grace

I do not understand the mystery of grace,

only that it meets us where we are

and does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

image : Alice Christie

thy mighty glow

Monstrance

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52)

Thee, God, I come from, to thee go,
All day long I like fountain flow
From thy hand out, swayed about
Mote-like in thy mighty glow.


Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889)

image : © President and Fellows of Harvard College

our mortal nature

Noah welcomes the dove back to the ark

Ely Cathedral

O God,

the strength of all those who put their trust in you,

mercifully accept our prayers

and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature

we can do no good thing without you,

grant us the help of your grace,

that in the keeping of your commandments

we may please you both in will and deed;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

[Collect : First Sunday after Trinity]

Common Worship

© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2000-2005

humble access

Detail from the Holy Blood Altar

St. Jakobs Church, Rothenburg

Tilman Riemenschneider (c.1460-1531)

We do not presume to come to this thy Table,
O merciful Lord,

trusting in our own righteousness,

but in thy manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy so much as
to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.

But thou art the same Lord,
whose property is always to have mercy:

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,

so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ,
and to drink his blood,

that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,

and our souls washed through his most precious blood,

and that we may evermore dwell in him,
and he in us.
Amen.

Prayer of Humble Access

1662 version

i thank you God

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any—lifted from the no

of all nothing—human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings (1894–1962)

image : Alice Christie

morning star

The Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh

Christ is the morning star
who, when the night of this world is past,
brings to his saints the promise of the light of life
and opens everlasting day.

St. Bede (672 - 735)

from the Commentary on the Book of Revelation (c710)

sermon by The Revd Canon David Kennedy
Durham 25 May 2008

a few moments

Roses

P. S. Krøyer 1893

There should be, even in the busiest day, a few moments when we can close our eyes and let God possess us. There should be moments at least when we become more conscious of his presence, when we become more conscious of it as the only reality, the only thing that will last forever.

The Comforting of Christ
Caryll Houselander (1954)

quoted by Magdalen Smith in Fragile Mystics (2015)

enlarge our minds

Trinity

Lance McNeel

Holy God,

faithful and unchanging:

enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,

and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,

that we may truly worship you,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

sub tuum praesidium

Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

Enguerrand Quarton

Musée du Louvre

We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;
despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen

Traditional

something I can't not do

St Mary the Virgin, Wansford

Vocation at its deepest level is:

'This is something I can't not do,

for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else

and don't fully understand myself

but that are nonetheless compelling.'

Parker J. Palmer

Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

image : Alice Christie