Mercy

You rose, O Christ, creation's brightest morn,
but still you show the marks where you were torn.
On us who wound you still as we did then,
breathe peace again.

On Thomas, smarting raw with newfound grief,
who could not bear the burden of belief,
when he cries out at last, “My Lord and God!”
show him your heart.

And Mary, who your messenger became,
was blind to you until you called her name.
She clutched at you: Her frightened grasp release
and give her peace.

Then Peter, too, who knew himself afraid
but when the cockerel crowed three times, “Betrayed!”
whose courage died, as it lived, by the sword:
Have mercy, Lord.

And even—in your mercy's farthest scope—
on him who dangled from a desperate rope,
poor Judas, come to greet you with a kiss:
Forgive him this.

For none of us can love you as we should;
for all of us, your grief turns to our good.
On us who take our comfort in your wounds, 
have mercy, too.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio, c. 1602 – Downloaded from Google Arts & Culture using dezoomify-rshttps://artsandculture.google.com/asset/der-ungl%C3%A4ubige-thomas-michelangelo-merisi-named-caravaggio/OAEjjQkNdRL9sg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120649550

May There Be

For the hungry and the thirsty,
for the for the poor and for the meek,
for the blind man crying, “Mercy!”
saying, “Lord, I want to see,”
when the skies rain down a savior,
when he gathers east and west,
may there be a great high table
where the least have all the best.

For the robber robed in splendor,
for the beggar at the gate,
for the last man in the vineyard,
for the bridesmaids coming late,
when the bread of heaven's broken,
when the saints go marching in,
may there be a door left open
as the wedding feast begins.

For the desperate and down-hearted,
for the captive and the bound,
for the ones who dwell in darkness,
all those waiting to be found,
when the shepherd comes to free them,
when the nights gives way to dawn,
in the loving arms of Jesus,
may we find the light goes on.

Late Roman marble copy of the Kriophoros of Kalamis (Museo Barracco, Rome) By No machine-readable author provided. Tetraktys assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9811227

Let Us Go

For God has commanded
   that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
   be filled to level ground,
   that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
   have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
   by the light of his glory,
   with his mercy and justice for company.
—Baruch 5:1-9

A voice is crying in the desert:
“Make straight the path! Prepare the way,
that children may return from exile
and those in darkness see the day.

“The frail and foolish shall not falter;
the strong shall not oppress the weak,
but all come streaming to the altar
where kings bow down before the meek.”

But God it was made these rough places,
with plumb and line laid out the earth.
He comes, remaking this creation,
preparing hearts to know his birth.

And lo! The mountains bow to greet him;
the valleys rise to offer praise.
They know our God has come to meet us,
and all the earth shall see his face.

The narrow way grows wide and even
and shaded o'er by every tree.
No heights now block the way between us;
no gorges gape before our feet.

Then let us go along his highway
with all who come from east and west.
A light is breaking forth to guide us
into the pastures of his rest.

The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566 – Google Arts & Culture: Home – pic Maximum resolution., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122059315

We Give You Thanks

For the mercies of the morning
stretching out into the day;
for the sunset westward falling
and the evening on its way;
for the stillness of the midnight;
for the ever-changing moon;
for the breaking of the dawnlight
and the morning coming soon,
	O God, we give you thanks.

For the planting and the growing;
for the sunlight and the rain;
for the sprouting and the growing
and the harvest of the grain
making gifts your people bring you;
for the table that you spread;
for the feasting in the kingdom
where your children all are fed,
	O God we give you thanks.

For the hungry and the thirsty;
for the captive and the free;
for the blind man crying “Mercy!”
saying, “Lord, I want to see”;
for the ones who are forgiving
as they, too, have been forgiv'n;
for the dead and for the living;
for the sinners welcomed in,
	O God, we give you thanks.

For the graces as we gather
and the bounty that we bless;
for the seasons and the sabbaths
and the sweetnesses of rest;
for the goodness of our labors;
for the fruits of earth and vine;
for the strangers now made neighbors
as we share the bread and wine,
	O God, we give you thanks.

Poster of cornucopia for California By http://www.library.ca.gov/calhist/images/big/cornucopia.gif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=751696

When You Return

When you return, O God,
O brighter than our sun,
to reckon all our rights and wrong,
our done and left undone,

there at the end of time
when at your feet I stand,
oh, take the oceans of my crimes
and pour them through your hands.

The words I should not say,
the swords I should not wield,
pour in and let them drain away
through mercy's wounds unhealed.

For I am sunk in them
who cannot walk their waves.
They seep out through your innocence
'til all that's left is grace.

As deep as I have drowned,
raise me and let me stand.
The millstone ropes at last unwound,
let me rest on dry land.

And see: My sins are gone
and you alone remain.
Now fill me with the light of dawn
and make me new again!

Gospel Book, Second Coming of Christ, Walters Manuscript W.540, fol. 14v. This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. By Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts – https://www.flickr.com/photos/39699193@N03/8509826031/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76790938

Axes

Will you, O God, look on my days with favor
and bless the feeble faithfulness you see
with mercy for the thousandth generation,
as graces from my forebears came to me?

Will you behold my striving with your kindness
and witness all my efforts from above?
The consequences of my self-made blindness
will you withhold from those I dearly love?

Or will you let the axes I have sharpened,
that I let fly, fall earthward as they will?
I fear them not, O Lord: My heart is hardened,
but how can I not fear that they may kill?

But if you will, reach out your heand from heaven
and turn all my destructive ways aside.
What I have loosed, bind into your indenture;
where I have prisoned, throw the portals wide!

Yet you will not, until the trump has sounded,
turn anyone aside from his own sense.
Instead you stand, unweaponed love unbounded,
and let the axes fall upon yourself.

Lord, I would be a blessing to my children,
as I am blessed by those who came before.
Then let me bear with patience all that kills me
and stand beside you here forevermore.

~ “He who does not keep peace shall lose his hand.” By Photo: Andreas Praefcke – Own work own photograph, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=169895

Seat of Grace

Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
—Hebrews 4:14-16

When you appear before us
and all has been made known,
shall we approach your glory
and kneel before your throne?
So now while you are hidden
we still seek out your face;
we know you welcome sinners
there at the seat of grace.

No kings sit at your right hand,
no princes at your left:
The throng who in your sight stand
were servants of the rest.
And you, O Lord, uphold them—
so we would be upheld.
Until we can behold you,
grant us your timely help!

To love you in our service,
and love our neighbor, too,
to know the gift of mercy—
and always to know you.
So we bring all our weakness,
our sorrow, and our sin
and seek our great high priest here:
O, bid us enter in!

Mantle

To those who stand on corners
or walk the highways out,
to those who sleep in doorways,
reach out your mantle now
and drape it as a shelter
across the unkind earth,
a tent of finest velvet
for those who sleep on dirt.

Reach out to them, O Mary
apparelled in the sun,
the hounded and the harried,
and hide them from the guns.
See those in need of rescue
and spread for them your cloak
to be a sky-blue refuge
that screens them from the foe.

O Mother, now behold them,
the weary and the poor,
and in your arms enfold them 
where once you held the Lord,
to shield them from the Herods—
O, bear them safe away
beyond the reach of terror
to live another day.

The Ravensburger Schutzmantelmadonna, c. 1480, attributed to Michel Erhart, painted limewood, Bode Museum, Berlin. Attributed to Michel Erhart – Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2293730

Psalm 139: Too Great For Me

Based on Psalm 139:

You saw me in the darkness
within my mother's womb;
in every hope and heartache
I have been known to you.
I flee you and I fight you;
I turn from you in shame,
but I cannot deny you,
and still you call my name.

In rising and in sinking,
in falling, there to lie,
all that I long have hidden
is here before your eye.
My secrets and my shadows
to you are bright as day,
and all I long to ask you,
you know before I say.

When I would shrink in terror
there's courage that you give,
who know me in my failure—
You know, and you forgive.
And still you call, O Father;
beside me still you stand.
Too great for me, this knowledge,
that I am in your hand.

More details

Coro alto, Sé de Braga Portugal. Photo By Joseolgon – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72225140

Warp and Weft

And at your name all knees will bend,
all heads will bow to bear your yoke.
O, lay it gently on us then!
Your mercy, Lord, is all my hope,

for all you trusted to my hands,
the blessings on my head you poured,
my hans have twisted from their ends,
my thoughts have beaten into swords.

So when your judgment comes, O Christ,
how will you reckon all I've done,
the broken endings I have spliced
to all the graces you had spun?

Still bend my shoulders to your yoke
as you bent yours to humankind's:
So you restore the things I broke 
and pour again your new-made wine.

Still reach your hands out right and left:
No weaver, but a carpenter,
when you stretch out the warp and weft
my crooked ways run straight and sure,

for in your work my work is good.
Your wounded hands hold all my ends
and turn them as I never could
'til swords are plowshares once again.

Weaver, Nearer an Open Windows By Vincent van Gogh – Copied from an art book, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9108043