Poets & Saints

Psalm 8:3–4 (NIV)  

When I consider your heavens,  

the work of your fingers,  

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,  

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,  

human beings that you care for them?

Wonder opens me to God.

Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“There is no shortage of good days.

It is good lives that are hard to come by.

A life of wonder is not one of spectacle,

but of sustained attention.

To see a single moment

as more than just a means to the next—

this is the beginning of seeing God everywhere.”

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Lamentations 3:25 (NRSVUE)  

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,  

to the soul that seeks him.

Waiting is still a place where God meets me.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin  

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  

We are quite naturally impatient in everything  

to reach the end without delay.  

But grace and transformation grow slowly—  

step by step,  

unfolding like dawn.  

Let your heart remain open to what takes time.”

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Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)  

See, I am doing a new thing!  

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  

I am making a way in the wilderness  

and streams in the wasteland.

I am not undone—I am being made new.

John O’Donohue, from To Bless the Space Between Us  

“May we come to accept the beautiful risk of growth.  

To feel the pain of becoming,  

and not shrink from it.  

For when the familiar falls away,  

it is not the end—  

but the invitation to live again,  

more deeply,  

more freely,  

more whole.”  

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Psalm 34:18 (NIV)  

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted  

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

God does not rush my sorrow.

Nicholas Wolterstorff, from Lament for a Son  

“I shall look at the world through tears.  

Perhaps I shall see things  

that dry-eyed I could not see.  

The wounds of the soul take time,  

and time does not heal all—  

but God enters even what time cannot touch.” 

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Song of Songs 8:5 (NIV)  

Who is this coming up from the wilderness  

leaning on her beloved?

I lean on the One who carries me.

Julian of Norwich  

“He did not say: You will not be troubled,  

you will not be tempted,  

you will not be distressed.  

But he said: You will not be overcome.  

Lean into love,  

not because you are strong—  

but because love is stronger.” 

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Mark 8:25 (NIV)  

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes.  

Then his eyes were opened,  

his sight was restored,  

and he saw everything clearly.

In time, the light returns.

Barbara Brown Taylor, from *Learning to Walk in the Dark*  

“I have learned things in the dark  

that I could never have learned in the light.  

Things that have saved my life,  

over and over again.  

So there is really only one logical conclusion.  

I need darkness as much as I need light.”  

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Matthew 5:6 (NRSVUE)  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,  

for they will be filled.

My hunger is sacred ground.

Teresa of Avila  

“God, if You are love,  

then I am hunger.  

And in this longing,  

I find not emptiness,  

but promise.  

You do not come only to the satisfied—  

You are drawn to the ache,  

to the honest heart that admits its need.”  

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Habakkuk 2:20 (NIV)  

The Lord is in his holy temple;  

let all the earth be silent before him.

I meet God in the quiet.

Thomas Merton  

“True silence is the rest of the mind,  

and it is to the soul what sleep is to the body—  

nourishment, restoration, awakening.  

In silence, we find not the absence of something,  

but the presence of Someone.  

The quieter you become,  

the more you will hear.”  

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Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)  

If I say, “I will not mention him  

or speak any more in his name,”  

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire  

shut up in my bones,  

and I am weary with holding it in,  

and I cannot.

The fire within me is from God.

St. Catherine of Siena  

“Be who God meant you to be,  

and you will set the world on fire.  

There is nothing more necessary  

than to wake up to your life,  

to the flame already lit within you—  

and to let it burn,  

not for your glory,  

but for love’s sake.”  

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Psalm 126:5 (NIV)  

Those who sow with tears  

will reap with songs of joy.

What was planted in sorrow rises in joy.

Wendell Berry, from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front  

“Be joyful  

though you have considered all the facts.  

Practice resurrection.  

Plant sequoias.  

Say that the leaves are harvested  

when they have rotted into the mold.  

Call that profit.  

Prophesy such returns.”  

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