Poets & Saints

Isaiah 41:10 (NRSVUE)  

Do not fear, for I am with you;  

do not be afraid, for I am your God.  

I will strengthen you, I will help you;  

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

God holds me when I cannot hold myself.

Frederick Buechner  

“Faith is not a clenched fist  

but an open hand.  

It is not holding on for dear life  

but letting yourself be held.  

For underneath our lives,  

so fragile and fierce,  

are the everlasting arms—  

stronger than fear,  

softer than grace,  

wider than we can imagine.”  

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Psalm 32:10 (NRSVUE)  

Many are the torments of the wicked,  

but steadfast love surrounds  

those who trust in the Lord.

I am surrounded by mercy.

Julian of Norwich  

“God is nearer to us than our own soul,  

for we are endlessly held  

in His vast and tender mercy.  

And though we fall,  

His arms surround us still—  

not to punish,  

but to lift,  

to heal,  

to bring us home.”  

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Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NRSVUE)  

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,  

whose trust is the Lord.  

They shall be like a tree planted by water,  

sending out its roots by the stream.  

It shall not fear when heat comes,  

and its leaves shall stay green;  

in the year of drought it is not anxious,  

and it does not cease to bear fruit.

God strengthens me where no one sees.

Christian Wiman  

“Faith is not a fortress  

but a seed in the soil—  

small, hidden,  

slow to rise.  

Yet beneath the surface  

the roots thicken,  

the dark earth warms,  

and strength is formed  

long before it blooms.”  

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Psalm 119:105 (NRSVUE)  

Your word is a lamp to my feet  

and a light to my path.

God guides me one step at a time.

Eugene Peterson  

“God’s direction is not a spotlight  

that floods the horizon with certainty.  

It is a lamp—  

small enough to carry,  

bright enough for the step in front of you.  

Faith grows not by seeing everything,  

but by trusting the One  

who walks the road with you.”

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Psalm 51:10 (NRSVUE)  

Create in me a clean heart, O God,  

and put a new and right spirit within me.

God renews me from the inside out.

Howard Thurman  

“There is in every person  

a quiet center,  

a place of renewal  

where God whispers life again.  

Return to that center often—  

for it is from the depths  

that true transformation rises.”

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Isaiah 43:1 (NRSVUE)  

But now thus says the Lord…  

“I have called you by name,  

you are mine.”

I am the one God loves.

Brennan Manning  

“Define yourself radically  

as one beloved by God.  

This is the true self  

every other voice tries to silence.  

Your identity is not rooted  

in what you achieve,  

but in the One  

who calls you beloved—  

and never stops saying it.”

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1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSVUE)  

Do you not know that your body is a temple  

of the Holy Spirit within you,  

which you have from God…?

God dwells in this body.

Hildegard of Bingen  

“Your body is a sacred vessel,  

alive with the breath of God.  

Do not despise the earth you are made of—  

for it is here  

that the Holy One chooses to dwell.  

The soul is not trapped in the body;  

it sings through it.”  

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Psalm 27:8 (NRSVUE)  

You have said, “Seek my face.”  

My heart says to you,  

“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

My desire draws me toward God.

John of the Cross  

“In the desire of the heart  

God is already present.  

For longing is the humble doorway  

through which Love enters—  

not to take us away from ourselves,  

but to lead us deeper within  

to where God has always dwelled.”

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1 Kings 19:12 (NRSVUE)  

…and after the earthquake a fire,  

but the Lord was not in the fire;  

and after the fire  

a sound of sheer silence.

God meets me in the quiet.

Kathleen Norris  

“Silence is not the absence of God—  

it is the presence of God unforced.  

It is here we learn to listen,  

to shed our illusions,  

to discover the One  

who has been with us all along  

in the quiet places we seldom enter.” 

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2 Corinthians 4:6 (NRSVUE)  

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”  

who has shone in our hearts  

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God  

in the face of Jesus Christ.

Love shines through everything.

Julian of Norwich  

“The love of God creates in us  

such a oneness  

that when it is truly seen,  

no created thing can separate us from Him.  

For love was His meaning from the beginning,  

and love shall be His meaning to the end.  

So it was,  

so it is,  

so it ever shall be.”  

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