washington Metro in 2006. By Ben Schumin – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1123246

From Every Tribe and Nation

I, John, had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
Then one of the elders said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“For this reason they stand before God’s throne
                        and worship him day and night in his temple.
            The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.
            They will not hunger or thirst anymore,
                        nor will the sun or any heat strike them.
            For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne
                        will shepherd them
                        and lead them to springs of life-giving water,
                        and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17

From every tribe and nation,
from every race and creed,
all kinds from all creation:
One shepherd's voice they heed.
They know him, and they follow
when Christ calls them his own,
and when they stand before him,
they worship him as one.

Their hearts have not been faultless,
but in his strength endured;
their robes were never spotless
until he made them pure.
Their languages were sundered
by pride on Babel's plain,
but now they sing in wonder
one song to praise his name.

No more shall envy take them
from Christ the shepherd's hand;
no more shall hatred shake them
who in his temple stand.
They gather in his shelter,
untouched by any fears:
The Lamb is their own shepherd,
and he will dry their tears.

Lamb of God with vexillum, Sacred Heart Church (Berlin), 1898 By WorldKnowledge0815, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70885839

Mercy’s Measure

Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.
Luke 6:37-38

Come forgive and be forgiven:
Gentle Lord, I hear you tell
that the measure I have given
shall be guven me as well.
But the meager grace I offer
cannot fill my wounded soul.
Though I cling to all my profit,
it can never make me whole.

Come unbind me, O my shepherd,
from the chains I bound myself.
Come and teach me mercy's measure,
overflowing every breath.
Turn my heart from condemnation;
turn my mind from judgment's scales,
for you came to bring salvation
even to the soul that fails.

Come and show me, Christ my savior,
love that does not count the cost.
That same love teach me to render,
for I, too, am blind and lost.
Oh, how infinite your treasure,
yet how little I can see!
God of love beyond all measure,
measure mercy out to me!

By Work Projects Administration Poster Collection – Library of CongressCatalog: http://lccn.loc.gov/98517015Image download: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3f00000/3f05000/3f05500/3f05508v.jpgOriginal url: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05508, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31925246

Noli Me Tangere

The place where I had laid you
is empty, cold, and bare.
I come again to crave you,
but will not find your there.

Not in the graveyard garden,
nor farflung Galilee—
O Christ, grant me your pardon
and come again to me!

I know that you have risen,
but where, then, is your light
when all the world is prison
and every day is night?

Come forth, O Lord of morning!
Come forth, O rising sun!
My hope, be once more dawning,
and let this night be done!

Or have you gone already
and left me in the tomb?
My earth can't be as heaven
if I am reft of you.

If you are gone, Rabbouni,
still point to me the way
and I will follow, follow
'til break of endless day.

Peter II

You said that you would serve me,
the cleansing water poured
though I could not deserve it—
but wash me now, O Lord.

While you awaited Judas,
I laid me down and slept,
but I have heard the rooster,
and bitterly I wept.

For I have failed my tempting;
my own heart I denied,
and now my nets are empty,
though I have fished all night.

You call out from the shoreline
beyond the night of grief.
I plunge into the ocean
let it wash me clean.

You ask me if I love you;
you ask it yet again.
Three times your ask it of me,
as you foretold my sin.

And three times I have answered,
and will a thousand more
through all the years advancing:
You know I love you, Lord.

Raphael, *Christ’s Charge to Peter*, 1515. – Victoria and Albert Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1718074

Peter I

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19

To the tune NON DIGNUS:

O Lord, you know I love you,
though human hearts are frail.
You know how I turned from you,
when all my courage failed.

You now how I denied you;
you saw when I turned back,
but now I sit beside you—
and will you take me back?

Oh, how can you believe me?
What promise could I keep?
But somehow you receive me,
and tell me feed your sheep.

So I will be a shepherd
and all the world my field,
as I have been a fisher
for all the seas would yield.

Forever I shall follow
where you have gone before.
I am reborn from sorrow,
because you love me, Lord.

William de Brailes, *Christ Appears at Lake Tiberias*, c. 1250. – Walters Art Museum: Home page Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18850975

Breath

You spoke my name, and I began;
you breathed your life into my clay,
and by that breath alone, I am:
a word you've chosen still to say.

Not mine alone, but your breaths, too,
from that first cry in Bethlehem,
in every moment make me new—
and you alone can number them.

The widow's son and Lazarus
and Jairus' daughter lost in death:
You came to them (to all of us)
and gave them back the living breath.

You breathed your last upon the cross
and first again on Easter morn.
You sobbed and screamed through helplessness
as one of us since you were born.

My panting, gasping, choking days,
my yawns and drawn-out sighs of night:
You know them all, the songs of praise
and shouting at a world not right.

So let my every breath be yours,
for you have hallowed each of them,
and breathe upon me, living Lord,
that I may have your peace in them.

Alsace, Bas-Rhin, **Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg** (PA00085015). Bas-côté sud, Verrière “Résurrection du Christ” (4eBc): Jésus apparaît aux disciples By © Ralph Hammann – Wikimedia Commons – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14571792

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
John 20:11-18

In the dim, gray light of morning,
when the day's afraid to start,
nothing but a shadow dawning
streatches out across my heart.
But my blood and breath are beating;
their persistence bids me wake.
O my savior, I will seek
while the heart within me breaks.

I will bring you balm and spices,
though they cannot soothe your wounds,
as the new day's sun arises,
though it cannot pierce my gloom.
I will carry on in grieving
though my love can do no more.
I will go on still believing,
though I cannot find my Lord.

There will come to me a morning
when I see again your face,
and a sun within me dawning 
will illuminate your ways,
but 'til then this bitter perfume
fills the chambers of my heart,
and I bring it to anoint you:
Take my offering, O God.

Llimona_Josep_LEnterramentDeCrist_1916_Detall de Maria_Magdalena Photo By Friviere – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75418687

We Looked For You Among the Dead

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
John 20:19-31

We looked for you among the dead,
for we had seen your awful wounds.
You coem to us alive instead,
through still-locked doors in hidden rooms.

For you had learned to pass through walls,
through fear and pain, through hell itself.
You opened ways to pass through all;
with open wounds you pass through death.

We could not roll away the stone
that sealed you lifeless in the grave,
but you have passed on ways unknown 
through stone and door to come and save.

And though we hide from all in fear
and go alive to early tombs,
O risen Lord, still you draw near
to breathe your peace in upper rooms.

Inviting, then, you bid us touch
the open ways in hands and side,
to follow you through death and love
on pathways you have opened wide.

You meet us here in living flesh,
and we will meet what you went through.
Come with us yet through life and death,
and may our wounds lead us to you.