Glory to your coming that restored humankind to life. (Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns of the Nativity) Because of the shadows, we miss our brother’s face, our sister’s gaze. The pace of the crowd moves us forward. If you reached out to touch my garment, I would not feel. This power departs us daily:Continue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 3”
Category Archives: Damascus Road
Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 2
…as if He were a seed in our garden, or a small flash of light for our pupil, He shone forth and diffused and filled the earth. (Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns for the Nativity) Days crack like soil. In the parts of the world where summer parches we wait like potholes for the rain.Continue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 2”
Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 1
He rose up like a shoot before Him, a shoot from the parched earth; something spoken secretly occurred openly today. (St Ephraim the Syrian, Nativity Hymns 1) TV screens bear children’s prayers to a jolly man in red. My wish list is as full as my cupboard; my spirit is silent today. From department storeContinue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 1”
Damascus Road: Midday
Indeed, my friends, let us not forget in our wakefulness… (Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Hymns of the Nativity) Do I assume this peace? Some peasants once, I am told, when they had had enough of false liberty, took cobblestones and made them missiles. And men of another age were warned that their panelled houses couldContinue reading “Damascus Road: Midday”
Damascus Road Prayers: Saphro (Morning Prayer)
When you are able, bend your knees, when you cannot, make intercession in your mind, ‘at evening and at morning and at midday’. (St Ephraim the Syrian) From the rising of the sun – whatever morning reveals – to the setting of the same – You remain. What ruins lie at our feet – whateverContinue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Saphro (Morning Prayer)”
Damascus Road: Pre-War
In Damascus, people whisper when out in public. When a waiter arrives at a table, people stop talking… Then he said what I kept hearing over and over on this trip: “Syrians cannot do this to other Syrians.” (Janine di Giovanni, “Seven Days in Syria”) In the days before spring burst in war, some stillContinue reading “Damascus Road: Pre-War”
Damascus Road: Paris Interlude
Now it happens in places with names we know: near streets we have walked, in stadiums and concert halls, in coffee shops, where violence never breathed before, where we were safe. Now we look for signs of links to Syria, to al-Assad, ISIL, and cells which fire. Nothing has prepared us, yet to others thisContinue reading “Damascus Road: Paris Interlude”
Damascus Road: Breach
For the occasions past and present, when sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by action or omission against their Orthodox brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant us forgiveness. (Pope John Paul II, May 2001) I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. (Nicene Creed) The year the towers fell, John PaulContinue reading “Damascus Road: Breach”
Damascus Road Prayers: Lilyo (Midnight Prayer)
Behold all that are asleep, awake and rise to sing praise… (From Psalm 148, Midnight Prayer liturgy, Syriac Orthodox Church) Could we have seen it coming? Was our slumber too deep? Midnight’s for sleeping, yet You do not sleep, nor did You sleep as boundaries changed and names were rearranged. You did not sleep asContinue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Lilyo (Midnight Prayer)”
Damascus Road: Cradle, Body, Light
Your garments glisten, my brethren, as snow;—and fair is your shining in the likeness of Angels. (St Ephraim the Syrian, “Hymn for the Baptised”) You are the light of the world; you are the body of Life. The persecutor kicked you; you kick within yourself, yet you remain – kept, preserved; you cannot be hidden. You are the beatenContinue reading “Damascus Road: Cradle, Body, Light”
The Consolations of Writing 