Dear All,
This week we are offering you something about journeying, travelling. I think it is because I have an awareness of time passing swiftly at the moment. Very soon we will be celebrating All Saints & then it will be less than a month before the end of the Church’s year & the beginning of Advent & we will be heading for 2022………
The attachments look at the notion of travel, of pilgrimage, of journey which is not just about destination but also about the actual travelling. We have included an interesting poem ‘The Journey’ by Tagore.
Our blessing is ‘Bless to me, O God’ from Heavenly Peace. Let’s pray it for ourselves as we continue our journey & for those struggling to find their way at present.
Bless to me. O God, the earth beneath my feet
Bless to me. O God, the path on which I go.
Bless to me. O God, the thing of my desire;
O Evermore of Evermore, bless to me my life.
With our love
A Pilgrim’s Companion Psalm
The road home, O God, seems long
and at times is difficult and painful.
Grant me a holy communion, a companionship with others,
as I journey homeward to you.
I live in times of great trial:
an age of change sits at my door.
I can so easily loose the way,
can be led astray by illusions of holiness,
misguided by my ego’s desires.
Open my eyes to your precious gift
of the Church’s Communion of Saints.
“Saint” is a name I would never call myself,
but the treasury of my faith
teaches me about my holy birthright,
that I am part of the web of sacred communion,
uniting me with all other home-bound pilgrims
and with all who now rejoice
at their homecoming in you.
May I feed this day upon the food
of this mystic, holy communion
with those friends and fellow pilgrims
with whom I share this planet Earth,
as well as those saints now fully one with you.
May this awareness of my companion journey
with all the saints
deepen my life of prayer
and fertilize my faith in you, my Beloved.
By this communion of holy ones
may I be daily challenged
to greater compassion and charity
as I walk the way of the pilgrim.
Journeying
Susan Sayers
Think over the promise that Jesus has made to you: Look I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.
We are a pilgrim people, a travelling people, followers of the Way.
And ‘I am the Way’, says the Lord.
Lord, not only do you lead the way; you are the Way. Through you & in you, is the Way of Love; through you & in you is the Way of Life.
Whatever the terrain of your life-journey, you can walk it in the company of Jesus, so that he becomes your route. You can travel on him, in him & with him.
Lord, you have always led your people, & travelled with them. You called Abraham from the city to the desert. Jacob discovered your closeness in his loneliness as he fled from Esau; when Moses & the people of Israel travelled in the wilderness, you went before them always – a pillar of cloud by day & by night a pillar of fire.
You are there at our going out & our coming in, & we thank you. When our lives are at a crossroads, you will be our signpost. When we are lost & don’t know our way out – you are there. When the road is uphill & steep, we can lean on you. When our lives are nearing their end – you will be there. Lord, you are our Way.
Take us on our journey
from where we are to what you want us to be;
so that we become a community
where all are welcomed and no one is excluded,
all are valued and no one is made to feel inadequate,
all are forgiven and no one is ashamed to belong,
all are encouraged and no one is too hurt to come among us.
Lead us on our journey
from who we are to who you want us to be;
so that patience is built into us,
kindness is assumed in us,
gentleness is part of us,
compassion flows from us,
truth is second nature to us,
and the commitment of love is part of us.
Let us go gladly on the journey towards Easter –
the journey towards death and resurrection.
Let us journey in the peace and power of the Spirit.
~ by Ruth Harvey
The Journey
by Rabindranath Tagore
The morning sea of silence broke into ripples of bird songs;
and the flowers were all merry by the roadside;
and the wealth of gold was scattered through the rift of the clouds
while we busily went on our way and paid no heed.
We sang no glad songs nor played;
we went not to the village for barter;
we spoke not a word nor smiled;
we lingered not on the way.
We quickened our pace more and more as the time sped by.
The sun rose to the mid sky and doves cooed in the shade.
Withered leaves danced and whirled in the hot air of noon.
The shepherd boy drowsed and dreamed in the shadow of the banyan tree,
and I laid myself down by the water
and stretched my tired limbs on the grass.
My companions laughed at me in scorn;
they held their heads high and hurried on;
they never looked back nor rested;
they vanished in the distant blue haze.
They crossed many meadows and hills,
and passed through strange, far-away countries.
All honour to you, heroic host of the interminable path!
Mockery and reproach pricked me to rise,
but found no response in me.
I gave myself up for lost
in the depth of a glad humiliation
—-in the shadow of a dim delight.
The repose of the sun-embroidered green gloom
slowly spread over my heart.
I forgot for what I had travelled,
and I surrendered my mind without struggle
to the maze of shadows and songs.
At last, when I woke from my slumber and opened my eyes,
I saw thee standing by me, flooding my sleep with thy smile.
How I had feared that the path was long and wearisome,
and the struggle to reach thee was hard!