For the arrows of the Almighty are within me…The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. (Job 6:4)

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause,

Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number...

To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. (Job 5:7-9, 11)
 

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. (Job 5:17)

Two Francises

"Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure."  (St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun, tr. by Bill Barrett)

"Try to make yourself more agreeable and humble every day...and work gently toward salvation." (St. Francis de Sales, whose feast day is today.) "Salvation"-- yours and theirs. Win-win.

                      "He left Nazareth and went down to live...by the sea." (Matthew 4:13)

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel...Thou wilt show me the path of life." (Psalm 16)

Epiphany

 

Behold, in me long-vanished generations still kneel, and out of my soul many pagans shine toward the infinite;

 

 I lay hidden in the temples of their gods, I was darkly present in the sayings of their wise men;

 

I was on the towers with their star-gazers... 

 

 --Gertrude Von Le Fort, Hymns to the Church

 

Solstice

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,

The place where the great fires are,

That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth

And the heart of the earth is a star.

 

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,

For the flame of the sun is flown,

The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,

And a Child comes forth alone.

--"A Child of the Snows" by G.K. Chesterton

O Key of David

"The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. 'I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.'" --Rev. 3:7-8

 

In my arms I still carry flowers from the wilderness, the dew on my hair is from the valleys of the dawn of mankind,

I have prayers that the meadows lend an ear to, I know how storms are tempered, water is blest;

I carry in my womb the secrets of the desert, on my head the noble web of ancient thought,

For I am mother to all Earth's children: why do you scorn me, world, when my heavenly Father makes me so great?

--Gertrude Von Le Fort, Hymns to the Church