Tuesday Prayer Blogging

A westward looking panorama of Albuquerque
December 29 2005

Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be your will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain to your glory and my own salvation, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

-Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer


[From The Communion of the Saints: Prayers of the Famous, ed. Horton Davies]
--the BB

An old poem

Abba Poemen


Dozens of distractions beckon daily, calling me
Out of any purposeful path, saying, “Follow me!”

None of these alluring voices, each mimicking Jesus,
Offers more than a semblance of life.
They ask for my heart but offer nothing in return.

Giving my heart to you
Is scary beyond belief. Do not suppose I
Voice no doubts within my midnight mind,
Each quiet pause a chance to freeze with fear.

You did not ask for my heart, you
Only sent me a compliment,
Unaware of the reaction that would follow, the
Response that went from short notes to love poetry.

How many times have you wondered,
Every day, each night, whether there could possibly be
Any chance for happiness with a stranger from so far away,
Reaching in the darkness for a dream you long pursued,
Too tired to follow and too lonely to give up?

Touching you, eyes connecting first, then dreams, and
Only at the last fingers, lips, bodies,

There seemed some fresh new possibility on this earth,
Hope, long buried, bursting through the fertile soil of old decay.
And what my heart has yearned for seemed present with me
Those few days we were beside each other, facing life.

When I think of our comfort with each other, no need to
Hide anything, freely giving and receiving, playing with some grown-up
Innocence that knows of dangers yet feels strong and unafraid,
Chancing our emotions with each other, testing but not
Hurtful, I stand amazed.

Do you think I now will disbelieve what I saw and felt
Once time and distance settle in like dust to cover
Everything? Memory deceives but I am not that distrustful.
Sitting quietly, something I rarely do, I have a certainty.

Now is the time to see if we can build something
Over the miles, yes, and up close too.
To work together toward a common vision, if we can.

Surely we will test each other’s glorious strengths
And probe each other’s hidden weakness. Frailty too can serve
The good if it is embraced with wisdom and compassion, woven into life.
If we would know what is possible, we must seek what is possible.
Surrendering too soon to finding ways to deny, destroy, and part
Falls prey to all the old ways we have defeated ourselves.
You and I must seek what can be, we have settled far too long for lesser things.

You clown outrageously and make faces for my laughter, but
Oh, when you do not try for effect and simply smile, a radiance
Unfolds that cannot be measured. You also play with
Rage, a force I know and lived with, but not an anger that was cruel.

How far do we want to test, or see how much pain we will sustain?
Easy answers are useless. This I know: my heart requires
A solid sense that you want me. This I offer and know it is
Real: I want you, nobody else. This may change as we explore, but
This is the beginning and ground of the heart’s satisfaction here on earth.


June 14, 2002
[It is an acrostic. Slightly altered to remove names.]

“Do not give your heart
to that which does not
satisfy your heart.”

—Abba Poemen

Abba Poemen was one of the Desert Fathers
famous for his holiness and wisdom.
He lived in the 5th century.

Feast of St Theodore of Tarsus

I am counting on Padre Mickey to be all over this but I have to put in a few words and graphics on behalf of the only (to date) Greek-speaking Archbishop of Canterbury, St Theodore of Tarsus. The photo below is one I took of a window frame in St Lawrence, Hallgarth, showing Abp. Theodore anointing St Cuthbert as bishop.Theodore was a Greek monk who was appointed to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He came to England with Adrian (or Hadrian) the African, a North African monk who headed up the archbishop's school in Canterbury. Together they brought a great deal of scholarship to the English Church. Theodore died on this day in 690 CE.

This was all during a time of incredible cross-fertilization of cultures. The Celtic and Roman usages were still sorting themselves out and influencing each other (it's not as if the Council of Whitby ended all influence). Benedict Biscop had traveled to Rome and brought back not only relics and icons but also imported Italian and Gallic artisans for Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. Celts and Saxons were influencing each other's cultures. It was an era of many saints and a flourishing culture (the Golden Age of Northumbria).

As we look back to those days and the legacy we enjoy from them, perhaps we might be less anxious about the multi-culturalism of our own era and choose instead to rejoice at the riches we enjoy from one another.

You can read more about Theodore here and here and here. For a decidedly different perspective (and one with more than a tint of lavender) there is a fictional work on him here.
Almighty God, you called your servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and gave him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in your Church, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

How timely. Amen and amen.
--the BB