Easter Morning

Easter Morning
Edmund Spenser 1552?-1599

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win;
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we, for whom thou didst die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity:
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Good Friday

Easter Morning

Easter Morning
Edmund Spenser 1552?-1599

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win;
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we, for whom thou didst die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity:
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Easter Week by Charles Kingsley

Easter Week
by Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875)

See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.
You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring-
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.

listen to the poem here, thanks to Classic Poetry Aloud, one of my favorite podcasts

Friday Poetry Good Friday in My Heart by Mary Elizabeth Coolridge

Good Friday in my heart!

GOOD FRIDAY in my heart! Fear and affright!
My thoughts are the Disciples when they fled,
My words the words that priest and soldier said,
My deed the spear to desecrate the dead.
And day, Thy death therein, is changed to night.

Then Easter in my heart sends up the sun.
My thoughts are Mary, when she turned to see.
My words are Peter, answering, ‘Lov’st thou Me?’
My deeds are all Thine own drawn close to Thee,
And night and day, since Thou dost rise, are one.

~ Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Here is the coding if you want a button with a link to this week's round-up.







<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/2010/04/poetry-friday-featuring-heidi-mordhorst.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/chndlrsblog/RmBFj-SN_DI/AAAAAAAAB34/at3HZsHcKd0/poetry%20friday%20button%20-%20fulll.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>
:: this post is part of the Friday Poetry Round-up hosted by Book Aunt.

Mary's Song by Luci Shaw

Mary's Song

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest ...
you who have had so far
to come.) Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigour hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world.
Charmed by dove's voices, the whisper of straw,
he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed
who overflowed all skies,
all years.
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

-- Luci Shaw

Atheist Day

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Psalm 53:1”

Friday Poetry: God has not promised

In this season of endless rain, both literal and figurative, I need this reminder.

God hath not promised
Skies always blue
Flower -strewn pathways
All our lives through

God hath not promised
Sun without rain
Joy without sorrow
Peace without pain

But God hath promised
Strength for the day
Rest for the labor
Light for the way
Grace for the trials
Help from above
Unfailing sympathy
Undying Love.

~ Annie Johnson Flint

Here is the coding if you want a button with a link to this week's round-up.

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ayuddha.net/2009/04/03/poetry/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/chndlrsblog/RmBFj-SN_DI/AAAAAAAAB34/at3HZsHcKd0/poetry%20friday%20button%20-%20fulll.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>


:: this post is part of the Friday Poetry roundup hosted by ayuddha.net.

poetry

Remember the poor . . .

Remember the poor when you look out
on fields you own,
on your plump cows grazing.
Remember the poor when you look into your barn
at the abundance of your harvest.
Remember the poor when the wind howls
and the rain falls,
as you sit warm in your dry house . . .
The poor have no food except what you feed tham
no shelter except your house
when you welcome them,
no warmth except your glowing fire.

~ From Celtic Fire

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

The Power of God

May the strength of God pilot us,
May the power of God preserve us,
May the wisdom of God instruct us,
May the hand of God protect us,
May the way of God direct us,
May the shield of God defend us,
May the host of God guard us
against snares of evil
and the temptations of the world.

~ St. Patrick

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

sermon notes

This morning we visited the church at which our kids go to AWANA. It is a Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, and as such, shows short videos of missions work during the service. The one we saw today shared the story of a young woman in Cambodia who put her faith in the Lord and then went home and burned the ancestral worship shrine. Then her mom came over and had a fit.

As I was watching I thought, "What a pity to separate someone from their cultural traditions." I have a strong negative response to image of the Great White Christian going in to save the pagans from their idols, and their poverty, and their filth, and their illiteracy, and all the other stereotypes that are just British Manifest Destiny reworked with a religious overtone. Yuck.

Then I felt guilty because I know I am supposed to think "Yeah, another person saved!"

Then of course I had to analyze my two conflicting selves. Pretty much it comes down to this: If there is no truth, then yes, it is a pity to separate a person from their cultural traditions. If there is absolute truth -- setting aside the two questions of whether or not we can know it and whether or not we as Christians do know it -- if there is absolute truth, then separating ourselves from anything in order to access truth is more than worth it.

So my first line of thought was pretty much that of an unbeliever, and my second line of thought -- the line I should have taken, and felt guilty for not taking -- is that of a believer. Once again I find the Secular Me and the Sanctified Me debating in my head.

On to other notes:

• Luke 11 7-8 pretty much come down to the idea that boldness trumps friendship. I'm not sure why this is useful to point out.


• It's a pretty big deal that dads and God share the same name: Father. It does make it simple for fathers to pray: "Lord, make me worthy of the name." Don't you think that would pretty much cover it?
  

None of these, btw, are the pastor's observations, just my scribblings that I am jotting down here so I can mull on them later.


:: one year ago today: Friday Poetry: Elsa Beskow and feta pie
:: two years ago today: A Happy Day

Gospel according to Chickadee

Chickadee is working on her AWANA verse:

John 3:16

For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son whoever believes in him will not paralyze but have eternal life.

So, I wonder if she thinks her Grandpa was lacking in the belief department.


:: one year ago today: school updates

Protection

May God shield me,
May God fill me,
May God keep me,
May God watch me.

May God bring me
To the land of peace,
To the county of the King,
To the peace of eternity.

~ Carmina Gadelica

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

:: one year ago today: Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy and storm report

For Light

Lord grant me,
I pray Thee in the name of
Jesus Christ the son,
my God,
that love which knows no fall
so that my lamp may feel thy kindling touch
and know no quenching;
may burn for me
and for others may give light.
~ Prayer of Columbanus

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

And Happy Birthday to my mother, who gives Light to others.

Daily Strength for Daily Needs

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ~ROM. xv. 1.

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. ~ISAIAH 1.4

If there be some weaker one,
Give me strength to help him on;
If a blinder soul there be,
Let me guide him nearer Thee.
~J. G. WHITTIER.

Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. [ . . .] Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the habit of sympathy.

Ask Him to increase your powers of sympathy: to give you more quickness and depth of sympathy, in little things as well as great. Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. Half a dozen lines of kindness may bring sunshine into the whole day of some sick person. Think of the pleasure you might give to some one who is much shut up, and who has fewer pleasures than you have, by sharing with her some little comfort or enjoyment that you have learnt to look upon as a necessary of life,--the pleasant drive, the new book, flowers from the country, etc. Try to put yourself in another's place. Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the habit of sympathy.
~Jean Nicolas Grou in Daily Strength for Daily Needs edited by Mary W. Tileston

:: reposted from last year because I just like it.

Christ with Us

My dearest Lord,
Be Thou a bright flame before me,
Be Thou a guiding star above me,
Be Thou a smooth path beneath me,
Be Thou a kindly sheperd behind me,
Today and evermore.
~ St Columba

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

The Three Everywhere

The Three who are over my head,
The Three who are under my tread,
The Three who are over me here,
The Three who are over me there,
The Three who are in the earth near,
The Three who are up in the air,
The Three who in heaven do dwell,
The Three in the great ocean swell,
Pervading Three, oh be with me.
~ Poems of the Western Highlanders

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam

Friday Poetry: Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith by Mary Oliver

Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith

Every summer
I listen and look
under the sun's brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can't hear

anything, I can't see anything --
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green
stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,

nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,

the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker --
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk.

And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing --
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves,

the tapping of downwardness from the banyan feet --
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt

swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?

One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.
~ Mary Oliver in West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems.

Here is the coding if you want a button with a link to this week's round-up.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lisachellman.com/blog/2008/07/poetry-friday-thinking-winter-height-summer#comment-164"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/chndlrsblog/RmBFj-SN_DI/AAAAAAAAB34/at3HZsHcKd0/poetry%20friday%20button%20-%20fulll.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>

:: this post is part of the Friday Poetry roundup hosted by Under the Covers.

Mary Oliver
poetry

works for me: 6 sermon podcasts

In keeping with my podcast list series, here are 6 sermon podcasts that work for me. Don't be afraid, sermons are much better when you don't have to sit still.

Sermons (because faith cometh by hearing):

1. John Bunyon

2. Johnathan Edwards

3. CS Lewis - note these are sermons referencing Lewis, not written by Lewis

4. Martin Luther

5. CH Spurgeon

6.AW Tozer

My other Works for Me posts.

works for me

God in All

He inspires all.
He gives life to all.
He dominates all.
He supports all.
He lights the light of the sun.
He furnishes the light of the night.
He has made springs in dry land.
He is the God of heaven and earth,
of sea, and rivers,,
of sun, moon and stars,
of the lofty mountain and the lowly valley,
the God above heaven,
and in heaven,
and under heaven.
~ St. Patrick

from The Wisdom of the Celts, compiled by David Adam