Mary Speaks

A Mother's Day tribute to the young woman who carried our Lord, nurtured Him through childhood, and bore the full experience of His life and dying.

Mary Speaks: 

by Madeleine L’Engle

O you who bear the pain of the whole earth, I bore you.
O you whose tears gave human tears their worth, I laughed with you.
You, who when your hem is touched, give power, I nourished you.
Who turn the day to night in this dark hour, light comes from you.
O you who hold the world in your embrace, I carried you.
Whose arms encircled the world with your grace, I once held you.
O you who laughed and ate and walked the shore, I played with you.
And I, who with all others, you died for, now I hold you.
May I be faithful to this final test, in this last hour I hold my child, my son;

His body close enfolded to my breast:
The holder held, the bearer borne.
Mourning to joy, darkness to morn.
Open, my arms; your work is done.

Taken from The Ordering of Love ~ New & Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle

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Tomorrow's Promise

I venture forth into my days 

carrying snippets of scriptural readings, conversations, 

teachings, and musings tucked under my heart. 

Internal thoughts pondered haphazardly as I move through my days 

pausing intermittently as some slight bit of my fluid surroundings catches...

snags on some point of those numerous musings.  

Here, as tuned lyrics overlay a phrase I read, 

or there 

as a face streams against my passing current portraying human expression of inspired scripture, 

or another 

from the natural world branching out to display a figurative expression of a sacred story. 

If last season’s life were our Biblical inheritance,

If the branch were His chosen people,

If the suspended vessels were His divine life,

If the dispersed seeds were His spirit,

If nature reflects His promise...

Illuminated understanding rises, 

not grandly, but deeply.

Satisfying as only increased clarity or 

compelling evidence 

can illuminate.

Unspoken whispers of prayer envisioned as being released outward. 

"Thank you O my father,

for giving us your Son,

And leaving your Spirit

till the work on earth is done."

“There Is a Redeemer” 

Joseph Adkison

Seek Peace

Consider the blameless,

observe the upright;

a future awaits those who seek peace.

Psalm 37:37 NIV

Look at those who are honest and good,

for a wonderful future awaits 

those who love peace.

Psalm 37:37 NLT

~

Hope Waits

Christ the King Sunday, the final Sunday of the liturgical year; we rejoice in the Genesis through Revelation accounts of God’s hope for the world. And for the world, because of hope, our faith, our Christian beliefs, will never cease among people. God has taught us hope, promised us hope, revealed the blessings of hope. The sacred texts record the history of hope among the faithful from generation to generation. Our traditions of worship and prayer, our holiest days, nurture hope. We are galvanized by the legacy of hope, thousands of years of hope. Hope fueled by His Spirit persists, endures, and waits. To live with the Hope of God is to experience Hope's triumph.

~

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who share a message through photographic praise. 

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God Whispers Grace Over the Good Earth

A pair of squirrels race across rooftops leaping effortlessly onto tree boughs, swirling down the trunk, to join in the mingled mass of leaves drifted across the still green grass. Heron’s grey serpentine neck is silhouetted against the low light sky as it’s perched at the upper most reaches of a fall canopy of tree color. Roses bravely continue to offer a few scant blooms, opening fragile petals despite the dropping temperatures. The afternoon air is uncommonly still. Beyond the squirrel rustling and bird twitters, its quiet. Quiet enough to encourage a pause. Quiet enough to close the eyes, to stand among the living woods, to hear the season’s heartbeat, to wonder if that breathing hush is God whispering grace over the good earth. Hopeful, I stay in place, stand open handed, listening amidst an age old whisper that can be heard in God’s natural world.

                                                                ~

"And God saw everything that He had made,

and, behold,it was very good."

Genesis 1:31

~

“As soon as we acknowledge God to be the supreme architect, 

who has erected the beauteous fabric of the universe, 

our minds must necessarily be ravished with wonder 

at His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power.” 

John Calvin


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