A Soothing Hope
Sunday Collect – April 3, 2022
OH HOPE! by Charlotte Smith
Oh, Hope! thou soother sweet of human woes!
How shall I lure thee to my haunts forlorn!
For me wilt thou renew the withered rose,
And clear my painful path of pointed thorn?
Ah come, sweet nymph! in smiles and softness drest,
Like the young hours that lead the tender year
Enchantress come! and charm my cares to rest:
Alas! the flatterer flies, and will not hear!
A prey to fear, anxiety, and pain,
Must I a sad existence still deplore?
Lo! the flowers fade, but all the thorns remain,
‘For me the vernal garland blooms no more.’
Come then, ‘pale Misery’s love!’ be thou my cure,
And I will bless thee, who though slow art sure.COLLECT
A recap/summary of the week’s prayers and contemplations
MONDAY
We celebrated signs of hope in Monday Whatever list of all things true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise.
TUESDAY
We learned that hope is political with Harvey Milk.
WEDNESDAY
We offered beatitudes of blessings for the realities of everyday life.
THURSDAY
We discovered future hope being grown in a deep Norwegian forest.
FRIDAY
We let our hope settle into eventide with evensong.
SATURDAY
We looked back and returned to places of hope in our weekly examen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer by Roger Courtney
Great divine spirit of love
that is at the core of everything
and from which all life flows,
we acknowledge your healing
and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness
flow through each of us
and enable the realm of love
to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields,
ensure that we have the basics we need to live
and give us the love and commitment to ensure
that others have what they need too.
Give us the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong,
to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt
and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love
to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others
and the work of justice and peace.
Amen
Ms Marcie Avis Walker you have been on fire with hopeful posts for months and the fountain just keeps coming! I am I see of a thousand different facets of it you have brought to the light, new and different ones tumble forth each day in satisfying complexity. I can't help but agree with the spelndor as I read each one. This is helping me recover the joy of learning that filled my world with the magic of the natural worlds wonders as a child. Somehow religion in the hands of well meaning competitors and champions has managed to smash all of the natural wonder out of hope and define it narrowly and exclusively as though it were being branded or required a lack of grounding or disavowal of other institutions. I really appreciate the road you are walking with this as each page unfolds powerfully. That's my commentary and review that I haven't been able to say for a while. There's one other thing I wanted to say about hope of I may. And I'm sorry despite the joy I feel about it, it's going to sound as dry as a piece of toast with no butter or broth. But I first started getting into music a little bit from my father's radio and record player as a third grade boy. My mom had an Aretha Franklin record "Through the Storm" as well as this collaboration of musicians, actors and comedians edited by Phil Donahue's wife Marlo Thomas called Free to be a Family. Then, Back to the Future part 1 soundtrack introduced me to Chuck Berry's Johnny B Good. And even though it was around 1989 or 1990, I remember listening to motown on the radio. I can say all these things brought me joy and hope as a small child, though I didn't know why. Even as a 40 year old adult it remains difficult to talk about what hope has been given to me through parts of worlds of black music and culture that came into my life at different times and that I experienced as hope. It should not be such a hard thing to talk about as a white man and I thank you for allowing me some space here to practice gratitude but also returning to a time of wonder where in midst of life pains as well hope came and as children we marveled.