A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 38: Friday after the 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Confluence

Poem: Whether They Know Thee or Not
Whether they know Thee or not
all creatures of the world
now and forever-without-end
bend but toward Thee.
All love for someone else
is but a whiff
of Thy perfume:
none else can be loved.
--------------- Fakhruddin ‘Araqi, 13th century Sufi contemplative poet


Proverb:
"Between God and the soul
there is no between."
---------------- Dame Julian of Norwich (ca. 13430 after 1614), 14th century mystic, anchoress, author of the first English- language books by a woman


Painting: The Confluence of the Bushkill and the Delaware, Kay WalkingStick, Cherokee artist, 2016

     


Prayer: Be One in Unity
Give us a blessing so that our words and actions be one in unity,
and that we be able to listen to each other, in so doing,
we shall with good heart walk hand in hand to face the future.

In the presence of the outside, we are thankful for many blessings.

I make my prayer for all people, the children, the women and the men.

I pray that no harm will come to them,
and that on the great island,
there be no war,
that there be no ill feelings among us.

From this day on may we walk hand in hand.
So be it.
------ Frank Fools Crow (1890-1989), Lakota leader and medicine man

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Devotional-- Day 37: Thursday after the 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Perception


Poem: Complex Phenomena

The rules of chaos are simple: a mountain

is never a perfect cone. A lake

is never really a circle. A drop

of dew is not a microcosm.

No. Flowers wither.

Dust collects. There is

the relentless return of what we

do not want. Everything inclines

to disorder. But then how

to explain this grove of orange trees

planted so close branch nuzzles branch,

the whole world in permanent rows?

An illusion, of course. When

the present for most of us lasts only

3 seconds. But then how to

explain the man blind from birth who

sees a person and believes he sees

a tree on legs? How did he find

the conceit to link such disparates?

The tactile vision of his past creates the

chaos of his present sightedness.

His world, newly angled, is no longer

reasonable, but still he relies on what

he knows. He names what he sees, revising

phylum, genus, class as he goes,

sometimes standing quite still, eyes closed

in order to recall the harmony of things.

-----------------Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Cuban-American professor, poet, editor, essayist, from What Cannot Be Fixed, 2014



Proverb:
“What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are.”

---------------C. S. Lewis 1893-1963), Irish convert to Christianity, Christian apologist, author, lecturer and poet


Painting: Birch Forest, Gustav Klimt, 1903

    

Prayer: Thou Art Not As I Have Conceived Thee

Lord, it is nearly midnight and I am waiting for You
in the darkness and the great silence.
I am sorry for all my sins.
Do not let me ask any more than to sit in the darkness
and light no lights of my own,
and be crowded with no crowds of my own thoughts
to fill the emptiness of the night in which I await You.

Your brightness is my darkness.
I know nothing of you and, by myself,
I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing you.
If I imagine you, I am mistaken.
If I understand you, I am deluded.
If I am conscious and certain
I know you, I am crazy.
The darkness is enough.

----------------Thomas Merton (Father Louis) (1915-1968), writer, poet, contemplative, ecumenist, and Trappist monk

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 36: Wednesday after the 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Solidarity


Poem: A Word on Statistics
Out of every hundred people

those who always know better:
fifty-two.

Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.

Ready to help,
if it doesn't take long:
forty-nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four—well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
forty and four.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it's better not to know,
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life except things:
thirty
(though I would like to be wrong).

Doubled over in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three, sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few at thirty-five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred—
a figure that has never varied yet.

---------------- Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012), Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner, translated from Polish by Joanna Trzeciak



Proverb:
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

--------------- Aristotle


Painting: Christina’s World, Andrew Wyeth, 1948

    

Prayer: To Flourish in Justice

God of Mercy,
we bow before You,
grateful for your abundant grace,
laying our cares at your feet in faith.

Holy One,
make us like green olive trees in the house of the Lord,
comforting those in need of shade and embrace,
nourishing those whose hearts hunger for compassion.

God of Justice,
make us steadfast in our willingness
to stand alongside our kindred in solidarity
against hate,
violence,
and prejudice in any form.
May we never be silent, O God,
in the face of injustice or exploitation,
but embody the Way of Love
and shield the vulnerable among us.

Blessed Redeemer,
we rest within your abiding compassion,
and ask your sheltering, healing hand
to be placed over those for whom we pray.

Amen.

------------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire, 2020

Prayer: Grace in Grief

     

God of Compassion,
we center ourselves in silence before you,
   laying our sorrow at your feet.

Walk alongside us in the days to come
   as our companion in grief
as we travel this hard road
   on this unwanted journey.

Help us forgive 
      and be forgiven 
   of all that is left undone,
   of all that cannot now be done,
with grace for our loved ones
   and grace for ourselves.
Let us fasten on what can be done
   with tenderness and gratitude.

Strengthen us to release the imperfections of love
   and the fragility of relationships
      with gentle hands.

Lift the boat of our hearts
   by the sea of our memories of laughter and joy,
      and carry away any bitterness with the tide of compassion.

O Mothering God,
Let us grieve as Jesus grieved 
   and weep as Jesus wept.
Help us cradle our memories,
   as Mary cradled the body of her child.

In assurance and trust, let the gift of your Spirit
   lead us to hold fast to our faith
      in the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body
      and the life everlasting
through Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer.
Amen.

----------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

Today is the first anniversary of the death of my younger brother Bill.

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 35: Tuesday after the 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Grief


Poem: Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet 10)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

------------------John Donne (1572-1631) English metaphysical poet, preacher, essayist, and Anglican priest


Proverb:
“It was in fact the ordinary nature of everything preceding the event that prevented me from truly believing it had happened, absorbing it, incorporating it, getting past it. I recognized now that there was nothing unusual in this: confronted with sudden disaster we all focus on how unremarkable the circumstances were in which the unthinkable occurred…..”

------------------Joan Didion (1934-2021), American journalist, essayist, novelist, memoirist, playwright, and screenwriter, winner of the National Book Award from The Year of Magical Thinking



Painting: Before I Die, Candy Chang, public art installation begun in 2011, New Orleans

    

Prayer: Grace in Grief
God of Compassion,
we center ourselves in silence before you,
   laying our sorrow at your feet.

Walk alongside us in the days to come
   as our companion in grief
as we travel this hard road
   on this unwanted journey.

Help us forgive
      and be forgiven
   of all that is left undone,
   of all that cannot now be done,
with grace for our loved ones
   and grace for ourselves.
Let us fasten on what can be done
   with tenderness and gratitude.

Strengthen us to release the imperfections of love
   and the fragility of relationships
      with gentle hands.

Lift the boat of our hearts
   by the sea of our memories of laughter and joy,
      and carry away any bitterness with the tide of compassion.

O Mothering God,
Let us grieve as Jesus grieved
   and weep as Jesus wept.
Help us cradle our memories,
   as Mary cradled the body of her child.

In assurance and trust, let the gift of your Spirit
   lead us to hold fast to our faith
      in the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body
      and the life everlasting
through Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer.
Amen.

----------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire, April 8, 2025

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 34: Monday after the 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Enduring Faith


Poem: Optimism
More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs–all this resinous, unretractable earth.
-------------Jane Hirshfield (1953- )American poet, editor, and translator


Proverb:
When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous,
but dismay to evildoers.
----------------- Proverbs 21:15



Painting: Wind and Dust, Miné Okubo (1912-2001), Japanese- American, 1943
(Painted at Japanese-American Concentration Camp, Topaz, Utah)

     


Prayer: Resilience
Our praises sing before you,
O God Most High;

Our prayers rise unto You,
O Redeemer, Our Lord Jesus Christ;

Our fears we lay before you,
O Holy and Eternal Abba,
Father and Mother.

Our hopes we breathe in from your Eternal Love,
O Savior;

Our resilience we draw from you,
Abiding Holy Spirit,
who lifts us and prepares us
for our work in your kingdom today.

O Creator,
we turn into your embrace for solace and strength,
and lay before you those needs for whom we pray.
Amen.

------------------- Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey Day 33: 5th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Extravagant Gratitude


Poem: Mary, of Bethany, at your feet a third time
And so you come once more to Bethany,
and share a meal with Lazarus,
a resurrection feast,
foreshadowing, foreshining
all those kingdom feasts you told of:
wedding banquets with long tables
set wide with good things,
with room enough for all,
welcome at your table.

Now, in Bethany, the house is ablaze with light,
shutters and doors thrown open,
all wide open with joy unspeakable,
music, laughter, dancing, wild thanksgiving
for one who was dead is alive again,

And all night, while crowds pour in from Jerusalem,
the feast goes on, and on,
as Mary enters now, cheeks glistening with joy,
past her brother at your side, back from the grave.

She kneels at your feet again,
pours out extravagant nard,
scandalous anointing of your warm, living feet,
unbinds her hair and lets it flow like water
over them, wiping them in such reckless
and tender thanksgiving.
Fragrance fills the room, the house, the night,
as more people pour from Jerusalem to you,
to you, who comes to us in our weeping,
who shares our bread with us,
and brings us to such joy as this.
----------------Andrea Skevington

Proverb:
“Mary’s extravagant love for Jesus makes it possible for Jesus to show extravagant love in what follows — washing the feet of his disciples, handing himself over to be arrested in the garden, carrying his own cross, dying, rising, and ascending. Mary loves Jesus into his future as the fulfillment of, “for God so loved the world.”
-----------Karoline Lewis, biblical scholar, theologian, and pastor



Painting: Anointing at Bethany, Sadao Watanabe, Japan, 1991

     

Prayer: A Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for not abandoning me when I abandoned you.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for offering your hand of love in my darkest, most lonely moment.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for loving me more than I love myself.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for continuing to pour your blessings upon me, even though I respond so poorly.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for drawing out the goodness in all people, even including me.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for repaying our sin with your love.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for being constant and unchanging, amidst all the changes of the world.
May you be blessed forever, Lord,
for your countless blessings on me and on all your creatures.
-------------St. Teresa of Avila

Scripture Reference: John 22:1-8, Lent 5C

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 32: Saturday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Simplify


Poem: Storage
When I moved from one house to another
there were many things I had no room
for. What does one do? I rented a storage
space. And filled it. Years passed.
Occasionally I went there and looked in,
but nothing happened, not a single
twinge of the heart.
As I grew older the things I cared
about grew fewer, but were more
important. So one day I undid the lock
and called the trash man. He took
everything.
I felt like the little donkey when
his burden is finally lifted. Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing—the reason they can fly.
-----------------Mary Oliver (1933-2019), beloved Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet



Proverb:
“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
–-------------------------Matthew 6:26



Painting: Wheatfield With Crows, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

Prayer: Prayer for Simplicity
(Inspired by Psalm 131)
O God, we come before You,
humble in heart,
rejoicing in your manifold mercies.
Let us not puff ourselves up with pride,
for we seek to be worthy of your Name.

Let us still our souls to rest upon You,
as a small child turns into the arms of her mother,
resting upon her breast.

Let us fasten upon this simple Truth:
that You are our God,
the root of all we are and all we do.
Let us center our determination
upon honoring your Word in our lives,
for we depend solely upon You
for wisdom and truth.

Knit us together in love and kinship,
united in purpose to serve You
through each other.
Refresh the souls of the weary, Lord Christ,
and give your peace to those we now name.
Amen.
-------------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 31: Friday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Hope After the Flood 

 

Poem: After Flood

Only these ravished banks

Their dry wounds bared to man

Sine Time once more comes slow with its white covering,

Show where the waters rn.

 

The stream proclaims his thanks

And neatly skirts a stone

That turns its smooth white face to bar his measuring

The bed that was his own.

 

Yet once his swollen flanks

Pushed with a maddened force

The tender slopes that leaned against him hovering

In fear, at his wild course.

 

Tore through the bowldered ranks

That questioning his right

Stood, like an ancient law against his pleasuring

Against his lawless might.

------------Jean Starr Untermeyer (1886-1970), American poet and translator

 

 

Proverb:

“Every storm runs out of rain.”

-------—Maya Angelou

 

 

Painting: The Falls of the Clyde: Corra Linn, Hugh William Williams, 1820

  

 

Prayer: Mercy in the Storm

Most Merciful God,
may our prayers rise on the scent of jasmine
as we praise and bless your love in our lives.
The curtain of the night parts
and you spread a new day before us:
Lord, hear our prayer.

In beholding afresh the wonders of creation,
let us see with new eyes and hearts, O Christ.
In taking up the work you have given us,
let us be guided to do your will, O Christ.
In turning from sin and self-centeredness,
let us atone for our wrongs, and reconcile, O Christ.

When tumults rage and threaten to swamp us,
let us remember that you do not bring them, O God:
Your hand holds us fast,
and commands the waves to cease-
may we never forget You are with us within the storm.

Merciful One, make your face shine upon us this day,
and upon those whom we now name.
Amen.

------------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

Written after a series of storms have gone through the Midwest for the last month.

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey--- Day 30: Thursday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Bread of Life


Poem: I Am the Bread of Life
Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question
That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers,
Bread for their families, bread for all these others;
A whole world on the margin of exhaustion.
And where that hunger has been satisfied
Where to get bread? The question still returns
In our abundance something starves and yearns
We crave fulfillment, crave and are denied.

And then comes One who speaks into our needs
Who opens out the secret hopes we cherish
Whose presence calls our hidden hearts to flourish
Whose words unfold in us like living seeds
Come to me, broken, hungry, incomplete,
I Am the Bread of Life, break Me and eat.
-------------Malcolm Guite (1954- ), English priest, poet, musician, and public theologian


Proverb:
“In an age of information overload ... the last thing any of us needs is more information about God. We need the practice of incarnation, by which God saves the lives of those whose intellectual assent has turned them dry as dust, who have run frighteningly low on the Bread of Life, who are dying to know more God in their bodies. Not more about God. More God.”
----------------- Rachel Held Evans (1981-2019), Christian apologist, author, blogger, and columnist


Painting: Bread of Life, by Jorge Cocco Santangelo (1936- ), Argentina

      


Prayer: Fed by the Bread of Life
God of Mercy, we praise You and bless You
for abiding with us always,
in gratitude and awe for your saving deeds in our lives.

Bread of Life,
you nourish us and sustain us ever with your love,
sweeter than honey on the tongue.
May we look with eyes of wonder today
on the glory of your handiwork, O Holy One,
remembering that you have knit us together
as one body, one community
regardless of our differences.

Blessed Savior, help us to see deeper
into the mystery of your abundant grace,
and lift each other over the hindrances that impede us.

Gather into your embrace
all whose hope is in you, O Christ,
and grant your peace and comfort to those for whom we pray.
Amen.
-------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 29: Wednesday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Tearing Down Walls


Poem: Mending Wall
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
--------------Robert Frost (1884-1963), American poet, four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; US Poet Laureate, 1958-1960



Proverb:
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
-----------Matthew 25:35


Painting: Little Green Fields, Gerard Dillon, 1950, Ireland

     


Prayer: Faithful in All Things
Lord Jesus,
we lift our hearts to You
to be filled with your limitless love
as we walk in your path of peace.
In your mercy,
forgive us our failures,
our jealousies,
our maneuvering against each other
regardless of cost.


Make us faithful in little things,
that we may be worthy of bearing your Holy Name
into the world, O Holy One.
Teach us to always walk in mercy and forgiveness,
compassionate and welcoming to the stranger.
Make us upright and generous,
like a green olive tree in your house, O God,
and make us a blessing to those we meet.
Make us happy to serve others, Lord Christ,
especially the lost,
the forsaken,
and those in any pain or grief.

By your grace,
dwell in our hearts and minds, O God,
and place your hand of blessing on those who call upon You.
Amen.
-------------------- Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 27: Tuesday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Walking on Water


Poem: I Do Not Walk On Water
I do not walk on water
Except in winter,
When ice makes the miracle more natural.
To me, these days, natural miracles are better,
Signifying lessons to live rather than shortcuts to take,
A more subtle yet more real magic.
For me, nature is already as supernatural
As it needs to be.
The simplest, humblest things —
Green moss on grey rock,
Spotted turtle basking in a shaft of sunlight —
They are true signs and wonders,
Holy, significant, wonderful.
I used to crave miracles to prove something
(most especially, myself, my faith, my tribe’s exceptionalism).
Now, instead of the miracle,
I try to keep my eyes open for the meaningful.
That these sounds in air or these marks on paper
Could bear my heart to yours,
Or bring what you see to my eyes … what
Could be more miracle?
---------------Brian McLaren (1956- ) American teacher, pastor, author, speaker, poet, and public theologian



Proverb:
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
------------Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022), Vietnamese Buddhist monk, author, teacher, poet, and peace activist



Painting: Never Forsaken, by Abraham Hunter, 2015

    


Prayer: Across Turbulent Water
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord,
we wait before You in reverence,
rejoicing in the power of your Spirit
as You have watched over our rest.

Shepherd of Our Souls,
You are the source of all blessing,
and we lift our grateful hearts to You,
singing out your lovingkindness.

You come to us across turbulent waters,
Beloved Savior,
and still the storms within and without
by the mercy of your healing presence.

We thank you, Lord Christ,
for the manifold gifts in our lives,
for the blessing of beloved friends,
for companions of our hearts,
who help us on our way
and reflect your love for us.

Accept our prayers and intercessions
for all the cares and concerns we carry in our hearts,
and send forth your angels to be the shield and comfort
of all who put their trust and hope in You.
Amen.
---------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 26: Monday after the 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: The Approach of Prayer


Poem: Sonnet: Prayer
Was it in Sunday school that we were taught
That prayer only counted when by rote;
This notion somehow lodged deep when we thought
To talk to God as if reciting quotes?
The words staccato sounds in breathless rhymes--
To bless our relatives, while half-asleep;
Confessing each day’s sins with guilty minds;
The fear of “praying God our souls to keep.”

We never thought that God might answer back.
We never thought to listen without words:
To feel God’s hand in midnight’s sacred black,
To hear God’s blessing in the song of birds,
To make a grateful bowl within each heart,
To practice prayer as welcome and as art.
------------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire, 2025



Proverb:
“Wherever there is the grace of God, human beings pray. God works in us, for we know not how to pray as we ought. It is the Spirit of God that incites us and enables us to pray in a fitting manner. We are not skilled to judge whether we are worthy or capable of praying, or whether we have sufficient zeal to pray. Grace in itself is the answer to this question. When we are comforted by the grace of God, we begin to pray with or without words.”
—----------------Karl Barth (1886-1968), Swiss systematic theologian and one of the most influential reformed theologians of the 20th century, from Prayer



Painting: Polonnaruwa, by Vasanth Warapitiya (Sri Lanka)

    


Prayer: Prayer for Opening
Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
---------------Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) Dutch Catholic priest, theologian, and spiritual writer

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 25: 4th Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Prodigal Love


Poem: Happiness
There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful hours
of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
--------------------- Jane Kenyon (1947-1995), American poet and translator, from The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices From the Robert Frost Place



Proverb:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
------------------ Jeremiah 31:3



Painting: The Return of the Prodigal Son, Brent Kastler

     


Prayer: Place Prayer
Loving God
may we be found
and may we find
a place called home
a place where faith holds us
and grace renews us
where forgiveness longs for us
to be who you will us to be

may we find a place called home
where we are accepted as we are
where we are taken in
and loved unconditionally

a place called home
where we belong
and our souls fit
and our questions are allowed
and our anger is heard
and our needs are recognised
and our pain is held
and our names are known

and may this
be that place, O God,
this community
this group of travellers and doubters
and companions on the way

this home
where your place
is our place
and place isn’t a building
but a way of being together
in relationship
held together
by love

Loving God
Homecoming God
may we make this a home
to all who still yet seek
a place of grace-filled sanctuary
and gracious welcome

So be it.
Amen.
----------------- Roddy Hamilton, inspired by the Parable of the Prodigal Son

Scripture reference: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Lent 4C

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 25: Saturday after the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Looking for Home

 

Poem: Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

--------------- Mary Oliver (1935- 2019) American poet, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize

 

 

Proverb:

“How great is the mercy of the Lord,
   and God’s forgiveness for those who return to God!”

---------------  Ecclesiasticus 17:29

 

Painting: Nine Travelers- Canada Geese, by Maynard Reece

      

 

Prayer: Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

+In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
---------------- The Northumbria Community, from Celtic Daily Prayer Book One: The Journey Begins

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 24: Friday after the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Conversations With God


Poems: God Speaks to the Soul; God Answers the Soul
God Speaks to the Soul
And God said to the soul:
I desired you before the world began.
I desire you now
As you desire me.
And where the desires of two come together
There love is perfected.


God Answers the Soul
It is my nature that makes me love you often,
For I am love itself.

It is my longing that makes me love you intensely,
For I yearn to be loved from the heart.

It is my eternity that makes me love you long,
For I have no end.
-------------------- Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210-1285), Medieval German mystic and poet and beguine (urban monastic), translated by Jane Hirshfield


Proverb:
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.”
------------------- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) from Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer



Painting: Christ in Sunset, Icon by Mary Jane Miller

    


Prayer: My God, you are always close to me
My God, you are always close to me.
In obedience to you,
I must now apply myself to outward things.
Yet, as I do,
I pray that you will give me the grace of your presence.
And to this end
I ask that you will assist my work,
receive its fruits as an offering to you,
and all the while direct all my affections to you.
------------------ Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (born Nicolas Herman) (1614-1691), French Carmelite monk, author of The Practice of the Presence of God