Dear Lord, break to me this day the ‘bread of life.’
My heart is hungry.
Save us from thinking, even for a moment, that we can feed our souls on things.
Save us from the vain delusion that the piling up of wealth or comforts can satisfy.
Help us to remember that the real quest for happiness is within.
O grant us the radiance of Thy tranfroming Presence all this day.
Amen.
-Ralph Cushman, Pocket Prayer Book, 1941
Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
-Psalm 61: 1-3
“For all its angst,
there’s such beauty in perplexity,
the autumn blaze of color
between green and gone.”
-Brian McLaren
“We taste thee, O thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon thee still;
We drink of thee the Fountain-head,
And thirst our souls from thee to fill.”
-St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“Hospitality did not begin with Howard Johnson’s and Good Housekeeping. Hospitality, as it has been practiced from ancient days, protected people from the dangers of traveling alone. In Saint Benedict’s day there were no safe and cheap shelters for travelers. Along the way people could be brutalized, robbed, sounded, lost.
Monasteries saved lives when they opened their doors to strangers. It was not about comfort and entertainment-it was about saving lives…The spirit of saving lives is still at the root of monastic hospitality. To receive others is to expose myself to all sort of frightful dangers of attachment and rejection.
Hospitality acknowledges the vulnerability of being human, both my humanity and that of the stranger. Travelers, too (Benedict called them pilgrims), are prone to all sort of dangers. On Life’s journey each of us is a pilgrim. We aren’t sure where we come from and where we are going. We are vulnerable and we need each other.”
-Paraclete Book of Hospitality
The only condition necessary
for this state of self-surrender
is the present moment in which the soul,
light as a feather,
fluid as water,
innocent as a child,
responds to every moment of grace
like a floating balloon.
-J.-P. de Caussade
If everything is lost, thanks be to God
If I must see it go, watch it go,
Watch it fade away, die
Thanks be to God that He is all I have.
And if I have Him not, I have nothing at all.
Nothing at all, only a farewell to the wind
Farewell to the grey sky
Goodbye, God be with you, evening October sky.
If all is lost, thanks be to God,
For He is He, and I, I am only I.
— Dom Julian
My bondage killed, my burden beared,
He takes me through the waters,
As one spared.
Through the sea, upon dry land
He carries me across with nail pierced hands.
The waters close, my foes displaced,
He turns to me in warm embrace.
Yet there forms upon my face
A frown, and my lips proclaim:
“What is so lovely about my Lord?”
He lifts me out of mud and mire.
Anoints my head with oil.
In fire, he purges my soul of every filth,
Every pain, and every guilt.
With clean apparel and a raised head
I turn to others in His stead.
And then my lips proclaim:
“What is so lovely about my Lord?”
He fills me with every mirth and joy.
A sun to shine, a bed to rest.
Holding my heart in His hands,
He bids it beat again and again.
He grants me friends and strength
And the beauty of life with his love.
I take one rest from all these joys to proclaim:
“What is so lovely about my Lord?”
He covers me in the tent of His love
As the storm gathers to draw every flood.
And as my tears flow without end,
I sit alone as every friend
Deserts me in my time of distress,
And yet,
He remains.
Bidding me rest in the comfort of His peace.
A friend with love that does not cease.
And as He wipes my every tear,
And moves to abate my deepest fears,
I look upon His face,
And then I ask:
“What is so lovely about You Lord?”
And then my years approach their end.
And as the darkness closes in,
My accusers rise, my failure, and sin,
To trouble my heart of what stands,
Behind the door, in foreign land.
And as I tremble, failing to see,
That faithful friend proclaims softly:
“There is no condemnation to those in Me”
With that He holds my hand to cross,
Into the land of the living.
Into eternal bliss,
My soul enters, and is transfixed
On a beauty so great and wondrous,
To make me kneel in its presence!
And as I gaze upon the face
Of the One whose glory fills this place,
My heart exults.
My eyes flood.
And then I know.
I know I’ve seen this face before.
I then proclaim:
“There is none more lovely than my Lord!”
-Rodney Evans
We will feast in the house of Zion
We will sing with our hearts restored
He has done great things, we will say together
We will feast and weep no more
We will not be burned by the fire
He is the LORD our God
We are not consumed, by the flood
Upheld, protected, gathered up
In the dark of night, before the dawn
My soul, be not afraid
For the promised morning, oh how long?
Oh God of Jacob, be my strength
Every vow we’ve broken and betrayed
You are the Faithful one
And from the garden to the grave
Bind us together, bring shalom.
-Beautiful song by Sandra McCracken found here
peacocks for pilgrims 