King: I cannot come to You however I choose yet all I am is a bundle hurriedly put together, no sack cloth, no ashes, hair still mussed from slumber, limbs dragging, soul flat, feet not yet expecting to walk… Can I come to You as a stowaway, scarcely awake, found among cargo, hiding like JonahContinue reading “Burnt-out Prayer: For Ash Wednesday”
Tag Archives: God
Obedience
Jonah – the sea is too wide for you to hide; no waves can cover your footsteps, no ship can transport you away from His sight. Do not run. The burning sun in heat of day contains as much His perfect way as when the sky lights up in flame. And mercy’s found in brokenContinue reading “Obedience”
Knowledge
I do not know the ways of spheres: how planets orbit, how stars alight. I do not know how life’s sustained, how atmospheres enfold. I do not know the wheres or whys, how Jupiter protects our sky. I only know the heart of man and know that it is sick. I have not plumbed theContinue reading “Knowledge”
My Jonah Heart
Recite this catalogue of wrongs: I loved this tree – if you loved me I always knew – I told you so… And all the while in Ninevah the people weep in ash. Uphold your cause; God may forget the hurts you hold, the wounds you bear. The tree’s shade is your natural right. ShakeContinue reading “My Jonah Heart”
Catechism 43
What are the sacraments or ordinances? The sacraments or ordinances given by God and instituted by Christ, namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are visible signs and seals that we are bound together as a community of faith by his death and resurrection. By our use of them the Holy Spirit more fully declares and sealsContinue reading “Catechism 43”
Epiphany: To an unknown painter
Too regal: There were no drapes to hail Him king, no cherubim in the background, aloft, casually decking the scene, mid-song. Yet this is right: if there were crowns, they would be laid at His feet; and knees, if wise, would know to bend. We foresee the pious, in the corners, turned toward their futureContinue reading “Epiphany: To an unknown painter”
Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple
The child interrupts commerce, the daily graze of life, the expectations of a quiet night in the fields. The child demands leaving flocks, abandoning norms, following the angel’s call in evening disquiet. The child enters the daily, the simple: cries, shivers, needs food and warmth, yet transforms it all.Continue reading “Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple”
Luke 1: Zechariah and Mary
No surprise, perhaps, that the impossible’s not a boundary for the one who lit stars and sculpted the mountains, watered – drew water from – our rock. Yet unexpected now, this figure in temple, in dreams, beholding and saying what’s seldom been said, more seldom believed: The barren with child? AContinue reading “Luke 1: Zechariah and Mary”
OCD Prayer for the New Year
What lies behind corners can hurt or heal; What lurks in this heart can wound or bless. What triggers in mind can remind of the past; What future is clean is unknown. Whatever contaminates; whatever is sick; Whatever is broken, whatever will break; Whatever may lift and whatever may tarry: God give, God take, GodContinue reading “OCD Prayer for the New Year”
Too Much Light 4: Prepare Your Feet
No room, and yet there is room: in shoulders, between lanes, by roadsides, in industrial paddocks. No room, perhaps, for cars, yet feet have space to move, if you, traffic-sore, should rise and step into the space where lavender shifts in wind, gnarled tree trunks climb to upward possibility.Continue reading “Too Much Light 4: Prepare Your Feet”
The Consolations of Writing 