Meditation on Approaching the Manger (Little Canticle 4)

We look towards your cradle, Lord Jesus and at ourselves, people of your bountiful creation. How many of us would find our way to Bethlehem?

There would be those of us who would not heed the message of the angels; we would demand proof first.

Some would spend much time talking about the journey but would never make a start.

There would be those of us who could not find time for such a venture; and those who would start but be diverted by material distractions on the way.

On arrival, some would not enter such a dirty place because it offended our sensibilities.

And if we did make our way into the stable, some would be too proud to kneel before a pauper-child.

O God of the manger, help me to find and follow the way and worship.

Give me then, gracious God, the simple faith of the shepherds; the obedience of Mary; the patience of Joseph and the determination of the Eastern sages to find the truth of the incarnation.

Give me Christ-like willingness to dare to touch and experience all human conditions; determination to worship you wherever I may be; actions which follow the Godly intentions you implant and a humility that imitates that of the kings.

Deliver me, compassionate God, from the massive carelessnesses that afflict so many of us in the western world in our futile search for "a better quality of life": That, can only come from one source: and that Source was laid within a cradle in Bethlehem.

This is the latest addition to The Cross and Cosmos Christmas collection which has 10 contemporary carols and 3 assembly/ all age activities among other Advent, Christmas and Epiphany material. You can access it HERE

Your Love, O God, is So All-embracing (Little Canticle 9)

Altar Cross beside Galilee

Your love, O God, is so all-embracing, I cannot fully comprehend it.

Your beauty is so glorious that I dare not look on it.

Your wisdom is so deep, I cannot broach it.

Your power is so justly exercised, I marvel at its equity.

Your creation is so magnificent, I am in constant awe of it.

O tender Saviour, Gracious Comforter, Divine Creator,

let me, your wondering creature,

bear the testimony of your love,

beauty, wisdom and power;

that those who know me

may understand it is your nature that inspires me,

and your mercy that upholds me, all my days.

Praise Song to the God of Heaven & the cosmos

Praise to our Lord, the God of heaven and God of the Cosmos.

Praise him for the creation of matter and life.

Praise him for the gifts of light and darkness enabling us to see the wonders of daytime and the marvels of the night.

Praise him for the multiplicity of sounds, which both delight and jar on the ear.

Praise him for perfumes and aromas that are delicate and evocative and those which warn of the distasteful and the dangerous.

Praise him for the wonders of touch; for sensations of smoothness, roughness, wetness, dryness, slipperiness, and of heat and cold.

Praise him for the marvel of taste: drawing delight, discerning the unpleasant; distinguishing sweetness, bitterness, saltiness and sourness.

Praise him for our evolution into creatures that have the ability to reason and the capacity for awe and wonder; the privilege of exploring the heights and depths of existence, the magnificence of the cosmos and the glory of God.

Praise the Lord.  

Similar themes explored in the sonnet 'Evolution and Beauty' Click here

Original Introduction: Recently in our Home Group we enjoyed looking closely at Psalm 150 - that great psalm of praise. As we talked, we recognised that giving praise can bring joy in its wake and that it might be good to think about how each of us might express our praise to our God in our own words.

That coincided for me, with thinking about how I might celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the start of this blog - and I rapidly realised I had been presented with a hugely appropriate theme. So I offer you this Praise Song

And other poems, meditations and songs with a SCIENCE & FAITH theme can be accessed HERE

God of Liberty (Little Canticle 8)

From time to time, I find myself reminded of how fortunate those of us are who experience the freedom to worship without the fear of reprisal. Here is a short meditation for anyone who truly appreciates that freedom - and for those for whom it seems just a dream.

Little Canticle 8

God of liberty, you have bestowed on us in The West a wonderful freedom; we are privileged to enjoy more liberty than most others at any time in the whole of history.

Give us a deep sense of that privilege; show us how to use it to support those who are not free.

Let us bring prayers for all the world's suffering peoples and keep our fellow Christians who cannot worship you openly, constantly before you.

Comfort them in their anguish; strengthen them iagainst their fear.

Protect their friends and their relatives; show them your face; give them your peace.

Let them share your capacity to love enemies and thus to be ambassadors of your great love among the powers of darkness.

Other 'Little Canticles', meditations in this format, can be found here

A Canticle of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. (Little Canticle 109)

An acrostic meditation.

Jesus is Lord! Let the whole universe proclaim it.   Jesus is Lord! Let the whole earth rejoice.

Eternity is his dwelling place: there he reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory

Salvation comes through him alone: to those who love him and acknowledge him to be the Lord, he has promised eternal life.

Unbounded love is poured out on us from the throne of his cross: on that tree of shame he died for you and for me.

"Surely, this was the Son of God!" His words, his works, his humility, his love, his understanding, his birth, his death, his resurrection, his ascension all testify to this recognition, voiced by a Roman centurion.

Creation was by his hand: he stands at the very firmament of time.

Happy, blessed and to be envied are those who acknowledge him with the simple trust of a child.

Risen from death by the power of the Holy Spirit, he assured us of life eternal.

Immortal, invisible, the only wise God: in light now inaccessible to our eyes, he is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit

Supplication to our God is made through him, perfect God and perfect man: he is our intermediary before the throne of grace,

Thanksgiving and praise are his proper due: O raise your heart and your voice to him at all times and in all places.

Sacrificed for you and for me, he pleads for us and upholds us as his chosen ones.

O for a thousand tongues, to sing this great redeemer's praise.

Nothing is impossible to him who made us, sustains us and redeems us: he can break through the ramparts of evil to save us from the depths of sin.

Ostracised, despised and rejected by us, his love still stretches out, as it did from his brutal murder upon a cross.

Forgiveness is his, for all who seek it, in humility and truth.

God of God, Light of Light, existing before the creation of the world: yet he knows you and me with loving intimacy.

Omega and Alpha, both the end and the beginning, is he.

Death has no more dominion over us, through his resurrection triumph.

‘Suffering servant’ and ‘King of Kings’ tell of his Godly paradoxes.

Almighty, Victorious; yet led as a lamb to the slaughter.

Very God of very God; Mysterious in his condescending to come to earth and sublime in his abandonment of power.

Immaculate in every way; yet knowing every temptation through his own human experience

Obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

Uplifted on the cross, even for me, sinner that I am.

Resurrected also for me; through him I live in complete assurance of eternal life. Praise God for his gift of Jesus, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Other Little Canticles (similar in format) can be accessed HERE

An Advent/ Lenten Confession (Little Canticle 1)

Gracious God, I am your servant; make the service I render fully worthy.

Let every moment I live be in witness to you; for you have brought me back to your ways.

You looked at me, in your deep love when I had let chaos reign in my life; you restored it to order.

You made me know your presence and gave me assurance of your love for me; I felt your closeness.

Your scarred hands held me; I gazed upon your pierced brow.

Your forgiveness overwhelmed me; for I had forsaken the way I know to be yours.

But, gracious God, now you have brought me back to you, I know I have a great responsibility.

A calling to proclaim your name and your love; wherever I may be.

My God, in whom I trust, send your Holy Spirit upon me that I may fulfil your calling.

Open my mouth, O mighty God, ever to  be singing your praise and of your glory.

A Meditation on Time (Little Canticle 3)

O God, my God, help me to make time to be with you: even though I am so easily drawn to other preoccupations.

We are, uniquely of all creatures, governed by time: time seems always to be at a premium

We are ruled by the hours, they run very swiftly; there never seems enough time for all we want to do.

We find it difficult to "make" time for those who need us: be they our neighbours, friends.  parents, children, or others close to us.

It is said that "time is money": all too easily we accept that, knowing it should be fiercely challenged.

We seek to save time: to spend it in idleness.

Time becomes a tyrant, consumed with purposeless pursuits. It is too easy to be a bad steward of time;

Time is precious yet absurdly becomes an enemy: its pressure felt at every moment of the day.

In the midst of the hubbub of our lives; it is you, God of all time and eternity, to whom we do not give time.

Look upon me, mighty God, from your timeless realm and show pity on my time-bound life.

Give me a concept of eternity; that puts our tiny time into perspective.

Let me understand that to rest in you for even a brief while, can enable me to cast off the shackles of time and share in the calm of your peace.

Other Little Canticles (similar in format) can be accessed HERE

LITTLE CANTICLE 128: You allow my prayer to span the vastness of Creation

In August 2013, I went on a mixed-media painting and prayer retreat organised by CARM, the Creative Arts Retreat Movement (link at end). It was marvellous to have the time to reacquaint myself with acrylics, enjoy the evening-prayer-to-after-breakfast times of silence and have unhurried time for reflection: it was restorative and refreshing. One of the  pieces of work I produced entitled 'Gaseous Cosmic Threads' is shown here

Threads of gas, far, far, far more complex than these weave their way through the universe. The image and poem provide an opportunity to reflect on the nature of a God whose realm is The Cosmos, and on our individuality as His beloved child. 

LITTLE CANTICLE 128

You allow my prayer to span the vastness of Creation: to be heard above the roar of the rolling spheres.

Amidst the noises of a billion, billion stars and planets, You hear my complaints

No crisis of creation bars my supplication nor the supplications of a million fellow intercessors.

You are constantly available, listening to the prayers of Your people: desiring for them all that is godly, wholesome and true.

You, the Eternal Spirit, The Three in One God, are infinitely watchful for me, ready to hear me whenever I call

Joyful when I worship and incomprehensibly, at the same time, sharing sadness that  precipitates others into fervent prayer: there is no end to the supplications you can receive, hear, and act upon in an instant.

You dispense consolation to one, courage to another, understanding to yet another, and a myriad of gifts in the same moment, all out of Your great love.

May I submit to that love, allow myself to be overwhelmed by it and be a cause of it enveloping others; that they too may understand a little of this mighty, Godly, enfolding.

• Other Little Canticles (similar format) can be found HERE
  
• The Creative Arts Retreat Movement (UK) can be found here
• If you are attracted by the idea of a gentle holiday/retreat in the near future in Umbria, you might like to look at the website of friends of ours who run a small retreat house near Assisi and Perugia. Topics are varied and shown on the website here

For an index of all poems on this blog with an astronomy/ cosmology theme Click here

In the Deep and Dark Recesses of Space (Little Canticle 22)

A song of praise to the 'Maker of Heaven and earth and the entire cosmos'

LITTLE CANTICLE 22

In the deep and dark recesses of space, God moves.

In the whirling orderliness of galaxies, God moves.

In the precise and sensitive balances which hold planetary and galactic systems together, God moves.

In the continuously gigantic forces which fashion and refashion stars, God moves.

In conditions of turmoil in the firmament which confound our understanding, God moves.

In the preservation of the cosmic vastness, God moves.

In the gift of light across the universe and to a darkened world, God moves.

Yet amidst these cosmic realities he is mindful of humanity: he gave his Son to suffer our woes and his Spirit to comfort us.

How can we comprehend the substance of one so great? Who could destroy the universe with a word?

Whose great love has not only given all that we can see and hear on earth and in the depths of space, but far, far more.

Is it little wonder angels worship him? Or that saints give everlasting praise?

Yet this is a God who hears us if we call upon him: He will bid us, "Come".

Not into the great turmoil of incomprehension; but into the tiny stillness of expectant silence.

Open our hearts and our minds, O God; to see your hand in the universe and hear your voice in the quietness of contemplation.

Another meditation on the greatness of God at work in the Universe can be found at Galaxies Tell of Your Might

Other poems, meditations and songs with a SCIENCE & FAITH theme can be accessed HERE

Little Canticle 115 (An A-Z meditation)

Having recently penned CURIOSITY as an acrostic meditation to celebrate the landing of the Mars rover, (You can click through to it from the Alphabetic index), I was reminded that a little while back I wrote a meditation that reflected one of the styles of a few of the Psalms (seven of them). The reflection begins with A and works its way through the English alphabet to Z.

LITTLE CANTICLE 115 (An A to Z meditation)

Almighty God, Creator, Saviour and redeemer of all people, we bless your Holy Name.

Beauty and Harmony come from you, O God: they are ours to enjoy and the enjoyment is deeper when we see you in them.

Creator of the whole universe, we owe everything to you: if we could give you all that we can see, touch and enjoy, it would not be enough to repay your love for us.

Daily, let us come before you to render worship and praise for all your loving kindness.

Earth, moon, planets and stars all formed as you desired: things both seen and unseen rejoice to be part of your creation.

First and last, last and first; you were there at the beginning and will be there at the end. Eternity is yours and only yours, O Everlasting God.

Great and wonderful are your deeds: may we be open to comprehending their source.

Holiness is your habitation and heaven your kingdom. By your grace alone we are invited to be dwellers there.

Immortal, invisible, the only wise God, hidden by light: and the fountain of light both in heaven and on earth.

Justice is your desire, O Lord. You hate those who thrive by the imposition of oppression and wickedness.

Kindness and mercy are yours, so we can fearlessly acknowledge your might and power: we willingly subject ourselves to your reign, for we know you are just and merciful.

Love is from your heart and about your throne. It was love that brought perfect God and perfect man to the humility and agony of the cross. That is the assurance of your boundless love for us.

Marvellous are the works of your hands, wrought by the power of your Holy Spirit. The Spirit's presence with us is an reminder of your continual love.

No-one can bear the sight of your face. It is too beautiful, too glorious and radiates transcendent splendour. We can hope, only, for a glimpse of that magnificence until we come to our eternal rest with you.

Omniscience is yours alone, O God: everything in heaven and on earth is known to you; yes, even the deep secrets of all our hearts.

Praise, O praise, our God who reigns: three persons in one God, who is in everything that is good and shuns all that is evil.

Quietness and stillness are his gifts: into these he speaks and through them we can prepare to receive the peace of knowing his presence.

Resurrection life is ours, through Jesus, your Son. We thank you for this unfathomable gift.

Salvation comes through you alone. Through Jesus it is assured and when we seek him, we can live in the peace of that assurance.

Thanksgiving, honour and praise are yours by right, O mighty God: we thank you for Jesus who showed us what You are like by his presence here amongst us: God, incarnate, made manifest.

Universal praise will be yours in the last days, when the end and the beginning of all things meet in the triumph of Christ's second coming.

Very God of Very God, we wait upon your glorious return.

When that day comes, we pray we will be ready to be swept into its cosmic triumph.

X, the sign of the Cross, points us to that day. We rejoice in it because, already, by it, Christ has conquered death and sin.

Yesterday, today and forever are gathered in your hand, O God. You are at our beginning and at our end. You are our history, our present and our future and we wait upon the time of your return.

Zeal for you, Lord is the mark of our waiting. Zeal that spills out from us upon all nations, so they may be gathered into your holy kingdom and to the fullness of your promise.

Other Little Canticles (similar format) can be accessed HERE

When I Consider the Universe (Little Canticle 123)

LITTLE CANTICLE 123

When I consider the universe and all the works of your hands, I reel at the vastness of them.

I cannot comprehend the distances involved nor the vastness of the myriad of galactic systems.

That deep sweep of space overwhelms me: the notion of billions of stars in their countless and unsuspended dances takes the breath from my body.

Even in this, our tiny system within its starry spiral is impenetrability; before the commencement of the boundaries measurable only in multiples of the speed of light.

All of this and so much more sprang into being at your word: far beyond it all, is the mystery of eternity.

All we can observe is but a shadow of the eternal Kingdom: yet even the immensity of the observable universe is too bold and too beautiful for us to begin to comprehend

We cannot know what beauty there is, but only guess: the exquisite formations of interstellar gas clouds are the work of an imagination so artistic that it cannot be lauded in human terms; it demands the acclaim of unfettered worship

Worship that can, itself, soar into the heavens and turn every mystery of those unknown realms into a mighty song of cosmic praise.

Worship that strives to express the immensity of the unknown; that grasps at the inconceivable boundaries, knowing that it has to penetrate beyond the deepest limits of the material creation.

O how very, very great this makes you, creator God! How far beyond the reaches of our minds!

Almost any condition we could imagine must be contained in your created order. What lofty splendours burgeon in worlds of low gravity? What spectacles of tininess adorn the dense cover where gravity is strong.

What beautifies worlds of intense heat and what spectacular barrenness clothes the unthinkably cold planets?

Because they all sprang from your hand they will be beyond our most vivid dreams, glorious and harmonious as are all your wonderful works.

So utterly beyond the boundaries of carping, grasping humanity, which has sown so many seeds of destruction in this minute corner of your vast creation.

Yet for all this wilfulness, all our unwillingness to be caught into the drama of the worshipful invitation to consider the works of your hands, you love every one of us as we build our self-bound edifices. You forgive us for not setting ourselves free in flights of Creator-praise.

Forgive us our blindness to the vastness, O Lord: forgive us our unwillingness to gaze on your goodness and adore you: forgive us our wilful exclusion of You from Your creation.

Then, Lord, in that mercy, which stretches even beyond the known and the unknown, lift the scales from our eyes, the pettiness from our minds, the self-erected walls from around our souls and set us free to worship you and to broadcast your incomprehensibility to the very gates and frontiers of Heaven.

O, the inexpressibility of it all! For your creation is so much greater than the limits of language!

Set us free to worship in a language beyond the immensity this little canticle tries so haltingly to express, O God, our creator, redeemer and sustainer.

If you like this form of prose-poem, you might enjoy Little Canticle 124 or Little Canticle 46 or if you came to this blog hoping for rhyming verse, Stars and Planets Sing Your Glory and Awesome, Wonderful Creator may be more to your liking, both being written to sing. A more comprehensive viewing of all the Little Canticles on this blog can be accessed HERE