The Scattered Congregation

Tomas Tranströmer
I
We got ready and showed our home
The visitor thought: you live well.
The slum must be inside you.
 
II
Inside the church, pillars and vaulting
white as plaster, like the cast
around the broken arm of faith.
 
III
Inside the church there’s a begging bowl
that slowly lifts from the floor
and floats along the pews.
 
IV
But the church bells have gone underground.
They’re hanging in the sewage pipes.
Whenever we take a step, they ring.
 
V
Nicodemus the sleepwalker is on his way
to the Address. Who’s got the Address?
Don’t know. But that’s where we’re going. 

Pray: Just As I Am

Charlotte Elliott 1834
 
Tossed about
with many conflicts
many doubts
just as I am
to You I come.
 
Fightings and fears
within and without
just as I am
to You I come.
 
You will receive
You will welcome
pardon cleanse relieve
just as I am
to You I come.
 
Your promise
I believe
just as I am
to You I come.
 
Just as I am
to You I come.

Is My Soul Asleep?

Antonio Machado
 
Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that labor
at night stopped? And the water-
wheel of thought,
is it dry, the cups empty,
wheeling, carrying only shadows?
No, my soul is not asleep,
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its clear eyes open,
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.
 

Pray: Psalm 8

When I look at the stars,
the skies,
the heavens…
 
I think, “Who am I?”
 
Who am I that You
 
Creator of the ends of the universe
 
Notice me?
 
Think of me?
 
Care about me?
 
Who am I?
 
I am Yours.
Yours.
Yours.
 
Thank You…
Thank You…
Thank You…
For caring about me.

Selling your donkey

Rumi
 
Imagine a man selling his donkey to be with Jesus.
Now imagine him selling Jesus to get a ride on a donkey.
This does happen. 

Pray: God, Give Me to Abide in Thee

Dag Hammarskjold
 
God,
 
Give me a pure heart
that I may see Thee,
 
a humble heart
that I may hear Thee,
 
a heart of love
that I may serve Thee,
 
a heart of faith
that I may abide in Thee.

Four things

Antonio Machado
 
—Mankind owns four things
that are no good at sea:
rudder, anchor, oars
and the fear of going down. 

Pray: Take My Life

Frances Ridley Havergal 1874
 
Take my life
and let it be
consecrated
Lord to Thee.
 
Take my silver
and my gold
not a cent
do I withhold.
 
Take my moments
and my days
let them flow
in ceaseless praise.
 
Take myself
and I will be
ever only
all for Thee.

Just Be Ready

William Stafford
 
You can’t tell when strange things with meaning
will happen. I’m [still] here writing it down
just the way it was.
“You don’t have to prove anything,”
my mother said. “Just be ready
for what God sends.”
I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again. It was all easy. 

Pray: Breathe on Me

Edwin Hatch

Breathe on me
Breath of God
 
Fill me
with life anew
 
I want to love
as You love
and do
as You want me to do.
 
Breathe on me
Breath of God
until I
am wholly Thine
until this
earthly part of me
glows with
Your fire divine.

Foolish one

Hafiz
 
Foolish one,
do something,
or else you’ll just be
standing there, looking dumb.
 
If you are not traveling
 and on the road,
how can you call yourself a guide?
 
 

Pray: Show Me

Show me,
Gracious Lord,
     the peace I should seek,
     the peace I can keep,
     the peace I must forgo,
     and the peace I must give,
For Your kingdom’s sake.

Confluents

Christina Rossetti
 
As rivers seek the sea,
  Much more deep than they,
So my soul seeks thee
  Far away:
As running rivers moan
On their course alone
  So I moan
  Left alone.
 
As the delicate rose
  To the sun’s sweet strength
Doth herself unclose,
  Breadth and length:
So spreads my heart to thee
Unveiled utterly,
  I to thee
  Utterly.
 
As morning dew exhales
  Sunwards pure and free,
So my spirit fails
  After thee:
As dew leaves not a trace
On the green earth’s face;
  I, no trace
  On thy face.
 
Its goal the river knows,
  Dewdrops find a way,
Sunlight cheers the rose
  In her day:
Shall I, lone sorrow past,
Find thee at the last?
  Sorrow past,
  Thee at last? 

Pray: Psalm 42

As a deer
thirsts for a stream,
so my soul
thirsts for You.
 
I start to weep,
I begin to moan,
then I say to my soul,
“Soul, why so cast down?
“Trust God,
“Hope again.”
 
As a deer
thirsts for a stream,
so my soul
thirsts for You.

Joyful, Joyful,
I adore Thee
God of glory
Lord of love.
 
My heart unfolds
a flower
before Thee
opening to
the sun above.
 
Melt my clouds
of sin and sadness
drive my gloom
and doubts away.
 
Giver of
immortal gladness
fill me
with the light of day.

Risk everything

Rumi
 
Risk everything
for love.
If you do,
you’re a truly human.
If not,
why bother?
Halfheartedly
you’ll never reach
majesty.
You’ll set out
to find God,
but then
hinder your journey
at mean-spirited
roadhouses. 

Pray: Prayer for Peace

St. Francis
 
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred,
let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
 
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood,
as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
 
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning
that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying
that we are born
to eternal life. Amen.

Travelers

Basho
 
The moon and sun are travelers through eternity.
Even the years wander on.
Whether drifting through life on a boat
or climbing toward old age leading a horse,
each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
 

Pray: I Need Thee

Annie Hawks

I need Thee
every hour
hours of joy
hours of pain
come quickly
abide
without You
my life
I live in vain.
 
I need Thee
O I need Thee
every hour
I need Thee
O bless me now
my Savior
I come to Thee.
I come to Thee.
I come to Thee.

Search

Langston Hughes
 
All life is but the climbing of a hill
To seek the sun that ranges far beyond
Confused with stars and lesser lights anon,
And planets where the darkness reigneth still.
 
All life is but the seeking for that sun
That never lets one living atom die –
That flames beyond the circles of the eye
Where Never and Forever are as one.
 
And seeking always through this human span
That spreads its drift of years beneath the sky
Confused with living, goeth simple man
Unknowing and unknown into the Why –
The Why that flings itself beyond the Sun
And back in space to where Time was begun. 

Pray: Precious Lord

Thomas A. Dorsey 1938
 
Precious Lord
take my hand
lead me on
help me stand.
 
I am tired.
I am weak.
I am worn.
 
Through the storm
through the night
lead me on
to the light.
 
When my way grows drear
precious Lord linger near.
 
When my life is almost gone…
 
hear my cry
hear my call
hold my hand
lest I fall.
 
Take my hand
precious Lord
lead me home.

The Journey

Mary Oliver
 
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

Pray: Psalm 38

O Lord,
all my longing
is surely known to You,
all my sighing
cannot be hidden from You.
 
My heart throbs…
My strength fails…
The light of my eyes
is going out…
 
I am hurting,
and my pain is ever with me.
 
For You, O Lord,
I will wait.
In You, O Lord,
I will trust.
 
Do not forsake me,
Do not be so far from me,
Come closer to me,
Quickly!
Help me.
You, O Lord,
are my only hope.

Pax

D.H. Lawrence
 
All that matters is to be at one with the living God
to be a creature in the house of the God of Life.
 
Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
and at one with the master of the house, with the mistress,
at home, at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth, and yawning before the fire.
 
Sleeping on the hearth of the living world
yawning at home before the fire of life
feeling the presence of the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart
a presence
as of the master sitting at the board
in his own and greater being,
in the house of life. 

Pray: Into Your Keeping

Margaret Cropper
 
Now, into Your keeping,
I give all doings of today.
 
All disappointments,
hindrances,
forgotten things,
negligences.
 
All gladness and beauty,
love,
delight,
achievement.
 
All that people
have done for me,
All that I have done for them,
All my work, and my prayers,
 
And I commit to You,
All the people I love,
to Your shepherding,
Your healing,
Your restoring,
Your calling,
     Your making,
     Your care.