לְהִשְׁתּוֹקֵק

oh L-rd,

i will tear the heart of my soul in two
and You must lay therein
You must lay yourself
in the wounds of my soul.

-mechtild of magdeburg.

hidden.

"where are you? do you know that the heart has a dungeon? bring light! bring light!"

-mary oliver.

kingdom.

"the ascetics of qumran and the pharisees thought that the kingdom would come because they were not as other men. Jesus taught that it would not come until they recognised that they WERE as other men." 

-a.n. wilson.

take no rest and give no rest.

"upon your walls, o Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen,
who shall never be silent
by day or by night.
o you, the L-RD's remembrancers,
take no rest
and give no rest to Him,
until He establish Jerusalem
and make her renowned on earth."

-isaiah 62.

judge not.

"Both pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged."

-abraham lincoln.

the old poets of china

wherever i am, the world comes after me.
it offers me its busyness.  it does not believe
that i do not want it.  now i understand
why the old poets of china went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.

-mary oliver.

deep beneath our asking.

"How can we pray to you, holy and hidden God, whose ways are not our ways, who reigns in awful mystery beyond the realm of space and time?  Yet how can we not pray to you, Mighty Father, who knows what it is to be man because you have walked among us as man, breaking with us the bread of our affliction and drinking deep of the cup of despair? 

Hear, O God, the prayers of all your children everywhere: for forgiveness and healing, for courage, for faith; prayers for peace among the desperate nations. Whether you give or withhold what we ask, whether you answer us in words that burn like fire or in silence that burns like fire, increase us in the knowledge that you are always more near to us than breathing, that your will for us is love.

And deep beneath our asking, so deep beneath that we are all but deaf to it ourselves, hear, O God, the secret song of every human heart praising you for being what you are, rejoicing with the morning stars that you are our God and we are your children.  Make strong and wild this secret song within until it bursts forth at last to your glory and our saving.

Through Jesus Messiah our Lord.

Amen."

-a prayer by frederick buechner.