[From Guerillas of Grace, by Ted Loder]
Lord, so many things skitter through my mind,
and I give chance to gather them
and hold them up in a bunch to you,
but they go this way and that
while I go that way and this. . .
So, gather me up instead
and bless what eludes my grasp but not yours:
trees and bees, fireflies and butterflies,
roses and barbecues, and people. . .
Lord, the people. . .bless the people:
birthday people,
giving birth people,
being born people;
conformed people,
dying people,
dead people;
hostaged people,
banged up people,
held down people;
leader people,
lonely people,
limping people;
hungry people,
surfeited people,
indifferent people;
first world people,
second world people,
third world people;
one world people,
your people,
all people.
Bless them, Lord.
Bless what eludes my grasp but not yours.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful: Reminds me a bit of this:
O Lord, how lovely it is to be Your guest.
Breeze full of scents–mountains reaching to the skies -
waters like a boundless mirror,
reflecting the sun’s golden rays and the scudding clouds.
All nature murmurs mysteriously,
breathing depths of Your tenderness.
Birds and beasts of the forest bear the imprint of Your love.
Blessed are you, mother earth, in your fleeting loveliness,
which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last forever in the land where, amid beauty that grows not old, rings out the cry: Alleluia!
Ode 2, from “Glory to God for All Things,” a liturgical poem found, in ’samizdat’ underground printed copy, among the papers of a prisoner who died in Soviet Russia. His name was Gregory Petrov but the whole poem is now known to be the work of a Bishop Trypon.
mmm, thats really good. what eludes our grasp but not his, just about everything.
off topic question for ya: which apple store is closest to princeton?
I love the prayers of Ted Loder. He has companioned me for about twenty years in his Guerrillas of Grace. His ability to communicate the soul cry of the heart ministers truth to me. Thanks for sharing.
A wonderful prayer for those of us with Attention Deficit Disorder, “whose thoughts go this way and that while [we] go that way and this…”
Thank you for sharing this poem.