Poets & Saints

John 13:34 (NRSVUE)  

I give you a new commandment,  

that you love one another.  

Just as I have loved you,  

you also should love one another.

Love is the path. Love is the way.

St. Teresa of Avila  

“The important thing is not to think much,  

but to love much;  

and so do that which best stirs you to love.  

Love is not great feeling.  

It is great willingness.  

If you fall, rise again.  

And walk in love.”

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Psalm 139:7–10 (NRSVUE)  

Where can I go from your spirit?  

Or where can I flee from your presence?  

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;  

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  

If I take the wings of the morning  

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,  

even there your hand shall lead me,  

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

God is closer than my next breath.

Macrina Wiederkehr  

“O Eternal One,  

You are the deep music I hear  

when all the world falls silent.  

You are the voice that calls  

from within my own breath.  

I turn inward,  

and I find You waiting.”

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2 Corinthians 3:16 (NRSVUE)  

But when one turns to the Lord,  

the veil is removed.

Let me see with the eyes of my soul.

Madeleine L’Engle  

“Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason.  

Faith is what makes life bearable,  

with all its tragedies and ambiguities  

and sudden, startling joys.  

There is always more to see.  

We just need the courage  

to keep our eyes open  

long enough for the veil to lift.”  

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Proverbs 3:5 (NRSVUE)  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,  

and do not rely on your own insight.

I lean not on what I see, but who You are.

Thomas R. Kelly  

“Faith is not a speculation,  

but a venture.  

It is not an inference from the facts around us,  

but a grasping of the facts beyond us.  

It is not the deduction of something unseen,  

but the conviction of someone unseen—  

who has spoken and still speaks  

in the depths of our souls.”

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Galatians 5:1 (NRSVUE)  

For freedom Christ has set us free.  

Stand firm, therefore,  

and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

I am free to live in love.

John O’Donohue  

“May you awaken to the mystery of being here  

and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.  

May you experience each day  

as a sacred gift  

woven around the heart of wonder.  

May you live compassionately  

with yourself and others  

and travel beyond the familiar field of fear  

into the new frontier of your freedom.”

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Romans 2:4 (NRSVUE)  

Do you not realize that God’s kindness  

is meant to lead you to repentance?

I turn, and Love meets me there.

James Finley  

“Repentance is the interior posture  

of one who is willing to be undone by love—  

to surrender all that is not yet free  

into the mercy of God.  

It is the grace  

to see yourself honestly  

and still believe  

you are deeply loved.”  

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Philippians 1:6 (NIV)  

Being confident of this,  

that he who began a good work in you  

will carry it on to completion  

until the day of Christ Jesus.

Grace meets me in the middle.

Rabindranath Tagore  

“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life,  

your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.  

Let the unfinished be the ground for hope,  

not despair.  

The bud does not worry it has not yet bloomed.  

It simply grows—  

slowly, inwardly,  

in the rhythm of grace.”

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Psalm 46:5 (NRSVUE)  

God is in the midst of the city;  

it shall not be moved;  

God will help it when the morning dawns.

Even now, the center holds.

Thomas Merton  

“There is in all visible things  

an invisible fecundity,  

a dimmed light,  

a hidden wholeness.  

This mysterious unity and integrity  

is wisdom, the mother of all things.  

There is in all things a hidden center,  

a point of stillness and truth.  

To live from that place—  

this is prayer.”

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Joel 2:13 (NRSVUE)  

Return to the Lord, your God,  

for he is gracious and merciful,  

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,  

and relents from punishing.

I am always welcome in Love.

Henri Nouwen  

“The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge  

to let God be God,  

to trust in his love unconditionally,  

to stop clinging to my own self-sufficiency,  

and to rest in the truth that I am already found,  

already forgiven,  

already loved beyond measure.”

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Hebrews 13:8 (NRSVUE)  

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I am rooted in what cannot be shaken.

Julian of Norwich  

“God is the still point at the center.  

He holds us fast in His love  

and will never let us go.  

The soul may be tossed by winds of change,  

but she is not lost—  

for beneath her feet is the ground of God.” 

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