Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Afternoon Prayer

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.
(Prayer of Sir Francis Drake)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever.
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;*
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet 'well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Monday, March 07, 2011

I have discovered Scrap-booking

and I am having fun with it! Digital scrap-booking is probably going to be my norm, however, I am also dealing with the boxes and bags full of photographs that I have floating around the house -- as well as the "non-archival" photo albums that I stopped building about 10 years ago. I am going to redo most of those photo-albums, as I get time. I'm in a "working backwards" sort of mood; I'm starting with the youngest pictures in iPhoto and trying to do one year at a time. I've purchased four 12 by 12 inch scrapbooks and will add the two 8.5 by 11 scrapbooks I purchased today to the collection.

Of course, this has all been a result of my "Project Order from Chaos" that I started at the beginning of the year. I've not posted any lists or photos since the end of January; I may do that in a few minutes, but that does not mean that I am not going ahead with the project. In a way, I realized that the documentation of the journey is important, but I have been concentrating on the DOING and the BEING of it rather than the recording of it.

I have been in this process for quite a while. I wrote about it back in 2004. It's been more than 6 years since I started this reforming/transforming/reshaping of self. I've lost the ability to use words about the whole thing; I find myself steeped in a sort of silence.

The scrap-booking is another form of self-therapy; it helps me form tangible items to represent memory. The further back I go, the deeper I go, the more unveiled the purpose seems to be. One day maybe I'll have words for all this.