Day Twenty One — 8 March

Hear our voice, O Lord, according to your faithful love.

Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings): Hosea 14.2-10 | Psalm 8 1.6-10 | Mark 12.28-34

1998
I

Now I have reached the age
of judgment giving sorrow
that many men have come to,
the verdict of regret,
remembering the world

once better than it is,
my old walkways beneath
the vanished trees, and friends
lost now in loss of trust.

And I recall myself
more innocent than I am,
gone past coming back
in the history of flaw,
except Christ dead and risen
in my own flesh shall judge,
condemn, and then forgive.

1995
VI

My sore ran in the night
and ceased not. I tossed to and fro
unto the dawning of the day.
Let the sighs of the prisoner
come before thee; according to
the greatness of thy power
preserve thou those that are
appointed to die. I remembered
my song in the night. I said,
This is my sorrow, but I will
remember the works of the Lord;
I will remember his wonders
of old. And I remembered
the small stream coming down
off the hill through all the years
of my people, and long before.
I remembered the trees on the slopes
beside it, standing in the great heat
of summer, and giving shade.
I remembered the leaves falling
and then the snow, and again
the small flowers rising up
out of dead leaves, the mosses
green again by the flowing water,
and the water thrush's nest
under the root of a strong tree.
I said, I will grieve no more
for death, for what is death to me
who have seen thy returns, O
Lord of love, who in the false are true.

—Wendell Berry. A timbered choir: the Sabbath poems 1979-1997. New York, Counterpoint, 1992.

Day 21
The Kentucky River in Winter.

 

Prayer

Write deeply on our minds, Lord God, that only the pure in heart can see you. May we neither deceive ourselves with the thought that we have no sin, or idly ignore our consciences when they accuse us. Strengthen asked by your Spirit that no day may pass without its victory.

 

Arvo Pärt. 'Silentium', second movement of Tabula rasa (1977).

May God our Redeemer show us compassion and love. Amen.



St Philip's Anglican Church, cnr Moorhouse and Macpherson Streets, O'Connor, ACT 2602
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