Category Archives: prayer

The milky way, and church bells.

poetry, prayer,

PRAYER (I)

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices; something understood.

-George Herbert

Prayer for Deliverance from Fire

prayer, , ,

I myself live in northern California, far from the fires that are devastating large areas in the southern part of our state. The situation doesn’t affect me directly, but I do have friends and family who are suffering and still endangered, as many of you probably do, too — not to mention all the thousands of people whom we don’t know who are literally embroiled in this disaster. So I appreciate this prayer that just came to me through email, and which may give relief to your hearts’ groanings as well. I transcribed the text below the image.

O Lord our God, keep our cities and every city and land from the ravages of fire and ruinous wind. Strengthen our firefighters and emergency workers who labor heroically to preserve life, limb and dwellings from destruction. Protect from harm those who are in danger. Draw near, Heavenly Father, and comfort those who have suffered terrible loss and devastation. Uphold the grieving and provide for the evacuated, displaced, and bereaved. Calm the winds and send us gentle rains to quench the conflagrations.

Visit us all with repentance, and renew our faith. Hear our cry, O God our Savior, the Hope of all the ends of the earth and of those who are in the midst of calamity, and be gracious, be gracious, O Master, upon our sins, and have mercy on us. For Thou art a merciful God and lovest mankind, and unto Thee we ascribe glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Boredom, the guide to mystery.

prayer, quotes, , , , ,

Eric Hyde is an Orthodox Christian psychotherapist writing at Eric Hyde’s Blog. I appreciated his brief musing, on the increase of his understanding of boredom from reading Heidegger; he combined it with his own experience and that of his clients, in this post: “Heidegger’s ‘Profound Boredom’: using boredom to cultivate the soul.”

Heidegger names three levels of boredom, the most extreme which is profound. To many people, the idea of profound boredom probably sounds frighteningly close to deep depression — a condition to be avoided at all costs. But I have heard more than one person say that they welcome boredom — even if it is said half-jokingly, as in, “I wish I had time to be bored!” But there are various ideas out there about what boredom is, and theories about what to do about it, if anything. I’d like to learn more about the difference between boredom and acedia. So this probably won’t be my last post on the subject.

Eric Hyde writes:

“If you’ve ever sat alone at the beach, or in the mountains, or the country, or sat gazing at the fully illumined night sky and had that deep sense of your own smallness, of your own seeming triviality in the broad scope of existence, and yet rather than crushing your soul it gave you a sense of calm wonder, a sense of spiritual ordering, then you’ve likely had the experience of profound boredom as Heidegger described it.

“In short, what I found so powerful in the notion of profound boredom is that boredom has the power to grant a person ‘attunement’ to oneself and to existence as a whole—or more properly speaking, attunement to Being as a whole—in a truly spiritual manner. Rather than causing torment, boredom, if used properly, can be at once a guide to peace and a guide to the very mystery of being.”

I’m familiar with this attitude, because it is commonly taught in the Orthodox Church; offhand I think of books on prayer by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom.

Hyde gives three tips:

1. Don’t wait for boredom to find you—search it out.
2. Once there, allow boredom to reveal its message.
3. Repeat daily.

All ye among the halls of heaven…

poetry, prayer, , , , ,

O SAVIOUR, FOUNT OF HEAVENLY LIFE

O Saviour, Fount of heavenly life,
Assist us in our earthly strife;
Thou pitying Virgin, hear our cries,
And raise us from our miseries.

Angelic hosts our needs attend;
Ye holy patriarchs, defend;
Ye choirs of prophets, by your prayers,
Protect us from unholy snares.

Herald of Christ, we call on thee;
And thou that hold’st the golden key;
Apostles all, your voice we claim,
Dissolve the bonds of sin and shame.

Triumphant martyrs of the Lord;
Ye holy preachers of the word;
And virgins chaste; to you we pray;
Wash all our sinful stains away.

All ye among the halls of heaven,
To whom the light of love is given,
In pity hear our cries, — that we
The glory of God’s face may see.

All praise and honour, power and love
To God the Sire who rules above,
Unto the Son like glory be
And Holy Ghost eternally.

-Rabanus Maurus (780 – 856) Germany
Translated by Daniel Joseph Donahoe

Rembrandt – St. Jerome in Prayer