Poets & Saints

Philippians 1:6 (NRSV)  

I am confident of this,  

that the one who began a good work among you  

will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

I am being shaped by grace.

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.  

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.  

But growth is a process of becoming,  

and it takes time.  

Only God could say what this new spirit  

gradually forming within you will be.  

Give our Lord the benefit of believing  

that His hand is leading you,  

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself  

in suspense and incomplete.”

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Luke 18:13–14 (NRSV)  

But the tax collector, standing far off,  

would not even look up to heaven,  

but was beating his breast and saying,  

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  

I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other;  

for all who exalt themselves will be humbled,  

but all who humble themselves will be exalted.

I bring my true self into the light.

St. Teresa of Avila  

“However quietly we speak,  

He is so near that He will hear us.  

We need no wings to go in search of Him,  

but have only to look upon Him present within us.”

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Romans 8:26 (NRSV)  

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;  

for we do not know how to pray as we ought,  

but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

What I can’t say, God still receives.

The Cloud of Unknowing  

“Lift up your heart to God  

with a gentle stirring of love,  

desiring Him for His own sake  

and not for His gifts.  

Center all your attention  

and desire on Him  

and let this be the sole concern of your mind and heart.  

Do not try to go down to Him,  

but simply let yourself be drawn by grace.”  

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Psalm 139:23–24 (NRSV)  

Search me, O God, and know my heart;  

test me and know my thoughts.  

See if there is any wicked way in me,  

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Even the broken parts belong.

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

“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart.  

It draws no attention to itself,  

though it is always secretly there.  

It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty,  

our desire to seek possibility,  

and our hearts to love life.  

This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very self.”

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Zephaniah 3:17 (NRSV)  

The Lord, your God, is in your midst,  

a warrior who gives victory;  

He will rejoice over you with gladness,  

He will renew you in His love;  

He will exult over you with loud singing.

I am the object of divine delight.

Julian of Norwich  

“The greatest honor we can give Almighty God  

is to live gladly  

because of the knowledge of His love.  

God is not distant,  

but the ground of our being.  

He is our clothing,  

wrapping us in warmth and light.  

And He looks upon us  

with such joy and such tenderness,  

it would break your heart with peace.”

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Psalm 23:5 (NRSV)  

You prepare a table before me  

in the presence of my enemies;  

You anoint my head with oil;  

my cup overflows.

Even here, I am welcome at the table.

Henri Nouwen, from Life of the Beloved  

“The world says, ‘Prove that you are worth something—fight, climb, earn.’  

But the Voice of God says something else:  

‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.  

You are My Beloved.  

Not because you have proven yourself,  

but because you are Mine.’  

At the table of grace, there is no competition.  

Only communion.”

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Nehemiah 8:10 (NRSV)  

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine  

and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared,  

for this day is holy to our Lord;  

and do not be grieved,  

for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Joy is not naive—it’s courageous.

Cole Arthur Riley, from This Here Flesh

“Joy has nothing to do with ease  

and everything to do with presence.  

It is born in the tension,  

the ache,  

the yes that says:  

I will live fully, even here.  

To claim joy in a world that prefers despair  

is not indulgence.  

It is resistance.  

It is how we survive.”

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Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NRSV)  

He has made everything suitable for its time;  

moreover, He has put a sense of eternity into their minds,  

yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Beauty blesses me when I slow down to see.

Makoto Fujimura, from Art + Faith

“Beauty is not a luxury.  

It is not an afterthought.  

Beauty is a door into transcendence.  

It is how God heals what is broken.  

To create is to lean into hope.  

To behold beauty is to say—  

even if only for a moment—  

that life is worth living.”

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Psalm 30:5 (NRSV)  

For His anger is but for a moment;  

His favor is for a lifetime.  

Weeping may linger for the night,  

but joy comes with the morning.

Even here, joy is still possible.

Frederick Buechner, from Secrets in the Dark

“Joy is home.  

And I think the reason we sometimes have the feeling that it is not of this world  

is that it’s not.  

But it is a home we remember,  

and it’s a home that remembers us.  

Joy is where the whole thing began,  

and where we will all return in the end.”  

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Genesis 32:24–30 (NRSV, abridged)  

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,  

he struck him on the hip socket;  

and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.  

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.”  

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”  

So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  

Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,  

for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.”  

And there he blessed him.

At the edge of what I know, You speak.

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

“May you have the courage today  

to live the life that you would love,  

to postpone your dream no longer  

but do at last what you came here for  

and waste your heart on fear no more.  

A threshold is not a place to remain.  

It is a crossing, a passage, a transformation.  

And though it may feel like unraveling,  

it is often the beginning of becoming.”

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