Poets & Saints

Psalm 13:1-2…5-6

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

…

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.

Courage is possible here.

Pádraig Ó Tuama

“It occurs to me that courage comes from the same place as fear, and where there is fear, there is the possibility of courage.”

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Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

God is forming me, even now.

Eugene H. Peterson,

“There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”

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1 John 4:12 (NRSVUE)  

No one has ever seen God;  

if we love one another,  

God lives in us,  

and his love is perfected in us.  

There are no ordinary people.  

C. S. Lewis

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”  

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Lamentations 3:22–23 (NRSV)  

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,  

his mercies never come to an end;  

they are new every morning;  

great is your faithfulness.  

Lord, your mercies are enough for today.  

Henri J. M. Nouwen  

“Each day holds a surprise.  

But only if we expect it  

can we see, hear, or feel it  

when it comes to us.”  

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Matthew 6:26–29 (NRSVUE)  

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?  

And which of you by worrying  

can add a single hour to your span of life?  

And why do you worry about clothing?  

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;  

they neither toil nor spin,  

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory  

was not clothed like one of these.  

Open my eyes to what is already here.  

Annie Dillard  

“We are here to abet creation and to witness it,  

to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.  

Together we notice not only each mountain shadow  

and each stone on the beach  

but we notice each other’s beautiful face  

and complex nature  

so that creation need not play  

to an empty house.”  

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Luke 16:10 (NRSV)  

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;  

and whoever is dishonest in a very little  

is dishonest also in much.

In every small thing, love can shine.

St. Teresa of Ávila  

“If you would progress a long way along this road,  

the important thing is not to think much,  

but to love much.  

Do then whatever arouses you to love.  

It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”

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Psalm 92:1–2 (NRSVUE)  

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,  

to sing praises to your name, O Most High,  

to declare your steadfast love in the morning  

and your faithfulness by night.  

God meets me in the everyday.  

Brother Lawrence 

“That we ought not to be weary  

of doing little things for the love of God,  

who regards not the greatness of the work,  

but the love with which it is performed.”  

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Colossians 3:17 (NRSV)  

And whatever you do, in word or deed,  

do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,  

giving thanks to God the Father through him.  

God is present here.  

Thomas Merton  

“Life is this simple.  

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent  

and God is shining through it all the time.  

This is not just a fable or a nice story.  

It is true.  

God manifests himself everywhere, in everything—  

in people and in things and in nature and in events.  

The only thing is that we do not see it.  

...But the gate of heaven is everywhere.”

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1 Kings 19:11–13 (NRSV)  

11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Be with us, O God,  

in all things.

Wendell Berry  

“Accept what comes from silence.   

Make the best you can of it.   

Of the little words that come   

out of the silence, like prayers   

prayed back to the one who prays,   

make a poem that does not disturb   

the silence from which it came.”

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Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 (NRSV)  

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.  

He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Teach us to trust, O God,  

the work you are doing in us.

The Cloud of Unknowing

“For this is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God,  

to wait in stillness and in trust.  

Not striving to see clearly,  

nor desiring to feel greatly,  

but choosing to rest in the dark knowing  

that God is at work beyond our understanding.

For love may reach God in this life,  

but knowing never can.  

And therefore, be content to remain in this cloud,  

trusting that God is nearer than you know.”

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