Poets & Saints

Scripture  Joel 2:13 (NRSVUE)  Return to the Lord, your God,  for he is gracious and merciful,  slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,  and relents from punishing.Refrain  I am always welcome in Love.Quote / Poem  Henri Nouwen  “The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge  to let God be God,  to trust in his love unconditionally,  to stop clinging to my own self-sufficiency,  and to rest in the truth that I am already found,  already forgiven,  already loved beyond measure.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Hebrews 13:8 (NRSVUE)  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.Refrain  I am rooted in what cannot be shaken.QuoteJulian of Norwich  “God is the still point at the center.  He holds us fast in His love  and will never let us go.  The soul may be tossed by winds of change,  but she is not lost—  for beneath her feet is the ground of God.”  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  2 Corinthians 4:16 (NRSVUE)  So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away,  our inner nature is being renewed day by day.Refrain  God gives me strength for today.Quote Howard Thurman  “There is in every person something that waits and listens  for the sound of the genuine in herself.  It is the only true guide you will ever have.  And if you cannot hear it,  you will spend all of your days  on the ends of strings  that someone else pulls.  But when you find that strength,  you will endure with grace.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Psalm 13:1 (NRSVUE)  How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?Refrain  In silence, I lean closer.Quote  Mother Teresa  “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence.  See the stars, the moon and the sun,  how they move in silence…  We need silence to be able to touch souls.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Mark 4:27 (NRSVUE)  Night and day, while the farmer sleeps and rises,  the seed sprouts and grows—he does not know how.Refrain  Even now, God is growing something in me.QuoteRainer Maria Rilke  “Everything is gestation and then bringing forth.  To let each impression and each seed of a feeling  come to completion entirely in itself,  in the dark,  in the unsayable,  the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own understanding,  and with deep humility and patience to wait  for the hour when a new clarity is born:  this alone is living the artist’s life—  in understanding as in creating.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Isaiah 30:18 (NRSVUE)  Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;  therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of justice;  blessed are all those who wait for him.Refrain  God is not in a hurry. And He is not far.Quote  Henri Nouwen  “Patience is not waiting passively until something happens.  Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest,  to be completely present to the moment,  to taste the here and now,  to be where we are.  When we are impatient,  we try to get away from where we are.  We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow,  later, and somewhere else.  Let’s be patient and trust  that the treasure we look for is hidden  in the ground on which we stand.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Psalm 27:4 (NRSVUE)  One thing I asked of the Lord,  that will I seek after:  to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,  to behold the beauty of the Lord,  and to inquire in his temple.Refrain  Beauty is how God speaks to my soul.QuoteSt. John of the Cross  “I did not know the source of the stream  that flowed so gently and sweetly within me.  But in its clarity I came to see:  the Beloved was near.  And in that beauty,  my soul became still,  and the stillness spoke more than words.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Acts 17:28 (NRSVUE)  For “In him we live and move and have our being”;  as even some of your own poets have said,  “For we too are his offspring.”Refrain  God is here. Everywhere. Always.QuotePierre Teilhard de Chardin  “There is nothing profane  for those who have learned to see.  The presence of God  is not more in the sanctuary  than it is in the city street,  or in the quiet breath before sleep.We are not waiting for the sacred to appear—  we are learning to recognize it.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Luke 24:32 (NRSVUE)  They said to each other,  “Were not our hearts burning within us  while he was talking to us on the road,  while he was opening the scriptures to us?”Refrain  My heart burns with divine presence.QuoteFrederick Buechner  “Pay attention to the things that bring a tear to your eye  or a lump in your throat.  They are signs that the holy is drawing near.  God speaks through our hunger,  our ache,  our awe.  And sometimes,  a burning heart is the clearest sign  that He has been walking beside us all along.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Psalm 8:3–4 (NIV)  When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers,  the moon and the stars,  which you have set in place,  what is mankind that you are mindful of them,  human beings that you care for them?Refrain  Let wonder wake me to God.QuoteAbraham Joshua Heschel  “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement...  to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.  Everything is phenomenal;  everything is incredible;  never treat life casually.  To be spiritual is to be amazed.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Ephesians 1:18 (NRSVUE)  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,  so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,  what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.Refrain  God, open the eyes of my heart.QuoteSt. Augustine  “Late have I loved you, Beauty so old and so new,  late have I loved you!  And see, you were within me, and I was in the external world  and sought you there,  and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things  which you made.  You were with me,  but I was not with you.”Open our eyes, O God,  to the beauty that has always been near. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Luke 22:42 (NRSVUE)  “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me;  yet, not my will but yours be done.”Refrain  I let go, and God holds what I release.QuoteKahlil Gibran, from *The Prophet*  “You would know the secret of death.  But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?For life and death are one,  even as the river and the sea are one.  In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;  And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow,  your heart dreams of spring.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Isaiah 26:3 (NRSVUE)  You keep in perfect peace  those whose minds are stayed on you,  because they trust in you.Refrain  My soul is held in stillness.QuoteRabindranath Tagore  “The storm whispers,  but the heart must listen for the stillness.  Peace does not come when the world grows quiet.  It comes when the soul grows deep.Do not chase peace.  Dig for it.  Find it beneath your striving,  beneath your fear.  It has been waiting for you all along.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Psalm 23:1 (NIV)  The Lord is my shepherd,  I lack nothing.Refrain  In God, I have enough.QuoteDallas Willard  “The Lord is my Shepherd  is a sentiment that has become so familiar  we often miss the audacity of it.  To say, 'I shall not want,'  is to live as if everything I need  will be provided  when I need it—  not in anxiety,  but in sufficiency.  Not in scarcity,  but in trust.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Matthew 11:28 (NRSVUE)  “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,  and I will give you rest.”Refrain  Rest is a sacred act of trust.Quote  Wayne Muller  “In the relentless busyness of modern life,  we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.  All life requires a rhythm of rest.  There is rhythm in our waking and sleeping,  there is rhythm in the way day follows night and night follows day.We have forgotten the Sabbath,  the day of rest,  the gift of sacred stillness.  It is not a reward for finishing.  It is a gift given,  whether we’ve finished or not.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  John 20:21 (NRSVUE)  Jesus said to them again,  “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me,  so I send you.”Refrain  I am sent in love to love.Quote Teresa of Avila  “Christ has no body now but yours.  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.  Yours are the eyes with which he looks  compassion on this world.  Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,  yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Jude 1:1 (NRSVUE)  To those who are called,  who are beloved in God the Father  and kept safe for Jesus Christ.Refrain  I am kept by Love that does not let go.QuoteJulian of Norwich  “God did not say, ‘You will not be troubled.’  He did not say, ‘You will not be tempted, you will not be distressed.’  But He said, ‘You will not be overcome.’All shall be well,  and all shall be well,  and all manner of things shall be well.”  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Luke 16:10 (NRSVUE)  Whoever is faithful in a very little  is faithful also in much;  and whoever is dishonest in a very little  is dishonest also in much.Refrain  In small things, I stay faithful.QuoteWendell Berry, from *Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front*  “Every day do something  that won’t compute.  Love the Lord.  Love the world.  Work for nothing.  Plant sequoias.  Say that your main crop is the forest  that you did not plant,  that you will not live to harvest.  Practice resurrection.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Matthew 6:22 (NRSVUE)  The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy,  your whole body will be full of light.Refrain  In simplicity, I find God again.Quote  Thomas R. Kelly  “Life is meant to be lived from a Center,  a divine Center.  Each of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace,  of integration and confidence and simplicity.We need not get frantic.  He is at the helm.  And when our little day is done  we lie down quietly in peace,  for all is well.”   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture  Galatians 5:25 (NIV)  Since we live by the Spirit,  let us keep in step with the Spirit.Refrain  I move in rhythm with the Spirit.QuoteHoward Thurman  “There is something in every one of you  that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.  It is the only true guide you will ever have.  And if you cannot hear it,  you will spend your days on the ends of strings  that someone else pulls.”  The Spirit leads from within.  Not with fear,  but with the rhythm of grace.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.