Poets & Saints

Scripture   Psalm 139:7–10 (NRSVUE)    Where can I go from your spirit?   Or where can I flee from your presence?   If I ascend to heaven, you are there;   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.   If I take the wings of the morning   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,   even there your hand shall lead me,...

Scripture   2 Corinthians 3:16 (NRSVUE)    But when one turns to the Lord,   the veil is removed. Refrain   Let me see with the eyes of my soul. Quote / Poem   Madeleine L’Engle    “Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason.   Faith is what makes life bearable,   with all its tragedies and ambiguities&nb...

Scripture   Proverbs 3:5 (NRSVUE)    Trust in the Lord with all your heart,   and do not rely on your own insight. Refrain   I lean not on what I see, but who You are. Quote / Poem   Thomas R. Kelly    “Faith is not a speculation,   but a venture.   It is not an inference from the facts around us,   but a gra...

Scripture   Galatians 5:1 (NRSVUE)    For freedom Christ has set us free.   Stand firm, therefore,   and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Refrain   I am free to live in love. Quote / Poem   John O’Donohue    “May you awaken to the mystery of being here   and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.&nbsp...

Scripture   Romans 2:4 (NRSVUE)    Do you not realize that God’s kindness   is meant to lead you to repentance? Refrain   I turn, and Love meets me there. Quote / Poem   James Finley    “Repentance is the interior posture   of one who is willing to be undone by love—   to surrender all that is not yet free  ...

Scripture   Philippians 1:6 (NIV)    Being confident of this,   that he who began a good work in you   will carry it on to completion   until the day of Christ Jesus. Refrain   Grace meets me in the middle. Quote / Poem   Rabindranath Tagore    “If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life,   your tea...

Scripture   Psalm 46:5 (NRSVUE)    God is in the midst of the city;   it shall not be moved;   God will help it when the morning dawns. Refrain   Even now, the center holds. Quote / Poem   Thomas Merton    “There is in all visible things   an invisible fecundity,   a dimmed light,   a hidden wholene...

Scripture   Joel 2:13 (NRSVUE)    Return to the Lord, your God,   for he is gracious and merciful,   slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,   and relents from punishing. Refrain   I am always welcome in Love. Quote / Poem   Henri Nouwen    “The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge   to le...

Scripture   Hebrews 13:8 (NRSVUE)    Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Refrain   I am rooted in what cannot be shaken. Quote Julian of Norwich    “God is the still point at the center.   He holds us fast in His love   and will never let us go.   The soul may be tossed by winds of change,   but s...

Scripture   2 Corinthians 4:16 (NRSVUE)    So we do not lose heart.   Even though our outer nature is wasting away,   our inner nature is being renewed day by day. Refrain   God gives me strength for today. Quote  Howard Thurman    “There is in every person something that waits and listens   for the sound of the genuine in...

Scripture   Psalm 13:1 (NRSVUE)    How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?   How long will you hide your face from me? Refrain   In silence, I lean closer. Quote   Mother Teresa    “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.   God is the friend of silence.   See how nature—trees, flowe...

Scripture   Mark 4:27 (NRSVUE)    Night and day, while the farmer sleeps and rises,   the seed sprouts and grows—he does not know how. Refrain   Even now, God is growing something in me. Quote Rainer Maria Rilke    “Everything is gestation and then bringing forth.   To let each impression and each seed of a feeling   come to com...

Scripture   Isaiah 30:18 (NRSVUE)    Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;   therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.   For the Lord is a God of justice;   blessed are all those who wait for him. Refrain   God is not in a hurry. And He is not far. Quote   Henri Nouwen    “Patience is not waiting passiv...

Scripture   Psalm 27:4 (NRSVUE)    One thing I asked of the Lord,   that will I seek after:   to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,   to behold the beauty of the Lord,   and to inquire in his temple. Refrain   Beauty is how God speaks to my soul. Quote St. John of the Cross    “I did not know the so...

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 here. Everywhere. Always. Quote Pierre Teilhard de Chardin    “There is nothing profane   for those who have learned to see.   The presence...

Scripture   Luke 24:32 (NRSVUE)    They said to each other,   “Were not our hearts burning within us   while he was talking to us on the road,   while he was opening the scriptures to us?” Refrain   My heart burns with divine presence. Quote Frederick Buechner    “Pay attention to the things that bring a tear to your eye &n...

Scripture   Psalm 8:3–4 (NIV)    When I consider your heavens,   the work of your fingers,   the moon and the stars,   which you have set in place,   what is mankind that you are mindful of them,   human beings that you care for them? Refrain   Let wonder wake me to God. Quote Abraham Joshua Heschel    “Our g...

Scripture   Ephesians 1:18 (NRSVUE)    I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,   so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,   what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints. Refrain   God, open the eyes of my heart. Quote St. Augustine    “Late have I loved you, Beauty so old and so...

Scripture   Luke 22:42 (NRSVUE)    “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me;   yet, not my will but yours be done.” Refrain   I let go, and God holds what I release. Quote Kahlil Gibran , from *The Prophet*   “You would know the secret of death.   But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? For life and...

Scripture   Isaiah 26:3 (NRSVUE)    You keep in perfect peace   those whose minds are stayed on you,   because they trust in you. Refrain   My soul is held in stillness. Quote Rabindranath Tagore    “The storm whispers,   but the heart must listen for the stillness.   Peace does not come when the world grows quiet.&nbs...

Scripture   Psalm 23:1 (NIV)    The Lord is my shepherd,   I lack nothing. Refrain   In God, I have enough. Quote Dallas Willard    “The Lord is my Shepherd   is a sentiment that has become so familiar   we often miss the audacity of it.   To say, 'I shall not want,'   is to live as if everything I need ...

Scripture   Matthew 11:28 (NRSVUE)    “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,   and I will give you rest.” Refrain   Rest is a sacred act of trust. Quote   Wayne Muller    “In the relentless busyness of modern life,   we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.   All life requires a rhythm of...

Scripture   Jude 1:1 (NRSVUE)    To those who are called,   who are beloved in God the Father   and kept safe for Jesus Christ. Refrain   I am kept by Love that does not let go. Quote Julian of Norwich    “God did not say, ‘You will not be troubled.’   He did not say, ‘You will not be tempted, you will not be distressed.’ &...

Scripture   John 20:21 (NRSVUE)    Jesus said to them again,   “Peace be with you.   As the Father has sent me,   so I send you.” Refrain   I am sent in love to love. Quote  Teresa of Avila    “Christ has no body now but yours.   No hands, no feet on earth but yours.   Yours are the eyes with which he lo...

Scripture   Luke 16:10 (NRSVUE)    Whoever is faithful in a very little   is faithful also in much;   and whoever is dishonest in a very little   is dishonest also in much. Refrain   In small things, I stay faithful. Quote Wendell Berry , from *Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front*   “Every day do something   tha...