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 This day and this night,
                        may I know O God
            The deep peace
                        of the running wave
            The deep peace
                        of the flowing air
            The deep peace
                        of the quiet earth
            The deep peace
                        of the shining stars
            The deep peace of the Son of Peace.

The best way to look at suffering is with gratitude, that it is happening in order to teach us some very important lesson.  It is useless to want suffering to go away.  It is impermanent, it will go away anyway, but if we don’t learn the lesson that it is trying to teach us, it will come back in exactly the same manner.

            Aya Khema  When the Iron Eagle Flies

Resting

Lord,
Teach me to rest in you.
Teach me to see the sky
and to think of nothing else
but the joy of it.
Teach me to look
at field and flower
and be soothed
by colours and seasons.
Teach me to close my eyes
and to rest
in the Love that has supported me
all my days.
Teach me, Lord,
to rest in you.

                                    Frank Topping

Living

Lord, you came to give us life,
and life that was more abundant.
Help me not to run away from life,
But to follow your spirit,
to accept the thorn
as well as the flower
and to be grateful
for the gift of life.

                                    Frank Topping

THE FREEDOM OF THY BOUNTY

What, O my Lord, could I desire to be which thou has not made me!  If thou hast expressed thy love in furnishing the house, how gloriously doth it shine in the possessor!  My limbs and members when rightly prized, are comparable to the fine gold, but that they exceed it.  The topaz of Ethiopia and the gold of Ophir are not to be compared to them.  What diamonds are equal to my eyes; what labyrinths to my ears; what gates of ivory, or ruby leaves to the double portal of my lips and teeth?  Is not sight a jewel?  Is not hearing a treasure?  Is not speech a glory? O my Lord, pardon my ingratitude, and pity my dullness who am not sensible of these gifts.  The freedom of thy bounty hath deceived me.  These things were too near to be considered.  Thou presentedst me with thy blessings, and I was not aware.  But now I give thanks and adore and praise thee for thine inestimable favours.

You Came For Me

Since you came into the world for all people, O Saviour, therefore you came for me, for I am one of the people.  Since you came into the world to save sinners, therefore you came to save me, for I am one of the sinners.  Since you came to find those who are lost, therefore you came to find me, for I am one of the lost.  O Lord my God, I should have come to you, I should have cast myself before you as a miserable sinner, I should have tried to find you.  But I was so proud and so stubborn that you had to come to me.  You had to come down to earth as a tiny baby, enduring poverty, discomfort and danger, in order to reach me.  You had to walk dusty lanes, enduring insults and persecution, in order to reach me.  You had to suffer and die on a cross, in order to reach me.  Forgive me my stubborn pride that I have put you to such trouble and such pain on my behalf.

                        Tychon of Zadonsk, 18^th c. Russian monk

There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow: behind it, yet within reach, is joy. Take joy.
And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

What in your life is calling you?
When all the noise is silenced,
the meetings adjourned,
the lists laid aside,
and the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest,
what still pulls on your soul?

In the silence between your heartbeats
hides a summons.
Do you hear it?
Name it, if you must,
or leave it forever nameless,
but why pretend it is not there?

To the Breath of Life

Homage to you, Breath of Life, for the whole universe obeys you.
You are the ruler of all things on earth, and the foundation of the earth itself.

Homage to you, Breath of Life, in the crashes of thunder and in the flashes of the lightning.  The rain you send gives food to the plants and drink to the animals.

Homage to you, Breath of Life, in the changing seasons, in the hot dry sunshine and the cold rain.  There is comfort and beauty in every kind of weather.

The plants themselves rejoice in your bounty, praising you in the sweet smell of their blossom.  The cattle rejoice, praising you in the pure white milk they give.

Homage to you, Breath of Life, in our breathing out and breathing in.  At every moment, whatever we are doing, we owe you praise and thanksgiving.

Homage to you, Breath of Life, in our birth and in our death.  In the whole cycle of life you sustain and inspire us.

Homage to you, Breath of Life, in the love and friendship we enjoy.  When we love one another, we reflect your infinite love.

Men and women rejoice in your bounty, praising you in poem and song.  The little children rejoice, praising you in their innocent shrieks of laughter.

From the Atharva Veda

There is a well-known simile about a monkey trap of the kind used in Asia —a wooden container with a small opening.  Inside lies a sweet.  The monkey, attracted by the sweet, puts his paw into the opening and grasps the sweet.  When he wants to draw his paw out again, he cannot get his fist with the sweet through the narrow opening.  He is trapped until the hunter comes and captures him.  He does not realize that all he has to do to be free is let go of the sweet.  That is the way we live our lives.  We are trapped because we want it nice and sweet.  Not being able to let go, we are caught in the never-ending cycle of happiness and unhappiness, hope and despair.

                        Ayya Khema from Be An Island

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

                                    Thomas Merton from Thoughts in Solitude

There are two pieces of wisdom that I carry close to my heart:  the first is from Mary Pickford, who said, “If you have made mistakes…there is always another chance for you….You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.”  The second insight is from First Lady Martha Washington, who said, “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”

                   Joan Chittister in Twelve Steps to Inner Freedom: Humility Revisited

Thinking of human beings alone is a bit narrow.  To consider that all sentient beings in the universe have been our mother at some point in time opens a space of compassion.

Humility is what gives us the vision to look upon our world with fresh eyes.  Humility enables us to respect others enough to put down our spurious images of ourselves and open our arms, as individuals and as a nation.  An awareness of limitations and a consciousness of the glory and goodness of God in others can make us while.  A consciousness of the brokenness of others that comes out of the consciousness of our own unrehabilitated selves can make us tender, make us holy…..If we really want to stop the violence in this country, we must start admiring others more for the goodness we see in them.  We must admire ourselves less, perhaps, in view of the struggle that we know is even now at war in us.  Even now it threatens to take our real measure.  The day we admit that, humility comes and caning ends.  Violence ends.  Oppression ends.  Everywhere.  Because first it ended in us.

The more compassionate you are, the more generous you can be.  The more generous you are, the more loving-friendliness you cultivate to help the world.

                                                Thich Nhat Hanh  from Buddhist Peacework

Whenever you hear that someone else has been successful, rejoice.  Always practice rejoicing for others—whether your friend or your enemy.  If you cannot practice rejoicing, no matter how long you live, you will not be happy.

                                    Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Transforming Problems into Happiness

Teach your children

what we have taught our children---
that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. 
If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know.
The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life;
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do it to ourselves…

                        Chief Seattle

Good God,
May it please You to
Give me enough
            Tears to keep me human
            Humour to keep me wise
            Failures to keep me humble
            Successes to teach me confidence
            Waiting to teach me patience
            Memories to give me comfort
            Friends to give me love
            Faith to keep me going
May your spirit touch my spirit that 
I may always know myself connected in your
love.  I ask your blessing today on what I am
and on what I do.  Keep me moving ever into
your ways.     Amen.

Trust says the crumpled green license plate that hangs in my office. Trust what?  Trust that it is worth scratching on the wall that God Is Love and Life because, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, it may just be true. Trust that if God is anywhere, God is here, which means that there is no telling where God may turn up next—around what sudden bend of the path if you happen to have your eyes and ears open, your wits about you, in what odd, small moments almost too foolish to tell. If God is ever, God is now, in the in and out of breathing, the sound of the footstep on the stair, the smell of the rain, the touch of a hand on your bare shoulder where you kneel at the door. If God lives and loves, as the hay shed proclaimed, it is in ourselves no less than everywhere else, in the godless no less than the godliest, in the dead no less than the living, because the end of a life is no more likely to be the end of God’s love that keeps it alive than it is of our love that keeps it a living part of ourselves….

            Frederick Buechner in The Eyes of the Heart
A reflection on  words scratched into the wall of a hut in Switzerland

Time to rearrange the furniture of my inner rooms:

The couch of compassion needs to be closer to the door, ready to receive the weary.
The table of truthfulness and trust wants to be under the window of light.
The chairs of charity call to be cleared of clutter accumulated through the clinging, cold winter.
The footstool of faith does best in the middle—accessible to all who need a lift.
The matching lamps of love and laughter could use dusting and dim bulbs replaced
The rugs of rejoicing need only a bit of shaking in the warm spring breeze.
The pictures of possibility can be hung on the walls in place of the art of arrogance.
The hearth, heart of my house, cries for sweeping of its stale ashes.
Now, position a few pillows of peace and place some posies of playfulness.
Break out the wine of whimsy and welcome and the baked bread buttery with being.
Now open the curtains of contentment!
My home of hope and hospitality is ready.
The door of divine love is flung wide.
Come in, my friend!

                        Barbara Schlachter

Christ has no body on earth now, but yours; no hands, but yours; no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he is to look out his compassion to the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.
And yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.

                                    St. Teresa of Avila

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as a great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.

Today’s mania for speed strikes right at the root of our capacity for an even mind.  How often we find ourselves locked into behavior and situations that force us to hurry, hurry, hurry!  By now, most of us are aware that compulsive speed—“hurry sickness”—can be a direct threat to our physical health.  But hurry has another alarming repercussion: it cripples patience. 

            When we lack patience, even a few moments’ delay, a trivial disappointment, an unexpected obstacle, makes us explode in anger.  We are not hostile people; we are just in such a hurry that keeping the mind calm is impossible.  Without peace of mind, how can we enjoy anything, from a movie to good health?

            When we go slower, we are more patient, and when we are more patient, we are capable of enjoying life more.  All these benefits can come from just learning to slow down.

                        Eknath Easwaran

The Talmud reads, “Never pray in a room without windows.” Never pray without the world in mind, in other words. The purpose of the spiritual life is not to save us from reality. It is to enable us to go on co-creating it.

Joan Chittister

"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire.”

While practicing generosity, we should always remember how very fortunate we are to have this opportunity.

            Gomo Tulku  from Becoming a Child of the Buddhas

To be attached to one’s own happiness is a barrier to the true and perfect path. To cherish others is the source of every admirable quality known.

            Tsongkhapa

      From My Breath

            From my breath I extract God,

                 And my eye is a shop

                        where I offer

                          Him to the

                               world.

           Thomas Aquinas

Every Foot a Shrine

Every creature has a religion. Every
           foot is a shrine where
                  a secret candle
                      burns.

Every cell in us worships
                 God.

Every arrow in the bow of desire
         has rushed out in hope
               of nearing
                  Him.

            Thomas Aquinas

We Are Fields Before Each Other

How is it they live for eons in such harmony---
the billions of stars---

when most men can barely go a minute
without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.

There are wars where no one marches with a flag,
though that does not keep casualties
from mounting.

  Our hearts irrigate this earth.
We are fields before
each other.

How can we live in harmony?
First we need to
know

we are all madly in love
with the same
God.

            Thomas Aquinas

Ask Anything

            “Ask anything,”

My Lord said to me.

And my mind and heart thought deeply

   for a second,

       Then replied with just one word,

                        “When?”

God’s arms then opened up and I entered Myself.

            I entered myself when I entered

                        Christ.

And having learned compassion I

 allowed my soul

      to stay.

            Thomas Aquinas

Every experience we have in our lives manifests from our mind. Because you interpret your life and your world through your mental attitude, it is important to have the right motivation.

            Lama Thubten Yeshe from The Bliss of Inner Fire

IF IT HAD NOT BELIEVED

Would any seed take root if it had not believed
            His promise, when God said,

“Dears, I will rain. I will help you.  I will turn into
            warmth and effulgence.

            I will be the Mother I am
                        and let you draw from
                                     My body

                                     and rise, and
                                                 rise.”

            Thomas Aquinas

OTHERWISE THE DARKNESS

                        I

            have a cause.

            We need those don’t we?

Otherwise the darkness and the cold get in

 and everything starts to

 ache.

            My soul has a purpose, it is

 to love;

                        if I       

  do not fulfill

 my heart’s vocation,

                        I suffer.

Thomas Aquinas

GOD’S NATURE

Sometimes we think what we are saying about God
is true when in fact
it is not.

It would seem of value to differentiate between what is
God’s nature and what is false about Love.

I have come to learn that the truth never harms
or frightens.
I have come to learn that

God’s compassion and light can never be limited;
thus any God who could condemn is
not a god at all
but some disturbing image
child

we best ignore, until we
can cure the
dark.

            Thomas Aquinas

Blessed be you, harsh matter, barren soil, stubborn rock:
you who yield only to force, you who cause us to work if we would eat.

Blessed be you, perilous matter, violent sea, untamable passion:
you who, unless we fetter you, will devour us.

Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution,
reality ever new-born, you who, by constantly shattering
our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth.

Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable time,
boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations:
you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards
or measurements reveal to us the dimensions of God.

Blessed be you, impenetrable matter: you who, interposed
between our minds and the world of essences, cause us to languish
with the desire to pierce through the seamless veil of phenomena.

Blessed be you, mortal matter: you who one day will undergo
the process of dissolution within us and will thereby take us
forcibly into the very heart of that which exists.

You who batter us and then dress our wounds,
you who resist and yield to us,
you who wreck and build,
you who shackle and liberate,
the sap of our souls,
the hand of God,
the flesh of Christ: it is you, matter, that I bless.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

St. Theresa’s Prayer

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you…. May you be content knowing you are a child of God…. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of you.

Sent by my friend Marlene Hannah

No: it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.
Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to make it blossom.
Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.
But no colors appear, and no perfumes.
Ah!  It is not for you to open the bud into a blossom.

He who can open the bud does it so simply.
He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.
At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.

Colors flush out like heart-longings,
The perfume betrays a sweet secret,
He who can open the bud does it so simply!

            Tagore

Today

Let me live today.
Let me be open to the miracle of this day.
Let me breathe the best of today.
Let me not miss the heart of today.
Let me find the gift of today;
     hidden like a jewel in a rubble of care, duty, and detail.

Let me pause to hear
     the steady beat of the heart of God—
hoping, aching, sorrowing, expectant, patient,
     despairing heart of God.

Listen, listen.
Do you hear it?
Ever so faint but steady, steady,
     rhythmic organ, strong muscle,
     thumping, beating, pumping, sustaining encompassing,
wildly dancing heart of God.

Let me live this day, aware, open, listening, breathing, alive.

            The Reverend Virginia Going

HE DESIRED ME SO I CAME CLOSE

He desired me so I came close.

No one can near God unless He has prepared a bed for you.

A thousand souls hear His call every second, but most every one then looks into their life’s mirror and says, “I am not worthy to leave this sadness.”

When I first heard His courting song, I too looked at all I had done in my life and said,

“How can I gaze into His omnipresent eyes?”
I spoke those words with all my heart,

but then He sang again, a song even sweeter, and when I tried to shame myself once more from his presence God showed Me His compassion and spoke a divine truth,

“I made you, dear, and all I make is perfect. Please come close, for I desire you.”

            Teresa of Avila

LAUGHTER CAME FROM EVERY BRICK            

            Just these two words He spoke
                        changed my life,
                            “ Enjoy Me. ”

What a burden I thought I was to carry –
                   a crucifix, as did He.

            Love once said to me “I know a song,
                   would you like to hear it?”

And laughter came from every brick in the street
           and from every pore
                  in the sky.

           After a night of prayer, He
                 changed my life when
                        He sang

                   “Enjoy Me.”

I WOULD CEASE TO BE

God
dissolved
my mind — my separation.

I cannot describe now my intimacy with Him.
How dependent is your body’s life on water and food and air?

I said to God, “I will always be unless you cease to Be,”
and my Beloved replied, “And I
would cease to Be
if you
died.”

            Teresa of Avila

FIRST HE LOOKED CONFUSED

I could not lie anymore so I started to call my dog “God.”
First he looked
    confused,

then he started smiling, then he even
     danced.

I kept at it; now he doesn’t even
        bite.

I am wondering if this
might work on
    people?

            Tukaram (17^th c. Indian Poet)

O God, Slow Us Down

O God, slow us down and help us to see that we are put in charge of our lives, but with Thy help.  Help us to get in tune with the rhythm that makes for life.

We keep moving, even though we know that we are made to center down, as well as to be actively engaged in the business of life.  We compete for things and make those things more important than they ought to be.  We eat what we ought not to eat.  We neglect and misuse our bodies.  We fail to discipline our minds and to be still and know that thou art God and that we are the temple of the Most High.  Yet we often complain about our misfortunes and our hard luck, when at times it is we who are guilty of disregard.

Help us to know that we can be broken by life only if we first allow the victory of evil over our spirits.

May our hope and strength and faith be grounded in you; and may we recall the strength of our model, our brother and your Son.

Amen.

George Thomas

Certainty

Certainty undermines one’s power, and turns happiness
into a long shot. Certainty confines.

Dears, there is nothing in your life that will not
change—especially all your ideas of God.

Look what the insanity of religious knowledge can do:
crusade and maim thousands
in wanting to convert that which
is already gold
into gold.

Certainty can become an illness                                
that creates hate and
greed.

God once said to Tuka,
“Even I am ever changing—
I am ever beyond
Myself,

what I have once put my seal upon,
may no longer be
the greatest
Truth.

            Tukaram  (17^th c. Indian poet)

            It’s the Shell Trick

It’s the old shell trick with a twist:
I saw God put Himself in one
        of your pockets.

            You are bound
                   to find
                    Him.

            Tukaram (17^th c. Indian poet)

MY LUCKY ROCK                    

I said to a squirrel, “What is that you are carrying?”
                         and he said,

“It is my lucky rock; isn’t it pretty?”
                  I held it and said, “Indeed.”

                        I said to God,
                    “What is this earth?”

And He said, “It’s my lucky rock;
          isn’t it wondrous?”

                        Yes, indeed.

Tukaram

Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, Grow.”

            The Talmud

This Moment

Snatch now a stolen moment
From the hurtling days that,
Undistinguished by their sameness,
Pass without a murmur or a mark.

Make something of this moment,
Let it live through awareness
That its pulse will beat still
When the day itself is dead.

Rejoice in this moment!
Steal away in glee to a secret corner
Like a thief rewarded.
This moment is mine—mine all alone.

Lord, teach us to see thee
     not just in stained glass
     but in stained lives;
     not in Gothic arches,
     but in arthritic fingers.
Lord, teach us to hear thee
not just in hymns of praise,
     but in sneers of disdain.
Lord, let us know thee and love thee
     in all things as thou lovest us—
For out lovest
the self-seeking as well as the unselfish;
     the vindictive as well as the kind,
the sinners as well as the saints.
Thou lovest even me, Lord.

            Virginia Thomas

Listening

How often do I nod,
as if I were listening,
to words I cannot hear,
because I’m thinking about something else,
because I’m planning what I intend to say. 
Yet there are those who are good listeners:
a good conversationalist listens,
a good counselor or advisor listens,
good doctor listens, a good judge,
a good friend.
And you, my Lord,
you listen even to my thoughts.
Teach me to listen,
that I may hear you when you speak
in the wind, in music,
and in love.

Frank Topping

“In the second month the peach tree blooms, but not until ninth the chrysanthemums; so each must wait until her own time comes.”

            Ancient Chinese Proverb, quoted in “Tending Your Inner Garden.”

A Love Meditation

May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May he/she be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May they be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.

May I be safe and free from injury.
May he/she be safe and free from injury.
May they be safe and free from injury.

May I be free from anger, afflictions, fears, and anxiety.
May he/she be free from anger, afflictions, fears, and anxiety.
May they be free from anger, afflictions, fears, and anxiety.

Quoted by Thich Nhat Hanh I “Teachings on Love”

May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May he/she learn to look at him/herself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May they learn to look at themselves with the eyes of understanding and love.

Start with yourself with these six prayers, and then add a particular person and then a group of people as in the above example.

May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself.

May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself.

`````````````

May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.

May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free.

May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.

From Thich Nhat Hanh   Teachings on Love

May today there be peace within.
May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given
to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance,
praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of you.

Theresa of Avila, thanks to Theresa Anderson

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Founder of the Missionaries of Charity, 1997

LOVING GOD, we praise you for your daughter, Teresa, and for her great love of  your people. We are amazed that such a petite woman had the strength to do such great things. Although critics have censured her for not trying to change the political system that allows such poverty, we thank you that she was so secure in her calling to love the “unlovable” that their words did not deflect her. Like Mother Teresa, help us to see you wherever we are. Strengthen our devotion to you so that we are not distracted by naysayers. Grant to those with the power to improve the lives of so many the inspiration to use that power effectively. For we pray in the name of Jesus, who commands us to feed his flock. Amen.

There is a movement, not easily discernible, at the heart of all things to reverse the awful centrifugal force of alienation, brokenness, division, hostility and disharmony. God has set in motion a centripetal process, a moving towards the Centre, towards unity, harmony, goodness, peace, and justice; one that removes barriers.  Jesus says, “And when I am lifted up from the earth I shall draw everyone to myself,” as he hangs from His cross with out-flung arms, thrown out to clasp all, everyone and everything, in cosmic embrace, so that all, everyone, everything, belongs.  None is an outsider, all are insiders, all belong.  There are no aliens; all belong in one family, God’s family, and the human family.

Harriet Tubman, Abolitionist, The Moses of Her People, 1913

Jesus, we praise you for your amazing daughter, Harriet, who is rightfully called “The Moses of her People” for her work in the Underground Railroad.  Although she suffered brutality that left her physically disabled, she still dared to escape.  We praise you for Harriet’s courageous efforts to free her people from slavery.  We recall that she saved 756 slaves on one momentous occasion and, during the American Civil War, she managed her military intelligence missions so effectively that she gained the respect of generals.  Harriet is so much larger than life, it’s hard to imagine asking for the kind of inner strength she had.  Yet violence still abounds in our world, and so we ask for the ingenuity and daring to risk our very selves as Harriet did to save our sisters and brothers from brutality.  For we pray in the name of Jesus, who was beaten and humiliated, and yet die and rose to new life.  Amen.

From “She Who Prays”

TODAY—Mend a quarrel.  Search out a forgotten friend.  Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.  Write a love letter.  Share some treasure.  Give a soft answer.  Encourage youth.  Manifest your loyalty in a word or a deed.

TODAY—Keep a promise.  Find the time.  Forego a grudge.  Forgive an enemy.  Listen.  Apologize if you were wrong.  Try to understand.  Flout envy.  Examine your demands on others.  Thank first of someone else.  Appreciate, be kind, be gentle.  Laugh a little more.

TODAY—Deserve confidence.  Take up arms against malice.  Decry complacency.  Express your gratitude.  Worship your God.  Gladden the heart of a child.  Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.  Speak it again.  Speak it still again.  Speak it still once again.

            Anonymous

This is the way the rhythm moves.  The fall of the year comes, then winter with its trees stripped of leaf and bud; cold winds ruthless in bitterness and sting.  One day there is sleet and ice; in the silence of the night-time the snow falls soundlessly—all this until at last the cold seems endless and all there is seems to be shadowy and foreboding.  The earth is weary and heavy.  Then something stirs—a strange new vitality pulses through everything.  One can feel the pressure of some vast energy pushing, always pushing through dead branches, slumbering roots—life surges everywhere within and without.  Spring has come.  The day usurps the night view.

Is there any wonder that deeper than idea and concept is the insistent conviction that the night can never stay, that winter is ever moving toward the spring?  Thus, when a man sees the lights go out one by one, when he sees the end of his days marked by death—his death—he senses, rather than knows, that even the night into which he is entering will be followed by day.  It remains for religion to give this ancient wisdom phrase and symbol.  For millions of men and women in many climes this phrase and this symbol are forever on with Jesus, the Prophet from Galilee.  When the preacher says as a part of the last rites, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,…”he is reminding us all of the ancient wisdom: “Upon the night view of the world, a day view must follow.”

            Howard Thurman in “Prayers for Healing”

May Anger and Fear Turn to Love

O God
whose Son in anger
drove the money-changers
from the temple
let the anger of Nkwenkwe Nkomo
and his fellow detainees
be to the cleansing
of this land.

O God
I hold before you
the anger
the rage
the frustration
the sorrow
of Mrs. Nkomo and all black mothers
who demand for their children
the same chance to grow up
strong and tall
loving and unafraid
as any white mother
wants for her children;
 
In penitence
I offer you
my own mixed-up anger
that it, with theirs,
may be taken up
into your redemptive will
in which the clash
between anger and fear
oppressed and oppressor
can give way
to the incomprehensible action
of agape-love
bringing about the reconciliation
the embrace of the other
the alien
the enemy
creating the festival of shalom
in which the wolf shall lie down
with the lamb
and the whole of life on earth
shall rejoice
in the splendor of your glory.

Dr.Margaret Nash is a prominent Anglican lay person in Cape Town.  She joined black workers in resisting the bulldozing of their shacks, which had been declared illegal under apartheid laws.  Nkwenkwe Nkomo was one of thousands of young people who were jailed without trial laws during the apartheid era. 

From   “An African Prayer Book” ed. by Desmond Tutu

O Jesus, My Feet are Dirty

O Jesus, my feet are dirty.  Come even as a slave to me, pour water into your bowl, come and wash my feet.  In asking such a thing I know I am overbold but I dread what was threatened when you said to me, “If I do not wash your feet I have no fellowship with you.”  Wash my feet, then, because I long for your companionship.  And yet, what am I asking?  It was well for Peter to ask you to wash his feet; for him that was all that was needed for him to be clean in every part.  With me it is different; though you wash me now I shall still stand in need of that other washing, the cleansing you promised when you said, “There is a baptism I must needs be baptized with.”

            Origen from “An African Prayer Book” ed. by Desmond Tutu

A Balm in Gilead

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.

If you can’t preach like Peter,
If you can’t pray like Paul,
Just tell the love of Jesus,
And say he died for all.

African-American Spiritual from “An African Prayer Book” edited by Desmond Tutu

A Litany of Confession 

Lord, we confess our day-to-day failure to be human.

            Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we confess that we often fail to love with all we have and are, often because we do not fully understand what loving means, often because we are afraid of risking ourselves.

            Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we cut ourselves off from each other and we erect barriers of division.

            Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we confess that by silence and ill-considered word

            We have built up walls of prejudice.

Lord, we confess that by selfishness and lack of sympathy

            We have stifled generosity and left little time for others.

Holy Spirit, speak to us.  Help us to listen to your word of forgiveness, for we are very deaf.  Come fill this moment and free us from our sin.

Cathedral Church of Saint George, Cape Town from “An African Prayer Book” ed. by Desmond Tutu

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old?  Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?  Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

            Mary Oliver in “Thirst”

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man [sic] bears a poem, either spoken or done.

O Great Spirit…
Roll away from me the weight
of dead and frozen thoughts.
Clear away from me the fogs
of falsely sweet illusions.
Ignite in my heart
the warmth of true love
That with new eyes of new love
And my angel at my back
I may see the Truth of the World.
I may feel the Beauty of the World.
And I may act with courage for the good.
O Great Spirit…

David Tresemer, Psychologist and playwright, Colorado from “Prayers for a Thousand Years”