Day 21 : Friday 17 March — St Patrick

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

| Hosea 14.2-10 | Psalm 81.6-10 | Mark 12.28-34 |

Grigorchuk

Natalia Grigorchuk "The Blossom of the Blackbeard".

J.S Bach. "Agnus Dei" from Mass in B minor BWV 232. Netherlands Bach Society, cond. Jos van Van Veldhoven.

. . .

from: Carmen Bernos de Gasztold. Prayers from the Ark. Translated from French by Rumer Godden. Illustrated by Jean Primrose. London: Macmillan, 1963.

The Prayer of the Bee

Lord,
I am not one to despise Your gifts.
May You be blessed
Who spreads the riches of Your sweetness
for my zeal . . .
Let my small span of ardent life
melt into our great communal task;
to lift up to Your glory
this temple of sweetness,
a citadel of incense,
a holy candle, myriad-celled,
moulded of Your graces
and of my hidden work.

Amen.

bee

The Prayer of the Goat

Lord,
let me live as I will!
I need a little wild freedom,
a little giddiness of heart,
the strange taste of unknown flowers.
For whom else are Your mountains?
Your snow wind? These springs?
The sheep do not understand.
They graze and graze,
all of them, and always in the same direction,
and then eternally
chew the cud of their insipid routine.
But I — I love to bound to the heart of all
Your marvels,
leap Your chasms,
and, my mouth stuffed with intoxicating grasses,
quiver with an adventurer's delight
on the summit of the world!

Amen.

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