Poets & Saints

Scripture  Psalm 34:17 (NRSVUE)  When the righteous cry for help,  the Lord hears  and rescues them from all their troubles.Refrain  God hears me in every breath.Quote / Poem  Teresa of Ávila  “Prayer is not thinking much,  but loving much.  It is the quiet turning of the heart  toward the One  who has been listening  since before you learned to speak.”

Scripture  Psalm 16:5 (NRSVUE)  The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;  you hold my lot.Refrain  In God, this moment is enough.Quote / Poem  Richard Rohr  “We do not find God  in the future we are anxiously building,  but in the present we are constantly overlooking.  Grace is not what we earn or achieve—  it is what is already given,  what is quietly present,  what has always been enough.”

Scripture  Psalm 143:10 (NRSVUE)  Teach me the way I should go,  for to you I lift up my soul.Refrain  God leads me even when the path is unclear.Quote / Poem  Macrina Wiederkehr  “Guide me, O God of the journey,  for in the mystery that lies ahead  I cannot travel by sight.  But if You walk with me,  uncertainty becomes a holy place—  a doorway  where trust is born.” 

Scripture  Genesis 28:16 (NRSVUE)  Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said,  “Surely the Lord is in this place—  and I did not know it!”Refrain  God is here, in this very moment.Quote / Poem  David Whyte  “Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.  To walk the world awake  is to see the miracle  in what we have come to call ordinary.  The sacred is not elsewhere—  it is here,  waiting for our eyes  to finally open.”  

Scripture  John 17:21 (NRSVUE)  “…that they may all be one.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,  may they also be in us…”Refrain  I am invited into union with God.Quote / Poem  Meister Eckhart  “God is always at home.  It is we who have gone out for a walk.  Yet the soul that returns to itself  returns to God,  for the ground of the soul  and the ground of God  are one and the same.  To awaken is to realize  you have never been separate.”

Scripture  Romans 8:16 (NRSVUE)  It is that very Spirit  bearing witness with our spirit  that we are children of God.Refrain  The Spirit speaks within me.Quote / Poem  St. Symeon the New Theologian  “God is not far away.  The fire of the Spirit  shines within your heart,  warming, illuminating,  revealing who you truly are.  Look within,  and you will find the One  who has been looking for you.”  

Scripture  Acts 17:28 (NRSVUE)  For “In him we live and move and have our being,”  as even some of your own poets have said,  “For we too are his offspring.”Refrain  God is in all things, and all things are in God.Quote / Poem  Teilhard de Chardin  “By virtue of creation,  not one of us is ever far from God.  The divine presence  is at the heart of matter  and at the center of our soul.  To live is to sense that Presence—  to discover God  in everything that is growing,  everything that is moving,  everything that simply is.”  

Scripture  Genesis 12:2 (NRSVUE)  I will make of you a great nation,  and I will bless you, and make your name great,  so that you will be a blessing.Refrain  The blessing I receive becomes the blessing I give.Quote / Poem  John O’Donohue  “May the gifts you have been given  find their way into the world.  May your life be a channel of grace,  a quiet river of blessing  that nourishes what is withering  and awakens what is waiting to bloom.”