Poets & Saints

Luke 4:1–2, 13 (NRSV)  

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan  

and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,  

where for forty days He was tempted by the devil.  

He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, He was famished...  

When the devil had finished every test,  

he departed from Him until an opportune time.

In the wild, the truth becomes clear.

David Whyte, from The House of Belonging

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet  

confinement of your aloneness  

to learn  

anything or anyone  

that does not bring you alive  

is too small for you.  

There are voices that want to shape you  

into something safer,  

but you were not made to live in fear.  

You were made to live awake.”

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Psalm 18:28 (NRSV)  

It is You who light my lamp;  

the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.

Even here, Your light finds me.

Christian Wiman, from My Bright Abyss

“God goes, belonging to every riven thing He’s made  

singing without sound,  

a light so terrible it will erase the darkness you have known,  

a light so gentle it will embrace the darkness you have become.  

Tell me, how could the soul not sing  

when it touches that which gives it life?  

Even in the sorrow, even in the silence—  

the music is already there.”

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Matthew 6:25–26 (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?

If You feed the birds, You will feed me too.

Mary Oliver, from The Messenger

“My work is loving the world.  

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—  

equal seekers of sweetness.  

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.  

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.  

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?  

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me  

keep my mind on what matters,  

which is my work,  

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”

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Hosea 2:14 (NRSV)  

Therefore, I will now allure her,  

and bring her into the wilderness,  

and speak tenderly to her.

The wilderness may feel empty but God is here.

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

“New life starts in the dark.  

Whether it is a seed in the ground,  

a baby in the womb,  

or Jesus in the tomb—  

it starts in the dark.  

The wilderness is not the absence of God.  

It is the place where we meet the God we did not know we needed,  

on terms we did not expect,  

but cannot live without.”

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John 15:4–5 (NRSV)  

Abide in Me as I abide in you.  

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine,  

neither can you unless you abide in Me.  

I am the vine, you are the branches.  

Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit,  

because apart from Me you can do nothing.

I am in You, and You are in me.

Julian of Norwich  

“Between God and the soul there is no between.  

God is nearer to us than our own soul.  

For we are in God and God is in us,  

and that which is in God is whole.  

He is the foundation,  

and He is the substance and the very essence of our being.”

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Luke 15:20 (NRSV)  

But while he was still far off,  

his father saw him and was filled with compassion;  

he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

You waited for me without shame.

Brennan Manning, from *The Ragamuffin Gospel*  

“Jesus came not for the spiritually elite but for the wobbly and weak-kneed  

who know they don’t have it all together and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.  

He came for those who knew they had nothing but were willing to receive everything.  

Grace means that no one is too far gone.  

And God’s love means that He waits longer than we expect,  

and runs faster than we deserve.”

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Micah 6:8 (NRSV)  

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;  

and what does the Lord require of you  

but to do justice, and to love kindness,  

and to walk humbly with your God?

What is simple is often most sacred.

Wendell Berry, from *The Mad Farmer Liberation Front*  

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.  

Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid  

to know your neighbors and to die.  

And you will have a window in your head.  

Not even your future will be a mystery anymore.  

Your mind will be punched in a card  

and shut away in a little drawer.  

When they want you to buy something  

they will call you.  

Ask the questions that have no answers.  

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.  

Say that your main crop is the forest  

that you did not plant,  

that you will not live to harvest.  

Say that the leaves are harvested  

when they have rotted into the mold.  

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.  

Be like the fox  

who makes more tracks than necessary,  

some in the wrong direction.  

Practice resurrection.”

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Matthew 11:28–30 (NRSV)  

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,  

and I will give you rest.  

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;  

for I am gentle and humble in heart,  

and you will find rest for your souls.  

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I lay down what no longer serves the journey.

St. Teresa of Ávila  

Let nothing disturb you.  

Let nothing frighten you.  

All things are passing; God never changes.  

Patience obtains all things.  

Whoever has God lacks nothing.  

God alone suffices.

Jean Vanier

“To live with Jesus is to live with the poor,  

to live with the broken, and to live with myself—  

as I really am.  

That is where healing begins,  

and it always begins with letting go of what is false.”

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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.

In stillness, You show me who I truly am.

Thomas R. Kelly, from *A Testament of Devotion*  

“Deep within us all there is a wonderful inner sanctuary of the soul,  

a holy place, a Divine Center,  

a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.  

It is lighted by the presence of God  

and is the sheer grace of the eternal breaking into the temporal.  

When we sink down into this quiet Center,  

we come to know ourselves as seen,  

not with shame, but with clarity.  

We are not who we perform to be,  

but who we are when no one is watching.  

And that person—still and surrendered—  

is the one God already knows and loves.”

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Psalm 73:23–26 (NRSV)  

Yet I am always with You;  

You hold my right hand.  

You guide me with Your counsel,  

and afterward You will receive me with honor.  

Whom have I in heaven but You?  

And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.  

My flesh and my heart may fail,  

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Even when I question, You do not let go.

Simone Weil  

“Faith is the experience that God’s presence is real  

even when His absence feels stronger.  

It is not certainty—it is fidelity.”

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