The Gates of Love Budged an Inch

Mark 1:16-20

Just an ordinary day.

Casting for cash.

Mending our tools.

Minding our own business.

Then the Extraordinary enters,

and 

asks us

to join Him 

in finding His lost sheep.

And the fools

run off with Him,

while the rest of us

have to hold the fort

without them.

A Great Leaf

A great leaf, that God and you and I

have covered with writing

turns now, overhead, in strange hands.

We feel the sweep of it like a wind.

We see the brightness of a new page

where everything yet can happen.

Unmoved by us, the fates take its measure

and look at one another, saying nothing.

Rainer Maria Rilke

The Poor Rich Man

News Story /Mark 10:21-23 /Luke 18:22-24

The poor rich man

misheard the gospel.

He thought 

his fellow one percenter

went away mad

instead of sad.

"Oh, My God!"

Not only in church

and nightly by their bedsides

do young girls pray these days.

Wherever they go,

prayer is woven into their talk

like a bright thread of awe.

Even at the pedestrian mall

outbursts of praise

spring unbidden from their glossy lips.

 Billy Collins

“Merry…”

No one’s hangin’ stockin’s up,

No one’s bakin’ pie,

No one’s lookin’ up to see

A new star in the sky.

No one’s talkin’ brotherhood,

No one’s givin’ gifts,

And no one loves a Christmas tree

On March the twenty-fifth.

Shel Silverstein

"...but deliver us from evil."

(A meditation on each word(s) 

of the Lord's prayer)

Lord,

please deliver me from 

the pleasures of sins.

And when I fall,

grant me Your mercy

as I suffer its consequences.

Amen.

Canticle of Mary (The Magnificat)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
   and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever,
world without end. Amen.

"...not into temptation"

(A meditation on each word(s)

 of the Lord's prayer)

Even though I profess

You are the one true God,

the world contains 

so many of

its own gods.

Trying to seduce me

that their fantasies 

are able to

fulfill my 

needs and wants.

Lord,

may every choice

I make today,

be considered

between

Your Way

and the 

world's temptations.

A Christmas Circular Letter

The city had withdrawn into itself 
And left at last the country to the country; 
When between whirls of snow not come to lie 
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove 
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city, 
Yet did in country fashion in that there 
He sat and waited till he drew us out 
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was. 
He proved to be the city come again 
To look for something it had left behind 
And could not do without and keep its Christmas. 
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees; 
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place 
Where houses all are churches and have spires. 
I hadn't thought of them as Christmas Trees. 
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment 
To sell them off their feet to go in cars 
And leave the slope behind the house all bare, 
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon. 
I'd hate to have them know it if I was. 
Yet more I'd hate to hold my trees except 
As others hold theirs or refuse for them, 
Beyond the time of profitable growth, 
The trial by market everything must come to. 
I dallied so much with the thought of selling. 
Then whether from mistaken courtesy 
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether 
From hope of hearing good of what was mine, 
I said, "There aren't enough to be worth while." 

"I could soon tell how many they would cut, You let me look them over." 

                                    "You could look. 
But don't expect I'm going to let you have them." 
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close 
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few 
Quite solitary and having equal boughs 
All round and round. The latter he nodded "Yes" to, 
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one, 
With a buyer's moderation, "That would do." 
I thought so too, but wasn't there to say so. 
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over, 
And came down on the north.
                                     He said, "A thousand." 
"A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?" 

He felt some need of softening that to me:
 "A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars." 

Then I was certain I had never meant 
To let him have them. 
Never show surprise! 
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside 
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents 
(For that was all they figured out apiece), 
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends 
I should be writing to within the hour 
Would pay in cities for good trees like those, 
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools 
Could hang enough on to pick off enough. 
A thousand Christmas trees I didn't know I had! 
Worth three cents more to give away than sell, 
As may be shown by a simple calculation. 
Too bad I couldn't lay one in a letter. 
I can't help wishing I could send you one, 
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas. 

Robert Frost

"And lead us..."

(A meditation on each word(s)

 of the Lord's prayer)

Luke 15:3-7

It is true

that the angels

cheer and rejoice

over the one

that the Shepherd

has returned to the fold.

However,

they are mystified

at the Master's

difficulty to

lead the 99

from the 

pastures of the past

to

fresh new meadows.

"...we forgive those who trespass against us."

(A meditation on each word(s) 

of the Lord's prayer)

The Physician

said:

"In order to stop

suffering,

you must end

this self-medication of 

bitterness,

addictions,

grudges,

habits,

and hurts."

But we respond:

"We will

really suffer!"

And He answered:

"Then healing 

can start."

So we make the decision-

Should we

consider this cure

or 

start exploring

second opinions?

"As we..."

(A meditation on each word(s) 

of the Lord's prayer)

Lord,

we're having this

nice conversation of

what You will provide

now and in the future.

And then

 unexpectedly, 

You bring 

us 

into the discussion.

"What could we do for You?"

we ask.

And after a

moment of

silence,

the Other speaks

one word:

"Love."

MANDELA'S FAVORITE POEM

Invictus
William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.