Forest

Blessed are you who are poor,
                        for the kingdom of God is yours.
            Blessed are you who are now hungry,
                        for you will be satisfied.
            Blessed are you who are now weeping,
                        for you will laugh.
            Blessed are you when people hate you,
                        and when they exclude and insult you,
                        and denounce your name as evil
                        on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
            But woe to you who are rich,
                        for you have received your consolation.
            Woe to you who are filled now,
                        for you will be hungry.
            Woe to you who laugh now,
                        for you will grieve and weep.
            Woe to you when all speak well of you,
                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.
—Luke 6:20-26

How blessèd are the branches standing barren;
in silent wastelands still they call for rain.
A kingdom comes that they will yet inherit,
a fertile plain.

But cursèd are the orchard boughs now burgeoned,
who even in the drought their verdure keep,
who drink from hidden springs and buried currents,
their roots sunk deep,

for there will come a day when they must wither,
a day when all the barren ones will bloom—
a summer day for some, and others winter,
and it comes soon.

The seasons turn and turn again unending,
and they who laugh for now will someday mourn,
the proud and strong to shame and sorrow bending
and princes scorned.

But there will come a day when all will blossom:
The seasons turn 'til turning time is done,
then all shall stand before the God who wrought them,
th'unsetting sun.

As every branch is lifted to his glory,
the barren and verdant, one and all,
rejoice together, God's belovèd forest,
where no leaves fall.

Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, Photo By TheSimkin (talk · contribs) – Own work by the original uploaderTransferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Siebrand., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3957472

Beatitude

Beatitudes, on the Fourth of July:

O, bless the poor in spirit, Lord,
with kingdoms at their feet,
and bless all who are simply poor:
Lay out for them your feast.

Bless, too, the hands that are not full,
who hunger and who thirst:
For them, let justice' waters roll
and every dam be burst.

And bless all those who mourn and weep:
Pour comforts in their hands.
And bless the humble and the meek:
Give them, at last, the land,

for we have had the rich and great,
and well we know their might,
but now the hour is getting late
and swiftly goes the light.

Give us the kingdom that we need
on earth as 'tis in heav'n.
Help us forgive—O, set us free!—
that we may be forgiv'n.

So teach us to be merciful
that we may mercy know,
to make the kingdom peaceable
and see you ever close. Amen.

Église Saint Aloyse béatitude 1 Photo By Sicarov – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149373090

Will You Bless Us?

For today’s Gospel reading of the Beatitudes:

Lord, we come to you confessing
all our struggle and our need,
and we ask you for your blessing.
Will you give us what we seek?

Will you make us poor in spirit,
like a king who left his crown
so that nobodies can wear it
when he comes into his own?

Will you give us tears for mourning?
There's so much we need to grieve;
drench our hearts, for they are burning!
Christ who wept, grant us relief!

Will you give us thirst and hunger
for the kingdom that you bring
and the justice that we long for,
and then fill us with good things?

Will you give us, Lord, your mercy?
Oh, then make us merciful!
We will bear each other's burdens
as you bear them for us all.

For you came to help and cure us
of the ills that we have made.
Make a blessing of our curses;
bring new life out of our graves.

The sermon on the mount By Harold Copping – https://www.meisterdrucke.de/künstler/Harold-Copping.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84021899

Now Weep For Sorrow, O My Soul

“But woe to you who are rich,
                        for you have received your consolation.
            Woe to you who are filled now,
                        for you will be hungry.
            Woe to you who laugh now,
                        for you will grieve and weep.
            Woe to you when all speak well of you,
                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
Luke 6:20-26

Now weep for sorrow, O my soul,
and tremble, you who have been filled,
for I will lose my grasp on gold
and nothing answers to my will.

If I have laughed, I still shall weep;
if I am loved, the world will turn.
There is no promise I can keep,
no certain hope that I can earn.

Then come, O Lord, and take my hands:
Unwind my fingers from their grasp,
for someday I must empty stand
with nothing but your hand to clasp.

And all the mercies you have sent
of love and life, I do not scorn,
but let me hold them lightly yet
that from my hands shall yet be drawn.

Whatever you shall send me then,
still stand beside me to receive,
if I before the storm must bend
or stand again in its reprieve.

As naked as I was at birth,
unshielded into death I'll go,
and all I hold upon this earth
I thank you for and watch it go.