In Our Distress

Meditation: angelus est nomen officii

In my extremity, I called out to the Lord;
I cried out in the congregation in my distress.
I was answered with love;
I was restored and removed to a better place;
With the love of the Lord with me, how can I be cut down?

Place your trust in the Lord;
Seek the Almighty where he waits upon his beloved;
Though your enemies surround you;
Though you find yourself at fault and unworthy;
Though you see no escape, there is help and hope for you;
The Lord is our strength and right arm;
His servants listen for the cry of the oppressed;
They wait upon the word of the Lord.

The Lord is our salvation and our help;
Though we may be chastised,
we are not condemned;
Though we find ourselves in distress;
even at the end of our lives and beyond;
We are enfolded and comforted;
In the Lord we find our true labor;
In the Lord we truly find ourselves.

-distantly after Ps 118

I heard that God lived in the forest

Proposed Antiphon:  Deep in the forest, if you listen, You can hear faint hymns of joy among the trees

I heard that God lived in the forest

And I built a fence around it

Every day, I chopped down as many trees as I could

One day the forest was gone

And I felt very free and alone

The next day a robber showed up and took everything I had

And he laughed at me

I brought him to a court of law

And the judge said that it was all relative

My children said to me ‘why have you lied to us?’

And they abandoned me to seek pleasure

My spouse said ‘what does my vow mean now?’

And left with a richer, perhaps wiser man

I heard that God lived in the forest

And I built a fence around it

Every day, I chopped down as many trees as I could

One day the forest was gone

And I felt very alone

Be Strong

by Maltbe D. Babcock 1858-1901

Be Strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle-face it; 'tis God's gift.

Be Strong!
Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce-oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.

Be Strong!
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not-fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.

GoD and DoG

This afternoon I found a wonderful video by Wendy Francisco entitled: GoD and DoG.


Wendy's website is Here, and her blog is Here.

Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord!

LE

p.s. Problems with displaying video properly made it clear blog template was out of step with YouTube and also with normal screen widths - so behold a wider blog. :)

Strange Fish Who Seek The Fisherman

God draws us in.
We are always moving
Always hiding, always shifting
But God knows where we are
and God draws us in.

God draws us in like an angler
Playing a strong fish with a weak line
Gently tugging
Pulling and drawing.

We go other ways
We dart this way and that
Sometimes we circle slowly in
And sometimes we break the line and charge away
And God must cast for us again, and again.

God is a patient fisherman
God’s nets are wide and can enclose us all
And yet we can slip out if we will;

God can land his lures over us,
Wherever we hide
But we can ignore them
Or we can break the line and escape.

We must be fish who want to be caught
Who allow ourselves to be drawn;
Fish who seek the fisher.

Because the day will come
When the fisher packs up his gear
And there is no more time
No time for playing the difficult fish
Who wants to go its own way.

A day when the fisherman will take his catch
To the eternal river
Where they will forever
Swim in the holy water of God.

Seek Her

Wisdom tires of being mocked
She tires of chasing you down twisting alleys of lies
She tires of calling and having you run instead away
Of stretching out her hand and being rebuffed
Of having her counsel ignored

Attend, lest She abandon you
And laugh at your calamity
Lest She mocks when panic strikes you
When the storm sweeps you away
When you find yourself and all you hold dear
Lost in pain and anguish.

Call upon Her now
having trampled Her word
having ignored Her histories
having spat on Her offerings
having scoffed at Her reproof
and She may not answer

She may leave you to your own devices
Twisting on a gibbet of your own design
Trapped in a cage of metal and spikes
Food for the carrion birds
A warning to others

Should you not eat the fruit of your way?
Should you not find yourself at the end of the road you have chosen?

Wisdom still calls - but you are far from Her
Her voice is faint - but can be heard

Perhaps you can return, retrace your steps
Do not listen to the loud voices around you
Hustling you onward to bad ends
Resist the pushing and jostling of those around you
You still need not be lost

You still, perhaps, can be found.
I write this for you, you yourself

Seek Her!

The Crazy Lady and the Angel

On the section of the Berlin wall located near Battery Park City

The crazy lady and the angel
Stand on the wall

The crazy lady on the outside
The safe side
The ‘go about your business’ side
She wears bright colors
Her skin is green
Her lips are brilliant red
She is lively and creative

The angel is on the inside
Where people used to get killed just for walking
For running to freedom
She is harder to see
But she is there
Who painted her, and when?
Who saw her in those days?
Was she the last thing someone saw?
Perhaps she was meant to comfort, to mourn, and not be consoled
To commemorate children, brothers and sisters, parents, friends, cousins lost

Perhaps that was her purpose
Certainly she does that now
Now that she no longer stands in the shadow of machine guns and barbed wire
Now that she is a curiosity, and a memorial

And it strikes me that life is like this
There is the wild and crazy ‘go about your business’ side
And the serious side
The side of life and death
where people struggle for life and freedom
Where angels stand close to comfort and assist us

It is good to be bright, lively and creative
But let us also be strong and helpful
And stand to help those who struggle for life and freedom