Prayer for a Pure Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. -Matthew 5:8   Lord, build around my heart a wall of grace to sift the daily facts as they come in that nothing but the truth would find a place and nothing but Your love would dwell within.   Refuse despair an entrance to […]

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Goodbye, 2018

The world is waiting in the street— with music, dancing, flashing light. The next in line will rise tonight to take the crown and claim his seat on this hopeful New Year’s Eve.  Did anybody see you leave? Slipping past us in the lane to the darkness and the rain? Did you think we would […]

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A Night of Rowing

Tonight we cross the waters black as coal. We row beneath the stars we blotted out. The only sound—the sloshing of the waves, relentless echoes of the knife-like pain. We row alone like exiles in the dark. And now you speak who know my troubles best. You feel with me the wounds that plague my […]

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Today

The trees look sad today,  lonely on the hill.  The wind played yesterday, but now the air is still.  And the leaves have gone away.    Will you let your faces fall where the leaves have died and fade? Your figures still stand tall though you cannot offer shade.  You shall yet bless us all.  […]

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A Thanksgiving Prayer

We bow our hearts before You, Lord,  in simple thankfulness outpoured for You, our God, have made us rich: You spread your gifts out like the stars—  skies and skies of diamond shards that catch Your light in the dark and shine—  a billion testaments to love that we can only see the edges of.  […]

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Copernicus Poternicus

People: Copernicus Poternicus, how come you deserted us?  We thought you would return with us from the megalopolis.    Copernicus: I could have predicted this confusion by contradicting your conclusion, but you inflicted a contusion  on my delicate constitution. Ay, ay, ay!  My cardiac! My tympanum! My scholastic, core curriculum! My endoplasmic (poor) reticulum! And […]

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Starved Christianity

We gather in the name of Christ to eat,  but leave the main course in the kitchen fridge.  A little sip of truth is all we need, and then the fun—a table of desserts with the coolest toppings—imitation sin,  all the flavor sans the toxins, so  the label said. We laugh and eat and say […]

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When God Says No

When I say no, You say yes—  gently, firmly.  The trees bend to Your wind. And inevitably, my willfulness  will bow like so.    The joys I’ve missed—  Your priceless name, and kind, kind heart, the strongest arms and purest charms, your matchless art— are mine to claim.  Who can resist?    Though wishes press, […]

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Gossip

Once I saw a picture of a man down, his blood pooling on the street while the swarming EMTs took forks and knives to him instead of gauze, butchering a life they could have saved—   Oh God, forgive me . . .   it was a mirror.   

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