2007-02-17

Love effects faith and holds hope by overflowing with itself.

1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the
gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to
the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not
delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease;
where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in
part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I
was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see
face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I
am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.
God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

“To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” 1 Timothy 1:17

2007-02-04

frightful night

can't sleep. i don't know what's wrong with me right now. but i'm going to turn out the light again and try to sleep soon. again. gah. i am rather wretched tonight.

born
an old woman
full of aches and pains; death
visited this child
early.

~marykathryn huffman
7/27/04

throat
flesh clenches,
strangling a cry, a
*wail*
of dark despair, crazed
helplessness and rage
a caged animal
stalking, crouched
eyes wild
muscles bunched
knowing there is no
breaking free and
suffering scars as it
sits
motionless: afraid---
i wail, and the tears fall freely
hot, but slow and constant
never stopping,stopping
throat clenches but still
i keen, rocking
rocking
rocking, i don't wish to face this
always,alwaysgive me a book and
sit me in the corner may i live in the
mountains with monks may i go wild
and live in the forest, bathe in the streams can i please may i FREE ME. i am tired of being scarred; a mass of fleshy blood and brain, i wish the status of the living but can never quite attain there's a slow death rattle i carry 'round on my back, crackling, popping, scratching, rattling out the approach of my demise. slow.... so slow.... father give me my new tent
~ romans 12 ~ 1 corinthians 13 ~
'O God, who didst send Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to
live among men, who during His life was tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin; enable us to live as He lived. So fill us
with His Spirit that we may rise above the temptations that
continually beset us. Enable us to remain pure in heart, holy in our
motives, and clean in our living... "We would be true, for there are
those who trust us; we would be pure, for there are those who care; we
would be strong, for there is much to suffer; we would be brave, for
there is much to dare." Thou hast promised we should never be tempted
above that which we are able to bear. Fulfill in us Thy promise.
Through Christ we pray. Amen.'
~rev. harlin m. campbell.