Living Tree Poetry

“Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence.”
Eugene Peterson

“If you allow yourself to be the person that you are, then everything will come into rhythm… Sometimes the great famine of blessing in and around us derives from the fact that we are not living the life we love, rather we are living the life that is expected of us. We have fallen out of rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.”John O’Donohue

“When large numbers of people share their joy in common, the happiness of each is greater because it adds fuel to the other’s flame”
St Augustine

Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more – a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleases me,
As if thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart whose very pulse may be Thy praise.
George Herbert

MY PRAYER is for joy.  For quiet joy to wake us each morning, for peace to inhabit us through each day, and for contentment to be the pillow under our head.    Today I pray that we would remember how joy is a gift that keeps giving.  That it grows for the sharing.  Life seems to follow a course, from childhood to adulthood, where slowly, as we become too aware of all the facts and seriousness of life, we can lose sight of the wonder, and the true meaning of it all.  And then often as we get older, we start to discard those things that don’t serve us, and rediscover our joy. Thomas Merton said, ‘Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.’  Those things that cause us happiness, feed our souls, and brings us peace – they feed us so that we might become food to each other.  The things that ring our bells, are given us that we might ring them together, in symphony.

A Celtic Blessing for You

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the Son of peace to you
Iona Community

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