Tag Archives: prayers

The heat and the oxygen.

poetry, , , , , , , , ,

“I ask this much” was the title of a post I wrote ten years ago, not long after my husband died. My thoughts then were inspired by the poem below, which I recently revisited. Yesterday I began to notice afresh the near constancy of my murmuring and complaining; today I was encouraged by the testimony of my former self, who wrote back then,

And every day, I feel a great Love surrounding me, like the pleasant air that holds me and gives me oxygen even while I am having those pity parties. Or like the sun whose heat is keeping me alive and giving me energy.

Let us be up and doing! And let’s start by asking the great Maker of the sun and of us, for His light, and strength, and joy. Our asking will be the beginning of the receiving.

PRAYER at SUNRISE

O mighty, powerful, dark-dispelling sun,
Now thou art risen, and thy day begun.
How shrink the shrouding mists before thy face,
As up thou spring’st to thy diurnal race!
How darkness chases darkness to the west,
As shades of light on light rise radiant from thy crest!
For thee, great source of strength, emblem of might,
In hours of darkest gloom there is no night.
Thou shinest on though clouds hide thee from sight,
And through each break thou sendest down thy light.

O greater Maker of this Thy great sun,
Give me the strength this one day’s race to run,
Fill me with light, fill me with sun-like strength,
Fill me with joy to rob the day its length.
Light from within, light that will outward shine,
Strength to make strong some weaker heart than mine,
Joy to make glad each soul that feels its touch;
Great Father of the sun, I ask this much.

–James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938

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.

When winter is over.

poetry, winter, , ,

Last week it seemed that winter had just begun, but this evening a balmy wind blew in from I can’t imagine where, and made me think ahead to when actual winter will be over and gone. I offer this poem that makes reference to that point in the future, metaphorically:

A SHORT TESTAMENT

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

And then there are all the wounded
The poor the deaf the lonely and the old
Whom I have roughly dismissed
As if I were not one of them.
Where I have wronged them by it
And cannot make amends
I ask you
To comfort them to overflowing,

And where there are lives I may have withered around me,
Or lives of strangers far or near
That I’ve destroyed in blind complicity,
And if I cannot find them
Or have no way to serve them,

Remember them. I beg you to remember them

When winter is over
And all your unimaginable promises
Burst into song on death’s bare branches.

–Anne Porter

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