March Theme Passion

3-09-08


Divine MysteryDeliver me to my passion.Deliver me to my brilliance.Deliver me to my intelligence.Deliver me to my depth.Deliver me to my nobility.Deliver me to my beauty.Deliver me to my power to heal.Deliver me to You.
Amen



Only passions, great passions,
can elevate the soul to great things.
Denis Diderot


“Thank you for a nice evening—
we must do it again, sometime.”
“Thanks for the present—it was very nice.”
“Sincerely yours….”
“Thank You God, for health, for life, for whatever…amen.”

O God, who of us does not mouth such
Kempt precedented underwhelming gratuities?
Who of us doesn’t sense how very shallow they are?
For even we
have known those moments
those shining experiences
when gratitude was not a stifling obligation
but an ecstatic necessity
a joy
a delight
when our very souls were grateful
to be alive
to learn
to love
to wonder
to say “AH!” (Ohler, 31)


The passion of my soul's desire is for the house of the Lord; my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God.
Psalm 84:2

We are the generation that stands between the fires:
behind us the flame and smoke
that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima;
before us the nightmare of a Flood of Fire,
the flame and smoke that consume all Earth.
It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze
but the light in which we see each other fully.
All of us different,
all of us bearing One Spark.
We light these fires to see more clearly
that the Earth and all who live as part of it
are not for burning.
We light these fires to see more clearly
the rainbow in our many-colored faces.
Blessed is the One within the many,
Blessed are the Many who make one. (Roberts, 105)



Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as the melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as the dry fields weep with rain.
Ute Prayer


My brother the star, my mother the earth,
My father the sun, my sister the moon
to my life give beauty, to my body give strength,
to my work give goodness, to my house give peace,
to my spirit give truth, to my elders give wisdom.

We must pray for strength
We must pray to come together,
Pray for the weeping earth,
pray to the trembling waters
and to the wandering rain.
We must pray to the whispering moon
pray to the tip-toeing stars
and to the hollering sun.
Nancy Wood


May the earth continue to live
May the heavens above continue to live
May the rains continue to dampen the land
May the wet forests continue to grow
Then the flowers shall bloom
And we people shall live again.
Hawaiian prayer