Poets & Saints

Luke 17:21 (ESV)  

“…the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,  

nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’  

for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

This moment is a meeting place.

Thich Nhat Hanh  

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently,  

as if it is the axis  

on which the world earth revolves—  

slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.  

Live the actual moment.  

Only this actual moment is life.”  

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Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NLT)  

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind  

or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb,  

so you cannot understand the activity of God,  

who does all things.

I am held by the One I cannot explain.

Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet  

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart  

and try to love the questions themselves.  

Do not seek the answers,  

which cannot be given you  

because you would not be able to live them.  

Live the questions now.  

Perhaps you will then gradually,  

without noticing it,  

live along some distant day into the answer.”

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Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV)  

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely  

so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen  

or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.  

Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

I remember what You’ve done, so I trust what You’ll do.

Wendell Berry, from This Day  

“Sit and be still  

until in the time of no rain  

you hear beneath the dry wind’s commotion  

in the trees  

the sound of flowing water  

among the rocks,  

a stream unheard before,  

and you are where breathing is prayer.”

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Psalm 23:2–3 (CSB)  

He lets me lie down in green pastures;  

He leads me beside quiet waters.  

He renews my life;  

He leads me along the right paths  

for His name’s sake.

Lead me to the stillness that restores.

Christian Wiman, from My Bright Abyss

“Silence is not absence.  

It is presence—  

alert and aching and aware.  

In silence, God does not shout over the chaos  

but waits beneath it,  

holding all things  

in quiet love.  

You do not have to feel still to be still.  

You only have to return.”  

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Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT)  

Don’t worry about anything;  

instead, pray about everything.  

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  

Then you will experience God’s peace,  

which exceeds anything we can understand.  

His peace will guard your hearts and minds  

as you live in Christ Jesus.

I walk in the peace that passes understanding.

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

“May all that is unforgiven in you  

be released.  

May your fears yield  

their deepest tranquilities.  

May you be able to walk calmly  

through places of threat.  

May you find a rhythm of grace  

and rest that fits your soul.  

And may your mind find  

freedom in stillness—  

where the unknown  

becomes sanctuary,  

not fear.”  

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Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)  

I will give you a new heart  

and put a new spirit in you;  

I will remove from you your heart of stone  

and give you a heart of flesh.

Soften my heart until it beats again.

Mary Oliver, from Lead  

“There is a heaven we enter  

through institutional grace  

and there are the yellow finches bathing and singing  

in the lowly puddle.  

I would rather see the questions  

pressed into the earth like wildflowers  

than to be certain of anything  

that keeps my heart from breaking.  

There is no holiness without sorrow.  

There is no resurrection without grief.”

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John 16:13 (NIV)  

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,  

he will guide you into all the truth.  

He will not speak on his own;  

he will speak only what he hears,  

and he will tell you what is yet to come.

I listen for the voice that leads with love.

Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.  

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart,  

you live in your lips,  

and sound is a diversion and a pastime.  

And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.  

For thought is a bird of space,  

that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings  

but cannot fly.”

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1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (The Message)  

Didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place,  

the place of the Holy Spirit?  

Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please,  

squandering what God paid such a high price for?  

The physical part of you is not some piece of property  

belonging to the spiritual part.  

God owns the whole works.  

So let people see God in and through your body.

This body is not a burden—it is beloved.

Cole Arthur Riley, from This Here Flesh 

“I believe in a God who made the body good.  

Who took on skin and bone  

and didn’t see it as a compromise.  

A God who touched and tasted,  

who bent down and breathed into dirt  

until it pulsed with sacred breath.  

To be spiritual is not to escape the body—  

it is to live more deeply in it.  

To inhabit it as God does:  

with love.”  

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Ephesians 1:18 (NRSV)  

…so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened,  

you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,  

what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,  

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.

Open my eyes to what is already holy.

Lucille Clifton, from Eyes  

“may you open your eyes  

to water,  

to trees,  

to air,  

to light—  

and not just see them,  

but *see* them.  

everything holds a sermon.  

every leaf contains a psalm.  

do not close your eyes to what has been singing your name  

since the beginning.”  

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Exodus 3:2–4 (NRSV)  

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire  

out of a bush;  

he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  

Then Moses said,  

“I must turn aside and look at this great sight,  

and see why the bush is not burned up.”  

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see,  

God called to him out of the bush,  

“Moses, Moses!”  

And he said, “Here I am.”

The flame that calls is the flame that heals.

Thomas Merton  

“There is no way of telling people  

that they are all walking around shining like the sun.  

But it is true.  

If only they could see themselves as they truly are.  

If only we could see each other that way all the time.  

There would be no more war,  

no more hatred, no more cruelty,  

no more greed...  

But this cannot be seen with ordinary eyes.”

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