Poets & Saints

Scripture  Psalm 23:4 (NRSVUE)  Even though I walk through the darkest valley,  I fear no evil;  for you are with me;  your rod and your staff—  they comfort me.Refrain  I stay with what is.Quote / Prose  Pema Chödrön, from *When Things Fall Apart*  “To stay present with pain and not run away from it  is the key to awakening.  When we stop struggling against what we feel,  we begin to find freedom  right where we are.”

Scripture  1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSVUE, abridged)  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,  which you have from God…  and that you are not your own?Refrain  God meets me in my body.Quote / Prose  Bessel van der Kolk“The body keeps the score:  if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera,  in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching sensations,  in autoimmune disorders and skeletal and muscular problems,  then talking about it may not be enough.  The body must feel safe again.”

Scripture  Psalm 46:10 (NRSVUE)  “Be still, and know that I am God.”Refrain  I notice without fixing.Quote / Prose  Jon Kabat-Zinn, from *Wherever You Go, There You Are*  “Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives.  It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness  of each moment.  We also gain immediate access  to our own powerful inner resources  for insight, transformation,  and healing.”

Scripture  Genesis 2:7 (NRSVUE)  Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,  and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;  and the man became a living being.Refrain  I return to the breath.Quote / Poem  George Herbert“Teach me, my God and King,  In all things Thee to see;  And what I do in anything,  To do it as for Thee.  A servant with this clause  Makes drudgery divine.”

Scripture  Matthew 2:12 (NRSVUE)  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,  they left for their own country  by another road.Refrain  I walk by the light I have been given.Quote / Poem  Teresa of Ávila  “Let nothing disturb you,  Let nothing frighten you,  All things are passing away:  God never changes.  Patience obtains all things.  Whoever has God lacks nothing;  God alone suffices.”

Scripture  Psalm 139:1–5 (NRSVUE, abridged)  O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;  you discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down,  and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue,  O Lord, you know it completely.Refrain  I am seen and known by God.Quote / Poem  George Herbert“Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,  Guilty of dust and sin.  But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack  From my first entrance in,  Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,  If I lacked anything.”

Scripture  Luke 24:30–31 (NRSVUE, abridged)  When he was at the table with them,  he took bread, blessed and broke it,  and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…  and he vanished from their sight.Refrain  My eyes are opening.Quote / Poem  Emily Dickinson  “The Soul should always stand ajar,  That if the Heaven inquire,  He will not be obliged to wait,  Or shy of troubling her.  Depart, before the Host has slid  The bolt unto the Door—  Then will the Soul return her trust  Without distrust or more.”

Scripture  Exodus 3:1–6 (NRSVUE)  Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian;  he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush;  he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight,  and see why the bush is not burned up.”  When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see,  God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”  And he said, “Here I am.”Refrain  I am learning to see.Quote / Poem  William Blake, from *Auguries of Innocence* (c. 1803)“To see a World in a Grain of Sand  And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,  Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand  And Eternity in an hour.  A Robin Red breast in a Cage  Puts all Heaven in a Rage.”

Scripture  Isaiah 60:1–2 (NRSVUE)  Arise, shine; for your light has come,  and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For darkness shall cover the earth,  and thick darkness the peoples;  but the Lord will arise upon you,  and his glory will appear over you.Refrain  God’s light meets me where I am.Quote / Poem  Charles Wesley“Christ, whose glory fills the skies,  Christ, the true, the only Light,  Sun of Righteousness, arise,  Triumph o’er the shades of night;  Day-spring from on high, be near;  Day-star, in my heart appear.”