Poets & Saints

Isaiah 61:3 (NRSV)  

...to provide for those who mourn in Zion—  

to give them a garland instead of ashes,  

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,  

the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.  

They will be called oaks of righteousness,  

the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

Grace grows where the soul has been scorched.

Henri Nouwen  

“Hope means to keep living amid desperation  

and to keep humming in the darkness.  

Hope is knowing that there is love,  

it is trust in tomorrow,  

it is falling asleep and waking again  

when the sun rises.  

In the midst of a broken world,  

hope is the gift of grace—  

the quiet knowing that ashes are not the end.”

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Lamentations 3:25–26 (NRSV)  

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,  

to the soul that seeks him.  

It is good that one should wait quietly  

for the salvation of the Lord.

I will wait with hope through the night.

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

“This is the time to be slow,  

Lie low to the wall  

Until the bitter weather passes.  

Try, as best you can, not to let  

The wire brush of doubt  

Scrape from your heart  

All sense of yourself and your hesitant light.  

If you remain generous,  

Time will come good;  

And you will find your feet  

Again on fresh pastures of promise,  

Where the air will be kind  

And blushed with beginning.”  

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Psalm 5:1–3 (NRSV)  

Give ear to my words, O Lord;  

give heed to my sighing.  

Listen to the sound of my cry,  

my King and my God,  

for to you I pray.  

O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;  

in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.

God hears what I cannot say.

Barbara Brown Taylor  

“Prayer is not a production;  

it is not something you perform or complete.  

It is the practice of attending.  

Sometimes to the stillness.  

Sometimes to your own breath.  

Sometimes to the ache that will not speak.  

And always—to the presence of God,  

who listens even when you forget to speak.”

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Romans 8:38–39 (NRSV)  

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,  

nor angels, nor rulers,  

nor things present, nor things to come,  

nor powers, nor height, nor depth,  

nor anything else in all creation,  

will be able to separate us from the love of God  

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Even this is not beyond redemption.

Julian of Norwich  

“All shall be well,  

and all shall be well,  

and all manner of things shall be well.  

He said not:  

‘Thou shalt not be tempted,  

thou shalt not be travailed,  

thou shalt not be afflicted.’  

But he said: ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.’”

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Isaiah 30:21 (NRSV)  

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left,  

your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,  

“This is the way; walk in it.”

The voice of God is gentle and trustworthy.

Macrina Wiederkehr  

“O God,  

help me to believe the truth about myself—  

no matter how beautiful it is.  

Help me to hear Your voice  

in the small, in the slow,  

in the silence between my doubts.  

You do not scream Your love.  

You whisper it—  

so I will learn to lean in.”  

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Exodus 20:8–11 (NRSV)  

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  

But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God;  

you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,  

your male or female slave, your livestock,  

or the alien resident in your towns.  

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,  

the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day;  

therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Rest is not withdrawal, it is return.

Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir  

“Teach me work that honors Thy work,  

the true economies of goods and words,  

to make my arts compatible with the songs of the local birds.  

Teach me patience beyond work—  

and, beyond patience, the blest Sabbath of Thy unresting love  

which lights all things and gives rest.”

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1 Kings 19:11–12 (NRSV)  

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;  

and after the earthquake a fire,  

but the Lord was not in the fire;  

and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

Every ordinary moment is touched by God.

Mary Oliver, from Making the House Ready for the Lord  

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but  

still nothing is as shining as it should be  

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an  

uproar of mice—it is the season of their  

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves  

and through the walls the squirrels  

have gnawed their ragged entrances—but it is the season  

when they need shelter, so what shall I do?  

And the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard  

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;  

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling  

in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly  

up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will  

come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,  

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know  

that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,  

as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.

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Matthew 6:25–27 (NRSV)  

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,  

what you will eat or what you will drink,  

or about your body, what you will wear.  

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  

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 can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

I am enough, and this moment is enough.

Thomas R. Kelly, from A Testament of Devotion

“Life is meant to be lived from a Center,  

a divine Center.  

Each one of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace,  

of integration and confidence and simplicity.  

We need not get frantic.  

He is at the helm.  

And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace,  

for all is well.”  

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Psalm 46:10 (NRSV)  

Be still, and know that I am God!  

I am exalted among the nations,  

I am exalted in the earth.

In stillness, I remember who I am.

Howard Thurman  

“There is in every person an inward sea,  

and in that sea there is an island,  

and on that island is an altar,  

and standing guard before that altar is the ‘angel with the flaming sword.’  

Nothing can get by that angel to be placed upon that altar  

unless it has the mark of your inner authority.  

Nothing passes ‘the angel with the flaming sword’  

to be placed upon your altar  

unless it be a part of ‘the fluid area of your consent.’”

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Psalm 94:18–19 (NRSV)  

When I thought, “My foot is slipping,”  

your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.  

When the cares of my heart are many,  

your consolations cheer my soul.

Mercy is holding me now.

Henri Nouwen, from The Return of the Prodigal Son

“You have to trust that the place where you are being held,  

even when it feels broken or unclear,  

is exactly where God’s love is reaching you.  

Not because you have it all together,  

but because His love is bigger than your fear,  

your wounds, and even your resistance.  

To be held by God  

is to allow grace to do what striving never could.”

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