Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 94 which assures us of God’s patient and enduring love.
Happy are they whom you instruct, O Lord! whom you teach out of your law; to give them rest in evil days… For you will not abandon your beloved, nor will you forsake your own.
Psalm 94: 12-14
How does God instruct us in this perfect Law? Our Alleluia Verse offers this insight:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, For I am meek and humble of heart.
Matthew 11:29
By imitating the humble love of Jesus, we learn to become more like God in whose image we are created.
Deepening in that imitative love is a lifelong journey. Sometimes, maybe often, our footing is unsure. Sometimes we even fall flat on our face!
The psalmist tells us we are not alone in the struggle, a verse we might repeat when we are a bit off spiritual balance:
Were not the LORD my help, my soul would soon dwell in the silent grave. When I say, “My foot is slipping,” your mercy, O LORD, sustains me.
Psalm 94: 17-18
Poetry: Prayer of the Tightrope Dancer – Sister Eleanor Fitzgibbons, IHM
Oh God of tenderness and watchful love, You are my balance beam, I shall not falter. With you, my surety, I will not fail.
Music: Two songs today
Blessed Assurance – written in 1883 by Fanny Crosby an amazing creative talent and activist. She was blind from infancy.
For my fellow tightrope walkers out there: Walk-in’ the Tightrope: Some of you might like this rockin’ song from Stevie Ray Vaughn to kick up your Saturday 😉
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 147 which calls upon Israel to praise God for gifts received.
God has not done for others what has been done for you; the Divine Way God has not made known to them. Alleluia.
Psalm 147: 20
The psalm gives us deeper insight into our reading from Romans. In Romans, chapters 9-11, Paul focuses on Israel’s quintessential place in the unfolding of salvation history.
In today’s passage, Paul laments the recalcitrance of some of his kin to open their hearts to the Gospel:
I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are children of Israel…
Romans 9: 2-3
Paul’s lament is not a condemnation. Rather he mourns the fact that his fellow Israelites, who are uniquely blessed by God, choose not to accept the new and transformative Gift offered them in the person of Jesus Christ.
The lesson for us when praying with this psalm and reading? Perhaps this:
God is always doing something new and wonderful in us and in Creation. God is always inviting us deeper into the relationship of love and mercy.
The path to that sacred depth is laid out for us in the Gospel where we learn to imitate Christ.
Sometimes we too are recalcitrant. We like things to be ordered and controlled, just like today’s Gospel Pharisees liked to control the Sabbath.
But the God of the Sabbath is not to be controlled by our fears, demands, or securities. That God will continue to challenge, invite, surprise, and love us into deeper relationship.
Our work is to stay open and responsive to this dynamic God Whose graces are “new every morning” – in fact, every moment…
Who sends forth the command to the earth; Whose Word runs swiftly!
Psalm 147: 15
Poetry: He Comes Ever Again – Rowan Williams
He will come like last leaf’s fall. One night when the November wind has flayed the trees to bone, and earth wakes choking on the mould, the soft shroud’s folding.
He will come like frost. One morning when the shrinking earth opens on mist, to find itself arrested in the net of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark. One evening when the bursting red December sun draws up the sheet and penny-masks its eye to yield the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come, will come like crying in the night, like blood, like breaking, as the earth writhes to toss him free. He will come like child.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 24 in which the psalmist expresses the heart’s deep longing for God:
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in that holy place? The one whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. Who shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God the savior. Such is the race that seeks for God, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
Psalm 24: 5-6
But achieving those sinless hands and clean heart is not always an easy task. It takes a life focused on faith and rooted in love.
Jesus talks about that focus in today’s Gospel.
Jesus gives us a parable which, at first, appears to say, “Get your act together fast, or God might zap you.” From Jesus’s words, we can assume that some public disasters have recently occurred. Those in the gathered crowd are unnerved by these events.
Jesus uses that nervousness to talk about repentance. He tells the people that tragedy can make us wake up to the fact that life is fragile and fleeting. That awareness should make us want to use our time on earth well, to give glory to God.
The repentance Jesus encourages is not just a contrition, or turning from sin. It is an opening of the soul’s eyes to see our lives and circumstances as God sees them.
Is God going to zap us if we don’t have that kind of repentance? No, I think not.
God is always Mercy … always, always Mercy.
With the parable of the fruitless fig tree, Jesus assures us that God is with us, giving us every grace and opportunity to bear spiritual fruit. God is patient and nurturing. But, in every human life, there is a limit to the time we have to respond.
Poetry: The Facts of Life – Pádraig Ó Tuama
That you were born and you will die.
That you will sometimes love enough and sometimes not.
That you will lie if only to yourself.
That you will get tired.
That you will learn most from the situations you did not choose.
That there will be some things that move you more than you can say.
That you will live that you must be loved.
That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of your attention.
That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg of two people who once were strangers and may well still be.
That life isn’t fair. That life is sometimes good and sometimes better than good.
That life is often not so good.
That life is real and if you can survive it, well, survive it well with love and art and meaning given where meaning’s scarce.
That you will learn to live with regret. That you will learn to live with respect.
That the structures that constrict you may not be permanently constricting.
That you will probably be okay.
That you must accept change before you die but you will die anyway.
So you might as well live and you might as well love. You might as well love. You might as well love.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 40 in which the psalmist prays for all who seek God and faithfully wait on God’s salvation:
May all who seek you exult and be glad in you, And may those who love your salvation say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”
Psalm 40:17
Luke’s Gospel describes the expectant fidelity God gives us and desires from us. In other words, God waits for us too!
The master of the house was away on a long journey. Likely he would have tried to return home in daylight, because the ancient roads were dark and menacing at night. Perhaps the evening meal was already prepared in anticipation of his arrival. But he does not appear over the distant rise where all the household’s eyes are trained.
You know how they waited. You’ve waited for loved ones coming home in bad weather. You’ve waited for beloved holiday guests when flights are delayed or traffic is snarled.
You watch for headlights cresting down the far road. You listen for the sound of a car door closing. Minutes seem like hours. The perfectly prepared meal cools, and your energy slackens as you pick at the olives and breadsticks.
Sometimes our prayer life feels like that. We do all the things necessary to welcome God’s grace, but instead we feel distant from the Divine Presence. We long for God’s warm blessing over the feast of our life, but God tarries somewhere at the other edge of our hope. We feel like these Gospel servants who wait, exhausted, even into the early morning hours.
But we don’t give up. Our hope remains steadfast because God has promised. And it is in that fidelity that our eyes are opened to realize that God had been present all along — just not looking as we had expected.
It turns out that God is the One who had been waiting… waiting for us to see.
Poetry: Waiting by Leza Lowitz
You keep waiting for something to happen,
the thing that lifts you out of yourself,
catapults you into doing all the things you've put off
the great things you're meant to do in your life,
but somehow never quite get to.
You keep waiting for the planets to shift
the new moon to bring news,
the universe to align, something to give.
Meanwhile, the pile of papers, the laundry, the dishes, the job –
it all stacks up while you keep hoping
for some miracle to blast down upon you,
scattering the piles to the winds.
Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life.
Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking.
But all the while, life goes on in its messy way.
And then you turn forty. Or fifty. Or sixty...
and some part of you realizes you are not alone
and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom
when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over,
it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched,
and when caterpillar turns to butterfly
if the pupa is brushed, it will die –
and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg
it's because the thing is too small, too small,
and it needs to break out.
And midlife walks you into that wisdom
that this is what transformation looks like –
the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life,
the yearning and writhing and pushing,
until one day, one day
you emerge from the wreck
embracing both the immense dawn
and the dusk of the body,
glistening, beautiful
just as you are.
Music: A country tune today, maybe overly simple. But I find some country music has a profound nugget of truth buried in the twang. I hope you can enjoy it.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this feast of the great St. Teresa of Ávila, we pray with Psalm 32:
You are my shelter; you guard me from distress; with joyful shouts of deliverance you surround me.
Psalm 32:7
We have all experienced these types of moments when we feel “delivered”.
We might have been praying for someone’s health, or our own.
We might have been caught in a difficult decision.
We might have been waiting for an acceptance letter or call.
We might have been hoping our apology would be accepted, or that one would be given.
We might have been aching for an inspiration, a thread of hope, or a new understanding.
And then —- Light!
We know what it feels like when the Light comes. But often, it is not the light we had expected. True “deliverance” comes not from shedding a worrisome circumstance. Instead, it comes from being incorporated into an unshakable faith and trust, as St. Teresa of Ávila describes it:
May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
Poem: Nada Te Turbe – Teresa of Ávila
Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing: God alone is changeless. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.
Nada te turbe, Nada te espante. Todo se pasa. Dios no se muda. La paciencia Todo lo alcanza. Quien a Dios tiene, Nada le falta. Solo Dios basta.
Music: Two beautiful selections today
Voice in My Heart – Iris Koh
2. A reflection in Spanish from the Discalced Carmelite Sisters
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 130 which promises that, even when we are in the depths, God offers us “the fullness of redemption”.
Let Israel hope in the LORD, For with the LORD is mercy, and plenteous redemption.
Psalm 130:7
For Paul in our first reading today, who is preaching a universal salvation in Jesus Christ, those “depths” are sin:
For there is no distinction; (between Jew and Gentile) all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.
Romans 3:2-24
Paul then declares a core teaching of the New Covenant
They are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus…
Romans 3:24
Paul is preaching to a community in which a few “boasters” have surfaced – people who felt they could reinterpret and codify the Gospel their own way – like the Pharisees and lawyers do with the Mosaic Law in our reading from Luke today .
Paul is correcting that falsehood. He uses a lot of words to explicate the Gospel’s core tenet of universal redemption by grace. But for me, they are “theology words” not “prayer words”.
What I choose to pray with is this awesome truth:
God loves me so much as to redeem me from the depths of spiritual alienation through the Gift of Jesus Christ.
The people in today’s Gospel refused to recognize and accept that all-defining gift. If they had, everything about their lives would have been transformed. And worse yet, by their exalted positions as scholars and leaders, they used their power to block others from learning about and receiving this Transcendent Grace.
In every generation, there are “religionists” who decide what elements of doctrine satisfy their own needs and desires. They preach that fragmented and divisive catechism to advance their self-serving agendas. They design laws which inhibit rather than assist people in opening their spirits to God’s merciful fullness.
Our readings today call us rise from the depths of any such inhibitions:
to cherish the gift of our redemption in Christ
to meditate on and educate ourselves in a true understanding of that gift
to test ourselves for an honest and inclusive faith rooted in the righteousness of God
Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Romans 3:21
Poetry: CONSUMED IN GRACE – Catherine of Siena From ‘Love Poems From God‘ by Daniel Ladinsky.
I first saw God when I was a child, six years of age. the cheeks of the sun were pale before Him, and the earth acted as a shy girl, like me. Divine light entered my heart from His love that did never fully wane, though indeed, dear, I can understand how a person’s faith can at time flicker, for what is the mind to do with something that becomes the mind’s ruin: a God that consumes us in His grace. I have seen what you want; it is there, a Beloved of infinite tenderness.
Music: Amazing Grace – written by John Newton, sung by Il Divo
Thérèse of Lisieux (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897)
was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun
who is widely venerated in modern times.
She is popularly known in English as "The Little Flower”.
In her short life, she radiated a sacred simplicity,
often referred to as “The Little Way”
which has inspired generations of spiritual seekers.
Pope Pius X called her the greatest saint of modern times.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, in place of the dour readings of the day, we pray with some thoughts from the Little Flower herself:
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.
When one loves, one does not calculate.
The world’s your ship and not your home.
Poetry: To Live in Love by Thérèse of the Child Jesus – a beautiful long prayer-poem. You may wish to use just a stanza or two, or to pray with the musical version below.
If any one love Me, they will keep My word and My Father will love them and We will come to them and make Our abode with them… My peace I give unto you … Abide in My love.” (John 14, 23,27,-15:9)
The eve His life of love drew near its end, Thus Jesus spoke: “Whoever loveth Me, And keeps My word as Mine own faithful friend, My Father, then and I his guests will be; Within his heart will make Our dwelling above. Our palace home, true type of heaven above. There, filled with peace, We will that he shall rest, With us, in love.
Incarnate Word! Thou Word of God alone! To live of love, ’tis to abide with Thee. Thou knowest I love Thee, Jesus Christ, my Own! Thy Spirit’s fire of love enkindleth me. By loving Thee, I draw the Father here Down to my heart, to stay with me always. Blest Trinity! Thou art my prisoner dear, Of love, to-day.
To live of love, ’tis by Thy life to live, O glorious King, my chosen, sole Delight! Hid in the Host, how often Thou dost give Thyself to those who seek Thy radiant light. Then hid shall be my life, unmarked, unknown, That I may have Thee heart to heart with me; For loving souls desire to be alone, With love, and Thee!
To live of love, ’tis not to fix one’s tent On Tabor’s height and there with Thee remain. ‘Tis to climb Calvary with strength nigh spent, And count Thy heavy cross our truest gain. In heaven, my life a life of joy shall be, The heavy cross shall then be gone for aye. Here upon earth, in suffering with Thee, Love! let me stay.
To live of love, ’tis without stint to give, An never count the cost, nor ask reward; So, counting not the cost, I long to live And show my dauntless love for Thee, dear Lord! O Heart Divine, o’erflowing with tenderness, How swift I run, who all to Thee has given! Naught but Thy love I need, my life to bless. That love is heaven!
To live of love, it is to know no fear; No memory of past faults can I recall; No imprint of my sins remaineth here; The fire of Love divine effaces all. O sacred flames! O furnace of delight! I sing my safe sweet happiness to prove. In these mild fires I dwell by day, by night. I live of love!
To live of love, ’tis in my heart to guard A mighty treasure in a fragile vase. Weak, weak, am I, O well beloved Lord! Nor have I yet an angel’s perfect grace. But, if I fall each hour that hurries by, Thou com’st to me from Thy bright home above, And, raising me, dost give me strength to cry: I live of love!
To live of love it is to sail afar And bring both peace and joy where’er I be. 0 Pilot blest! love is my guiding star; In every soul I meet, Thyself I see. Safe sail I on, through wind or rain or ice; Love urges me, love conquers every gale. High on my mast behold is my device: “By love I sail!”
To live of love, it is when Jesus sleeps To sleep near Him, though stormy waves beat nigh. Deem not I shall awake Him! On these deeps Peace reigns, like that the Blessed know on high. To Hope, the voyage seems one little day; Faith’s hand shall soon the veil between remove; ‘Tis Charity that swells my sail always. I live of love!
To live of love, 0 Master dearest, best! It is to beg Thee light Thy holiest fires Within the soul of each anointed priest, Till he shall feel the Seraphim’s desires; It is to beg Thee guard Thy Church, 0 Christ! For this I plead with Thee by night, by day; And give myself, in sacrifice unpriced, With love always!
To live of love, it is to dry Thy tears, To seek for pardon for each sinful soul, To strive to save all men from doubts and fears, And bring them home to Thy benign control. Comes to my ear sin’s wild and blasphemous roar; So, to efface each day, that burning shame, I cry: ” 0 Jesus Christ! I Thee adore. I love Thy Name!”
To live of love, ’tis Mary’s part to share, To bathe with tears and odorous perfume Thy holy feet, to wipe them with my hair, To kiss them; then still loftier lot assume, To rise, and by Thy side to take my place, And pour my ointments on Thy holy head. But with no balsams I embalm Thy Face! ‘Tis love, instead!
“To live of love, what foolishness she sings!” So cries the world. “Renounce such idle joy! Waste not thy perfumes on such trivial things. In useful arts thy talents now employ!” To love Thee, Jesus! Ah, this loss is gain; For all my perfumes no reward seek I. Quitting the world, I sing in death’s sweet pain: Of love I die!
To die of love, O martyrdom most blest! For this I long, this is my heart’s desire; My exile ends; I soon will be at rest. Ye Cherubim, lend, lend to me your lyre! O dart of Seraphim, O flame of love, Consume me wholly; hear my ardent cry! Jesu, make real my dream! Come Holy Dove! Of love I die!
To die of love, behold my life’s long hope! God is my one exceeding great reward. He of my wishes forms the end and scope; Him only do I seek; my dearest Lord. With passionate love for Him my heart is riven. O may He quickly come! He draweth nigh! Behold my destiny, behold my heaven, OF LOVE TO DIE.
February 25, 1895
Music: St. Thérèse’s Canticle of Love – Sister Marie Thérèse Sokol, OCD
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 138 which begins with the beautiful verse:
I will praise You with my whole heart…
Abraham with the Three Angels – Rembrandt
As we celebrate the feast of the three great archangels, known to us by name because of their appearances in the Bible, we are invited to explore all the aspects of our spirituality – our whole heart.
As bodily beings, we might most often pray by using our senses:
with what we read and see with our eyes
with vocal prayer or soulful music
with the transporting aroma of incense
with the tactile assurance of a rosary over our fingertips
But we are also spiritual beings. There are dimensions of our experience that could never be put into words. There are melodies playing within us too profound to be rendered in notes.
There is a Presence within us beyond and greater than ourselves, breathed into us at our creation, and longing for the fulfillment of Heaven. Our human experience is like a shadow cast over time by the Great Light Who lives and loves in us.
The angels are beings released from that shadow. They completely dwell in and radiate the One Who breathed them forth in the fullness of Light. They are the ones who companion us to the wondrous edges of our own possibility –
as Raphael did for Tobit (Tobit 12:1-22)
as Michael did for Daniel (Daniel 10:13-21)
as Gabriel did for Mary (Luke 1:26-38)
These stories might inspire us today to speak and listen to our angels, one of whom is particularly charged to guide us.
Poetry: A Sonnet for St. Michael the Archangel – Malcolm Guite
Michaelmas gales assail the waning year, And Michael’s scale is true, his blade is bright. He strips dead leaves; and leaves the living clear To flourish in the touch and reach of light. Archangel bring your balance, help me turn Upon this turning world with you and dance In the Great Dance. Draw near, help me discern, And trace the hidden grace in change and chance. Angel of fire, Love’s fierce radiance, Drive through the deep until the steep waves part, Undo the dragon’s sinuous influence And pierce the clotted darkness in my heart. Unchain the child you find there, break the spell And overthrow the tyrannies of Hell.
Music: Confitebor Tibi Domine – Francisco Valls
Psalmus 138
Psalm 138
1 Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo quoniam audisti verba oris mei in conspectu angelorum psallam tibi
1 I will praise thee, O lord, with my whole heart: for thou hast heard the words of my mouth. I will sing praise to thee in the sight of his angels:
2 Adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum et confitebor nomini tuo super misericordia tua et veritate tua quoniam magnificasti super omne nomen sanctum tuum
2 I will worship towards thy holy temple, and I will give glory to thy name. For thy mercy, and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy holy name above all.
3 In quacumque die invocavero te exaudi me multiplicabis me in anima mea virtute
3 In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me: thou shall multiply strength in my soul.
4 Confiteantur tibi Domine omnes reges terrae quia audierunt omnia verba oris tui
4 May all the kings of the earth give glory to thee: for they have heard all the words of thy mouth.
5 Et cantent in viis Domini quoniam magna gloria Domini
5 And let them sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Quoniam excelsus Dominus et humilia respicit et alta a longe cognos cit
6 For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low: and the high he knoweth afar off.
7 Si ambulavero in medio tribulationis vivificabis me super iram inimicorum meorum extendisti manum tuam et salvum me fecit dextera tua
7 If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, thou wilt quicken me: and thou hast stretched forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies: and thy right hand hath saved me.
8 Dominus retribuet propter me Domine misericordia tua in saeculum opera manuum tuarum ne dispicias
8 The Lord will repay for me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: O despise not the work of thy hands
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 102 which, together with our first reading from Zechariah, paints a picture of enduring love and hope:
the desperate yet hopeful prayer of one overwhelmed by life
Let this be written for the generation to come, and let future creatures praise the Lord: “The LORD looked down from the holy height, from heaven beheld the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die.”
Psalm 102: 19-21
2. the response of a faithful God, overwhelmed by love
Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her. Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.
Zechariah 8:1-3
The “jealous love” described here is an infinite and divine Love – the only Love entitled to be possessive because It has created us.
It is a jealousy unlike our human pettiness, rooted instead in God’s desire for our free response to the gift of our creation.
God loves us so much as to continually bring us home to Love despite any detours we take.
Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.
Zechariah 8:8
In our prayer today, we might allow ourselves to be aware of God’s “jealousy” for us throughout our lives, never giving up on turning us toward Love – even when the turning may have been “like a hurricane”.
Poetry: GOD OF SHELTER, GOD OF SHADE (ISAIAH 4:6) by Irene Zimmerman, OSF
God of shelter from the rain,
God of shade from the heat,
I run from You
through the muddy street
of my uncommitted heart
till wild winds beat
against my doors,
blasting sand
through all my walls,
and I stand
without retreat,
hear Your command
to be the wheat.
Sweet the giving!
Sweet this land!
God of shelter from the rain.
God of shade from the heat.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 149, a call to praise God in festive celebration because God will enjoy that!
Praying with that thought today, I ask myself:
Is my God a happy God?
Our psalm says “Yes!” – a Lover of song, joy, praise, dance, timbrel and harp!
Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song; sing the praises of God in the company of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice in their maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their sovereign. Let them praise the name of the Lord in the dance; let them sing praise to God with timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in this people.
Psalm 149:1-4
Only a happy God could have imagined the beautiful gift of Creation we have been given. Stop today to listen, watch, and feel that happiness in sun, rain, wood scent, birdsong, cat purr, baby breath, child play, elder eyes, or the thousand other ways God will try to touch your soul today.
( Praying for the safety of all our friends in Australia with the earthquakes and for people of the Canary Islands.❤️🙏)
Poetry: The Creation of Birds – Renee Yann, RSM
O, the wonderful mood that seized You,
God, as you created birds;
you dancing there, twirling in light,
flinging your crystal arms to infinite music,
flicking your hands like magic fountains,
feathers and colors splashing out from your fingertips,
chattering, rainbowed profusions
of your Boundless Life.
Your inexhaustible, joy-filled soul laughing out
the soaring beings into the still universe,
peals of you infusing them each
to their measure with notes of your inner song.
O, I see your Holy Eyes flash color to them
as they fly, strobing their feathers
with shards of your prismed white light.
This morning, seeing only one,
free and jubilant in a thin sycamore,
I consume it as part of your Delightful Essence,
this day’s communion with you,
grey and orange wafer filling me
with mysteries of the primal dance
from which we both were born.
Lavish Mercy 