Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;
Engine against th’ Almightie, sinners towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;
Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The Milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices; something understood.
As much as I love C.S. Lewis, and those of you who know me know I love his writings quite well... beyond Narnia... even into Perelandra, and Til We Have Faces, etc. This poem, however, by George Herbert (part of the Temple written in 1633) speaks to my heart so much. Herbert was a tremendous influence on T.S. Eliot and the theologian, Richard Hooker. Eliot calls the last two lines of this poem... magical
I know I've prayed and felt all these things during praying. After my Mom's aneurism and other details of that time... I prayed in that angry, raging way he describes as the "reversed thunder". The wonderful thing about this, is that whatever our prayer is... it is always understood.
Even when we cannot express ourselves... the Holy Spirit will intercede and interpret our "souls bloud" so that we are understood. (Romans 8:26-27) What a gift! We may not and likely will not understand everything... but... we are understood.
Be Blessed!
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3 comments:
'We will know even as we are known." That's what you are talking about, isn't it? Those words fill me with, I don't know...something...joy, hope, peace...the knowledge of grace.
We are known.
Maggie (going away now to read Herbert)
Yep... we are known.
Can I admit that I've read this 3 times and it is still over my head? I think I need to get my head out of my easy reading and start making my mind work. Some day, I'll join you in the land of intelligence!
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