Living Tree Poetry

“Keep still and let Him do some work.”
Thomas Merton

“We seldom notice how each day is a holy place where the Eucharist of the Ordinary happens, transforming our broken fragments Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.”
John O’Donohue

“The principle part of faith is patience.”
George MacDonald

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:18-19

MY PRAYER today is for safety, for the assurance of our protection, in a future we cannot yet see.  It is not until I write this right now, I realise I am carrying on a train of thought from this morning, when I found myself considering the days ahead.  Don’t we try and work them out?  What they might look like.  Wondering, will we be okay? Will we be provided for?  Will we be fulfilled?  And as parents, we find our thoughts so often travel to our children, especially as they start taking leaps of independence and decisions for themselves. Will they be okay?  Will they be provided for? Will they be fulfilled? And most of all we ask, will they be protected?  The faith we confess to believe in becomes tested, as we gradually pass them from our hands to His.

I like John O’Donohue’s turn of phrase, ‘an eternal continuity that keeps us’.  I picture a journey through an avenue of trees, or a path through a mountain pass.  We are protected on either side and the path ahead defined by the Spirit who leads us forwards, protects our rear, and keeps watch at our side.

Today I pray that we embrace our journey in faith and courage, remembering who it is that has made the trail.

These are drawn from daily reflections and prayers I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.