attica-ruth: CANDLE IN THE WINDOW

These poems are arranged in the order of their writing, from 2007 to 2022. Some have appeared on this blog before.

Like many long journeys through terrain not traversed before, this pilgrim's path has passed through pleasant, sun-filled scenery and shadowy sections, stone-strewn and choked with thorn bushes. Then the pilgrim grasps the hand of the Comforter, who lifts high the lamp of the Word.

May He do so for all pilgrims who reach out for Him.

THROUGH NO DARKER ROOM *

Why, Lord, do you permit the blows to fall

Relentlessly upon a single head?

Even the blacksmith shoeing a horse

Strikes once on the anvil, once on the hoof,

But you allow untimely death to seize

Fruit, flower, branch, tree – all

From one sad soul, pitilessly.

Why, Lord, should this be?

He raised his bloodied, thorn-crowned head

And spoke:

"My child, I love thee."

* The title quotes from a hymn in the Anglican Hymnal:

Christ leads me through no darker rooms

Than he went through before. ~ R. Baxter

CREDO

Like diamond dewdrops, dreams disappear;

Hopes, like flames, leap, flicker and fail;

Flesh slackens, bones crumble,

Fear shadows day, pain troubles night.

Yet, so the heart, mind, soul be chained

Willing to a Rock,

Nothing is lost that seemed to be,

Nothing will fail at day and night’s end,

For the Rock is Love, and Love is Life

For all eternity.

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS

From my mouth to God’s ear:

May Divinity brush my cheek,

Grip my shoulder,

Lay a finger on my heart;

Envelop me in flame

Cool as the drop of rain

Which refreshes my soul,

Now and forever. Amen.

PRAYER

Let me nest in the rafters of your dwelling,

One sparrow among many;

Warmed by your never-failing love,

Lit by your never-fading light,

Seeing your face,

Knowing you see mine, O Lord.

Amen.

TETELESTAI

They raised him to look

on a city of stone

and a stony people:

He burst through the rock

and rose.

DIALOGUE

Child, born in a borrowed shelter,

laid in a borrowed crib,

Man, stowed away in a borrowed tomb,

Word, leaping down from royal throne

to be swaddled moveless, wordless,

on the breast of her you gave life to,

what gift may I lay in the straw beside

gold, myrrh and frankincense?

Set down the needless burdens, daughter.

Regret for past follies; harboured hurts

not merited; sorrow for that

which you can never mend.

Borrowing is for me: flesh like yours,

to hunger, grow weary, be wounded,

hung upon a tree. For you

here are gifts: my mother,

my body, my blood, my love

unending. Your acceptance,

daughter, is all I seek.

SILENCE AND PEACE

May my mind be at rest

in silence and peace;

Leave foolish ways and strife,

for silence and peace.

May my heart turn to Thee

in silence and peace;

Trustingly heed Thy call,

in silence know peace.

May my soul feel the balm

of silence and peace;

With Love Eternal share

His silence, His peace.

LESSON

Lord, why do You let the wicked flourish?

Can the Almighty not do justice if men fail?

Child, I gave you my Spirit to discern, and so

arrive at good counsel. Would you have

the wheat pulled out with the darnel?

But, Lord, it is hard to suffer injustice.

Harder than it was for me on the cross?

Daughter, I made no distinction when I pleaded:

Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

I am sorry, Lord, I fall so often –

This road is strewn with obstacles.

My child, three times I fell, but I reached

my journey’s end,

- The cross! No fit reward.

No? Don’t you remember my teachings at all?

Wasn’t the cross my triumph? Lord,

I am still a child, but I will learn.

Of such is my Kingdom.

PRAYER ON THE ROAD

A pure he art create for me, O God,

not as You made Man out of clay,

but as the Cosmos, out of nothing;

my heart is not fit in Your Presence to stand.

Far must I go before I can see

the door to Your Light open for me;

set in me a steadfast spirit.

MEDITATION

‘Twixt night and day

A star shone bright,

When leapt God’s Word:

Unto us, He is the Light.

‘Twixt ox and ass

On a bed of hay,

The Pearl of great price

Sleeping lay.

Among the beasts why didst thou stay,

That might in silken bed have slept?

A silken robed man sought me to slay,

Alas, and many mothers wept.

A man of my own did me betray;

How many were they their promise kept?

My heart, my treasure,

I would I might know

That love without measure

Which I to thee owe.

May I that strive ‘twixt soul and beast,

Find through the Way my singleness;

That when I come to thee, Orient Star,

My soul be clad in robes for thy feast.

A PLAINT AND A PROMISE

Lord, why may I never find

One single soul to whom my mind

I may lay bare, and know it must be

Perceived with perfect clarity?

Do you not speak to me, child dear,

And have you said aught I did not hear?

Leave other minds, and turn to me;

I never fail to hear or see.

I know, Lord, that from nothing I was made,

And to nothing shall my body come

When in the earth I’m laid;

Yet my soul to thee shall home.

All I have is by thee given;

If thou shouldst ask it of me again,

All shall from me be riven,

Thou shalt not ask in vain.

For, Lord, I do bethink me well

Of thy sacrifice which saved me from hell.

If I must today be plunged in sorrow,

My soul shall rise to thee tomorrow.

VIA CRUCIS

It’s not the flesh alone that can be scourged,

Or the head crowned with thorns.

The spirit, too, can be so used and must accept,

Humbly, such usage in Jesus’ name.

For how shall the soul rise on Easter morn,

That has known no Passion,

And no surrender, totally, of the self?

Aye so, by Christ’s grace and his going before,

Must I abandon ego, and naked to lash and thorn,

By the blood and water from Christ’s side,

Be reborn.

PENSIERO

Truth is a mountain

Whose peak’s concealed in heaven.

Life’s road about it climbing goes

And each new level to me shows

The same vista yet quite new,

When fresh perspective comes into view.

Truth is not simple or got without pains

Until a pilgrim the summit gains.

WASTE

How hungry is youth for ownership;

Impatient for freedom to decide;

Rushing headstrong after mirages,

While Time fleets by her side.

Time passes unseen, mirages subside,

Possessions become obstacles;

How welcome would be a guide

On a dark road to enlighten choice.

The pain of age is vision

When the time for it is past;

And to see a prized possession

Is only a handful of dust.

PRAYER TO THE CHRIST CHILD

Jesus, make Thy cradle in my heart,

Though hard it is, unworthy of Thee.

Forgive my faults, of Thy great mercy,

Forgive my sins of yore and unyore,

Though Thou knowest there will be more.

Dazzle my dull eyes, set my heart alight,

Compassionate my sorry plight –

Too readily I stop, when scarcely I start.

Abounding grace I received from Thee,

Thy gift of words inspired me,

Yet my soul lies barren, its springs dried;

Leave me not, Lord, who for me died.

Each year Thou comest on Christmas Day,

This year, abide with me, Christ Child I pray.

Amen.

INTERPRETED BY LOVE

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love! (J. Greenleaf Whittier)

No prophet, mystic, saint can I ever be,

Voices I hear not, nor visions see;

How shall I interpret the silence of my Lord,

The silence of eternity?

His love is eloquent in wounded hands and feet;

From His piercèd heart love flows so free

That spite of being no mystic,

I must enlightened be.

If self-love bar the door

Or doubt hold fast the key,

The silence of eternity

Shall ever silent be.

IN LENT

Fiery serpent raised on a standard,

symbol of sin and its sentence;

become the source of life to sinners,

wiping out sin and its consequence.

This was the promise long forgotten,

Lost with the Ark and the Covenant.

Into the world God sent his Son

Not to condemn it but to save.

The Father, silent, saw his Son sweat blood,

praying in cruellest agony;

in silence heard Christ’s desolate cry:

“Why hast Thou, my God, forsaken me?”

The Son, true King, true Shepherd, willingly

went to the sacrifice for his flock;

upon himself, God and Man, took the stain

of my sins; with his blood washed me free.

Yet I sin again, failing him, nailing him

to the cross, Christ who slew Death for me.

Every day I resume my stumbling climb

up the hill of Calvary.

On my final ascent of that well-worn road

from sin’s menace I shall be free;

not by the falls will I be judged

but my climb to him nailed to the tree.

Miserere mei, Domine.

PENTECOST I

Love, that took me captive, hold me fast:

the errant sheep that’s apt to lose its way.

Wound deep a heart too soon mended:

may I not rest when from Thee I stray.

Spirit of Light, irradiate me, burn clean

my mind of thought Thou find’st unworthy;

Fount of Life, renew old bones, strengthen

weak flesh, that I may do what Thou bidst me.

Giver of Speech, teach my tongue to be

a channel of the Word which makes us free;

joy in all its fullness shall I never know

until Thy face to me Thou dost show.

PENTECOST II

Come Truth, clear my sight;

the tangle in my mind repair,

its threads reset, that there

Thou mayst abide always.

Fix Thy lamp, Holy Wisdom,

in my soul for evermore,

that the Way I may follow,

not my own as before.

Thy seven gifts bestow,

that thereby, Holy Spirit,

all I need I may know

of the Father, Son and Thee.

Advocate, Comforter,

life’s fount, love’s fire,

to live in Thee, Thou in me,

is all my desire.

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

CANDLE IN THE WINDOW - 1

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