Praying isn't...

"...a contest but the doorway

into thanks, a silence in which

 another voice may speak."

(Mary Oliver, "Praying" )

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. (Psalm 44)

And a Child Shall Lead Them

This valley wood is pledged

To the set shape of things;

Here are no harpies fledged,

No rocs may clap their wings.

Here poised in quietude,

Calm elementals brood;

They fend away alarms

From this green wood.

Only, the lawns are soft,

Slow branches sway aloft,

Small pathways idly tend

Towards no fearful end.

--With apologies to Robert Graves, lines from "An English Wood"

Reverent Expectation

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,

Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,

But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,

And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death.

--G.K. Chesterton,  "The Rolling English Road" 

...this feels like winter, yet strangely blessed...

--roc scssrs

City of Light

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it. Saying, if thou hadst known, even thou...the things which belong unto thy peace!...Thy enemies compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. (Luke 19:41-42)

"It is hard to give up what we are accustomed to, but harder to go contrary to our own will. If we would do ourselves a little violence in the beginning, afterwards we should be able to do all things with ease and joy."--The Imitation of Christ

"If we strove like valiant men to stand in the battle, then verily we should see the Lord from heaven assisting us."--The Imitation of Christ