Lent Week 4, Day 2: The Entrance of Beauty
- Donna
- 23 hours ago
- 2 min read
Do not remember the former things
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
(Isaiah 43:18-19, NRSV)
Mornings at Blackwater
For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt,
the feet of ducks.
And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.
What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.
So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.
And live
your life.
(Mary Oliver)
In his book "Beauty: The Invisible Embrace" John O'Donohue shares:
"No person is a finished thing...
Each one of us is in a state of perennial formation.
Carried within the flow of time,
you are coming to be who you are
in every new emerging moment."
Our lives are continually unfolding, day by day, moment by moment. As the song below proclaims: we are new every morning! What an extraordinary gift! We are constantly becoming who we most truly are, and God is faithful to our emerging.
New Every Morning (Porter's Gate)
You are not what you have done
Or what has been done to you
You are something like the rising sun
Can't you see that you are new
You might have your father’s name
Or bear the shame he left behind
But there's new life flowing through your veins
Leave some room to be surprised
Chorus:
You are new every morning
You are new every morning
Each day a resurrection waiting to break through
You could try just for a start
To put the judge back on thе shelf
All the lovingkindness in your hеart
Have a little for yourself
Chorus
You think hope is lost but it's just underground
The flame might be an ember but the fire won’t go out
All the evidence is pointing to the truth
That daily resurrection is still happening in you
Chorus
Closing Blessing: For Presence (by John O'Donohue)
Awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift
woven around the heart of wonder.
Resources:
John O'Donohue, Beauty, The Invisible Embrace. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2004
Mary Oliver, Red Bird: Poems, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2008, p. 57
John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us, New York, NY: Doubleday, 2008, p. 42
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