God's Messages of Hope

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Joana Choumali – The Return of the Swallows

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INVOCATION

Spirit, come. You’re welcome here. 

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EPIPHANY

An epiphanic word of hope from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God:

You are the future, 
the red sky before sunrise 
over the fields of time. 

You are the cock’s crow when night is done, 
you are the dew and the bells of matins, 
maiden, stranger, mother, death. 

You create yourself in ever-changing shapes  
that rise from the stuff of our days—
unsung, unmourned, undescribed, 
like a forest we never knew. 

You are the deep innerness of all things, 
the last word that can never be spoken. 
To each of us you reveal yourself differently: 
to the ship as coastline, to the shore as a ship.

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PRAYER

Creator, 
In ever-changing shapes that rise from the stuff of our days…
you are constantly sending of us messages of hope.
May we rise and take notice,
watch for them with expectation, 
and believe the hope we see in them. 

Amen.