dark light

God

Help us to look for you, not only where it appears that you obviously must be, but also where it appears that you obviously cannot be.

And help us to find you where we least expect you to be:

where light and darkness intersect, resisting you like the air resists a bird in flight, the resistance helping it to fly swifter and further; where you continuously surprise us, as your spirit continuously surprises the soul, by giving it life, and nurtured into existence, dark as light, it becomes knowledge of integrity.

God

Protect us, and help us not to wrong you; if necessary, by making our love for you seem less to us than the love an ant has for a grain of something it carries; a grain too small to even have a name.

God

Do not even begin to love us if it will place on us the burden of loving others we have not the strength to bear.

Let our love die before it causes harm to others, belittles or limits you, or associates you with our flaws.

God

Let us become as shrivelled as wrinkled seeds before our ignorance flowers into prejudice; as bare as bones exposed for years to a fierce sun before our prejudices make us destructive.

Take away our strength to read or write another word, if we reduce your light by a single degree without creating a compensating light.

God

If we find you in the heavens but not on earth, scatter them both to prevent our being confused.

If we see you in Prophets and saints but not in sinners, animals and plants, expose our vision as flawed.

God

Our seeing you in the best of creation should help us to see you in the rest of creation.

If we cannot see you in the smallest and in the weakest, in the emptiness of our existence, we will never know you in your infinity and fullness, and in the grace that allows us to be part of you.

God

Help us to see your presence everywhere;

in the mule carrying a load of concrete blocks,

its drooping tongue covered in flies;

in the darkness forever fighting for its share of light

in railway tracks suppressing their fire in their stillness

in broken glass embedded in a wall

in the shadows of trees

in the curve of a hill

in a dried-up lake.

In every place of discomfort, disturbance, provocation

in pools of stagnant water

in dark razor-edged rocks

in deserted roads

in jarring sounds

in sights that fade before they are seen properly

in feelings that are aborted before they are felt fully

in incompleteness, imperfection, inconclusiveness

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Often, we camouflage our ignorance in our arrogance, our weaknesses in our strengths, our anger in our pursuit of justice, and our prejudices in a righteousness they lack, so that our selfishness surfaces as love.

God

In every meeting place

of good and bad, beauty and ugliness

in hardness and in softness

in hope and in futility

in emptiness and in fullness

in wonder and in despair

in loneliness before it is filled with warmth

in clouds before they become rain

in ink before it is turned into words

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Grant that we may know you without awareness of our knowing; be one with you without awareness of being one; know your essence without awareness of forms.

When we are not overly attracted to one person, or thing, or value, we are more likely to see oneness in disparity, and less likely to be distracted by the superficial. So help us not to be too taken with anything, and not to be too removed from anything.

God

When we need to be still, make us as still as rubble that has no obvious use, where nothing of any value is to be found but silence, the birthplace of your presence.

God

All of everything we do or say ultimately becomes part of one universal song.

As important as how every song is sung, is how it fades or ends; every beginning and what follows simply prepares us for the ending.

God

In frames and in borders

in containers of every size

in names and in numbers

in shapes, textures and colours

in brackets, and other punctuation marks

in hats, veils, scarves and other clothing

in glances, stares, downcast or concerned looks

in all our studying, meeting, loving or ignoring

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Do not permit us

to hold happiness in our hands and not see it

hold music in our hearts and not hear it

hold life in our hands and not know it.

God

Whenever a border is created or removed, a veil of light or knowledge is created or removed, and something of our spirit is revealed. We know one another both through the creation of borders and through the removal of borders.

A consciousness of borders that separate us from others, without a consciousness of a larger circle of oneness that brings us closer, diminishes our spirit.

As each border, boundary or circle does not really exist (except to prove its own ultimate non-existence – to prove the existence of something higher than itself, beyond it), it leads us to another circle, and another, until all circles, intersections or boundaries encompass oneness and are encompassed by oneness.

God

In myriad sights of loveliness

that pass by each day before our eyes

in a smile that remains imprinted

in our thoughts until the day we die

in a questioning gaze, an unfulfilled sigh

in greetings full or devoid of promise

in premature or long overdue goodbyes

in minds that will not be still

in hearts that will not come alive

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Help us to understand that we, ourselves, as we are known in our bordered existence, are nothing but your light in knowable form – are nothing but love. We are hampered in our understanding of your presence when we focus on outer forms and overlook their essence.

Help us to realize that it is only by knowing ourselves as love that we can know you more fully; live humanly, and at the same time in consonance with our Divine essence: where physical borders or circles are forever present and absent simultaneously and all intersections of light and darkness contribute to our enlightenment.

God

In unseemly washing hanging out to dry

in the cracks of old dilapidated buildings

in fading paint and rusted twisted metal

in a tangled web of old electrical wires

in dry earth losing the will to live

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

We remove and re-form circles every conscious moment of our lives; otherwise our vision would be so fractured that it would be impossible for us to be at peace with what we see or know.

God

All intersections are intersections of circles. Ultimately, the number of circles is infinite. All of us see some circles and are blind to others.

When we are blind to circles before we see them, we are limited by our blindness. When we initially see circles or borders but then realize that they do not really exist, we are given new insights through becoming blind to them.

God

In every scene

where shadows

lengthen or shorten

dreams form or depart

in every performance

where we choose to be

writers, producers, or actors

or simply to be part

of the audience

choose to speak

or to be quiet

choose either to

allow our thoughts

to become seedlings

that can grow if nurtured

or to become coffins of silence

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

In every intersection

where earth meets sky

where minds meet or differ

where eyes meet hearts

where love is born or dies

where the dead lie buried

where the cruelty of rulers surfaces

in the beauty they have constructed

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Every boundary is a bridge

that connects

soul to spirit

darkness to light

self to selflessness

absence to presence

multiplicity to integrity

the physical to the spiritual

the known to the unknown.

God

As every circle leads to another and is then annihilated, it restores the world forever to its original integrity: forever returns the world and us to oneness.

God

Help us to understand that when a boundary is formed, something of the unknowable becomes knowable. When a boundary is removed, something of the knowable becomes known.

God

In the quietness after a hard day’s work

in the hypocrisy of our lives

in the lies that we tell ourselves

in the truth that is never far away

in voices that are lowered or raised

in faces that are covered or uncovered

in hearts that are open or sealed

in the pool of silence

an artist creates

from which she paints

or a musician creates

from which music ripples

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Though borders or names are the cause of all separation, they are also the cause of all integration. Without borders, integration, a meeting beyond names, or the replacement of less essential names with more essential names and ultimately by namelessness, would not be possible.

A border can regenerate our spirituality when it helps us to overcome other borders that limit our understanding of oneness. As our integrity grows, our ability to reduce borders without needing to be safeguarded by the creation of new ones, also grows; until we are finally free of all borders – and know oneness with integrity.

God

Where memories are silhouettes

where happiness is a statue

where pain is a book

where longing melts like warm snow

where we turn away from our cruelty

then steadfastly refuse to look

then develop a contempt for the victims

for without this contempt we would

feel nothing but contempt for ourselves

where the old becomes worthless

and centuries later, priceless, there

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Intersecting circles reflect your infinite names. None of these names can exist other than as integrity. The presence of integrity makes it impossible for anything other than integrity to exist. Otherness appears to exist, but its appearance also reveals the existence of integrity.

Since the number of circles is infinite, we surrender to the understanding that ‘everything’ equals ‘nothing’; or that ‘nothing’ equals ‘everything’. This realization removes all the circles: knowledge of the many becomes knowledge of oneness.

God

In the second before a feeling hardens

in the instant before a sound is heard

in the helplessness we feel when language

is no longer sufficient to express

all that we want to say

in hope before it gives way to despair

in doubt before it changes to certainty

in certainty before it turns to doubt

in the familiar before it becomes wondrous

in the wondrous before it becomes stale

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Names that reflect opposites have no existence in reality. Every name that represents something in existence is destroyed at the moment of its creation, becoming part of every other name to maintain its integrity; it returns to non-existence immediately upon coming into existence, by incorporating the meanings of every other name.

God

In the instant before

a brush touches canvas

a finger brushes the strings

of a musical instrument

in the helplessness

that turns our gaze

towards someone beautiful

in the wisdom or the foolishness

of a leaf or a fruit falling from a tree

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Help us to be at peace, to leave aside the burden of our names, to be free of constantly wanting to be known. And take away from us the burden of constantly needing to see discoloration, distance, disturbance, and degradation.

God

In the unanswered questions

where have we come from?

what are we doing here?

what do you want of us?

is anything true?

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Your presence fills the emptiness your absence creates. Absence creates movement, mystery, is a pre-requisite for life to acquire outward form. Without absence, light and darkness would not exist and your presence would remain unknowable.

Without absence

The Merciful could not be known as merciful.

The Forgiving would have nothing to forgive.

The Sustainer would have nothing to sustain.

The Generous could not reveal generosity.

The Preserver would have nothing to preserve.

The Nourisher would have nothing to nourish.

God

Whenever we are ungenerous we also stop being merciful, forgiving, sustaining, preserving, and nourishing. Being forgiving we are also merciful, sustaining, generous, preserving, and nourishing.

Even when we are unjust, it is not only injustice that prevails; the injustice also creates the emptiness that allows forgiveness to be born – and immediately some justice is restored in the expression of an attribute that could not exist if perfect justice only prevailed.

God

When we see the world in its fullness, in its completeness, in its totality – integrating its physical expression with its spiritual essence – there is never a moment when there is a lack of knowable light or love.

Absence itself is created so that presence may be known. Absence allows the creation of the myriad shades of light and darkness that give the world its colour, its music, its infinite potential.

Without absence

The Manifest would be hidden.

The Hidden could not become manifest.

The Loving would have nothing to love.

The Just could not promote justice.

The Patient could not demonstrate patience.

The Source of Goodness would remain undiscovered.

God

When we see the sea nestling against the shore, clouds filtering across the sky, trees bearing fruit, what are these if not reflections of peace, justice, freedom, love, truth – reflections of the Divine as many-layered endless light?

God

As much as every act lacking integrity needs to be corrected so that there is visible harmony in our lives and in the world, at a deep and profound spiritual level, every act – even one seemingly lacking in integrity – and every intersection of light and darkness, functions as a place where knowledge of light is formed from darkness – functions as the birthplace of your presence.

God

In trees and in grain and in ripening fruit

in every act of bravery or cowardice

in every act of clarity or vagueness

in every promise or fulfilment

in betrayal and starkness

in dryness or wetness

in dullness or glistening

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Absence creates chaos in our lives when we fail to see that it both conceals and reveals presence.

Absence is indispensable for knowing presence. Presence appears as absence and yet exists within absence.

Without absence

The Maker-out-of-naught would be stifled.

The All-knowing would remain unknown.

The Subduer would be subdued.

The Most Holy would remain distant.

The Compassionate could not be compassionate.

The Fashioner-of-forms would be denied expression.

God

We constitute an absence that bears your presence. This is your gift to us – the imperative not only to be ourselves, but to be divine: to be the dark light that is the spirit’s secret, to be a love that reveals the existence of impossible perfection.

God

Help us to be content with your presence

whether it is fleeting or permanent

whether it is ever-present or barely present

whether it is most evocative in calm or in chaos

whether it reveals love or conceals love

whether it creates hope and then confirms it

or creates hope and then destroys it.

God

When we first become aware of your presence, it reveals itself in different forms of light and darkness; but being aware of your presence, as our consciousness of the true nature of any form grows, its underlying essence becomes alive within us. So help us to be aware of your presence at all times, even when we are being conscious of those who bear with the greatest integrity your sublime names.

God

Help us to be content with your presence

whether it is cold or comforting
withdrawn when it should be close

or silent when it should be speaking

whether it waits to be sought or seeks us out

whether it goes into hiding when it sees us

or comes out of hiding when it sees us.

God

To the extent that we remain conscious of the physical as the physical, we continue to differentiate between light and darkness, and continue to love selectively. Help us to understand this and help us to love you more fully.

Our awareness of the physical both limits the spirit – the spirit, as ‘the soul’, takes on our form, or the form of our awareness of it, or of our understanding of love – and at the same time it enables us to recognize the spirit: to the extent that the boundaries that initially heighten our awareness of forms ultimately become non–existent, our existence becomes spiritual.

The existence of the unknowable becomes known through the existence of the knowable – as the unknowable that exists within the knowable – the boundarylessness that exists within boundaries.

Love is both the crossing of boundaries and paradoxically, also a boundary – the final frontier that has to be crossed to reach its source. If we are unable or unwilling to cross such boundaries, we limit the impact of grace on our lives.

God

Help us to be content with your presence

whether it appears to be within us

or appears to be beyond us

appears to fulfil its promise

or to remain as empty

as a promise that has never been made

and which therefore cannot be fulfilled.

God

Spiritual behaviour is living seamlessly, with integrity, in multiple worlds – physical and spiritual – where absence and presence converge at the intersection of light and darkness.

As all knowing begins with recognizing boundaries and ends with recognizing boundarylessness, the spirit is that which removes boundaries or barriers to integrity.

God

Since you are to be found more easily where there is subtlety, flexibility and movement, help us to be subtle, to dissolve, fade, forgive the deception our shadows cast, mindful that sometimes we appear as body, sometimes as consciousness, sometimes as spirit, sometimes as patience or graciousness, sometimes as generosity or compassion.

God

In each moment

in each movement

in each rise and fall

in the stillness beneath it all

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

In the tension that is created when something is curved

or released when something is straightened

in shapes that are discernible

in light or in darkness

in the indentations of intricate wood carvings

in songs of praise and in cries of lamentation

in that which is contained or uncontained

in that which is free or chained

in that which is dull or glowing

in that which is full or empty

in that which is alive or dead

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Each word can have an earth or a sea meaning, a wave or a ripple meaning, a fire or a storm meaning, a grass or a root meaning, a leaf or a branch meaning, a tree or a fruit meaning, a flesh or a bone meaning.

Not only do the meanings reflect some essence of the word or the world, the meanings we find in a word of the world, reflect something of ourselves as gracious, compassionate, merciful, peaceful, wise, faithful, subtle, forgiving, loving, truthful, guiding, enduring, trusting, patient beings.

God

In the sadness we feel

when someone we love

begins a futile journey

and in the restraint we exercise

as we silently cry ‘don’t go there’

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

In every conscious moment of our lives some facet of our understanding is revealed, through what we say when we speak, what we reveal in our actions, or keep hidden in our silence. In one word, or act, or thought, it is possible to reveal our world in its simplicity, duplicity, complexity, multiplicity, or integrity.

God

Words create our world, but are also capable of destroying our world; they create law, but they are also capable of destroying the law; they bring us together, but they are also capable of keeping us apart. We build our civilization on words. If we denude them of any of their essential meanings and force them to mean only what we would like them to mean, they simply become abused servants.

God

Every violation of our essential oneness constitutes a violation of our spirit. Forgiveness is a way of returning to oneness; of overcoming the otherness we create through our response to pain; so forgive us for forever violating our oneness, and help us to forgive others who do the same.

God

Your perfection is beyond light and beyond imperfection.

Our potential for perfection lies in using our ability to see differences, to become good without being aware of the bad, in the process becoming the fruit of your perfection.

So help us to be free of conflicts that result from knowing

loss and gain

light and darkness

growth and decay.

God

In the vibrations of the strings of a guitar

where a string is never where it seems to be

in the spaces between the beads of a necklace

in the smallest thing that is capable of being visible

able to hold itself upright or cast a shadow

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Help us to understand that no attachment is possible without an underlying detachment. The quality of the detachment determines the quality of the attachment. If the detachment is flawed, the attachment will be flawed.

Whatever reflects its own form without any attachment to that form essentially reflects your light. Whatever is attached to its own form without sufficient detachment from that form also reflects your light, but the reflection, inevitably, will be distorted to some degree.

In the purest loving, detachment itself makes wholesome attachment possible. Help us to be aware of the quality of the detachment that makes attachment to you possible.

God

Help us to be less aware of all that is good

so that we are not distracted by all that is not

for if we cannot be distracted by beauty

how can we be distracted by ugliness?

If we cannot be distracted by gentleness

how can we be distracted by harshness?

If we cannot be distracted by music

how can we be distracted by noise?

If we cannot be distracted by hope

how can we be distracted by despair?

If we cannot be distracted by friendship

how can we be distracted by enmity?

God

Help us to understand that if our detachment does not lead to attachment to the purest within ourselves and in others, then we cannot be detached in a wholesome way.

The greater our detachment from things or objects as they are, the greater the possibility of our falling in love, being moved by music, writing poetry, knowing ourselves and others as divine.

The more intangible the object of our searching and our attachment to what is being sought, the greater the possibility of our capturing an essence beyond that which comes from the mind even though it comes through the mind, beyond words and images even while it is being captured in words and images, beyond anything we can know before it becomes alive in our knowing it.

God

In the familiar before it becomes unfamiliar

in the unknown before it becomes known

in health before it becomes illness

in life before it becomes death

in night before it becomes dawn

in dusk before it becomes night

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Help us to understand that where the world exists, love exists; for your light by its very nature is all-revealing and brings mystery into the realm of knowable existence. For mystery to be revealed it has first to be clothed in words, become the world; the spirit has to be sublimated, become the soul; the mind has to acquire a personality, a body; and mystery has to be hidden, in veils of light. The revealing of mystery is dependent on first concealing it.

God

The knower who unravels the law, the word, the world, without foregoing the darkness inherent in the knowledge he or she has gained, loses something of his or her own mystery in the process: loses something of his or her ability to know or create mystery.

God

Where you are the sea, let us become drowning.

Where you are the stars, let us become flickering.

Where you are the sun, let us become burning.

Where you are the earth, let us become growing.

God

Every point of knowing

where light intersects darkness

is a point where love is born.

So let not the barriers

of crosses

wooden beams

moons, stars, or stripes

shutters, blinds, or pillars

prevent our seeing you clearly.

God

Help us to be aware of the danger of the seeker or knower becoming a seeker or knower only of a narrowly-scripted or sculpted divinity: a divinity of duality, created with or shaped by the tools of words, images and symbols that are at some level forever in conflict with their own essence.

And also help us to be aware that without the constraint or assistance of words – without the world, the body, and the soul – without the provocation of light and darkness – mystery would be impossible to unravel.

For words carry the scent of mystery across the universe; they create mystery; create the love of mystery; create the possibility of knowing.

God

Help us to understand that you are not just to be found in conviction but also in hesitance, in doubt, in change and in challenge; in the hidden, in impermanence, in the seen and in the unseen.

God

Help us to learn from the waves that never stop returning to the shore, but also help us to learn from the shore that waits for them to return.

God

In sacrifices that are endless

in illness that provides relief from labour

in the doggedness of our pursuit for sustenance

in cycles of pain and in circles of loss

in fading or in unfailing desire

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

To limit the meaning of words before they have provoked us to search within them and beyond them, is to deny the mystery that lies within the heart of our own existence: a mystery that by its very nature desires to be known.

Yet if this mystery were to be known, it would cease to be mystery. It can only succeed in being known, while still remaining mystery, if the seeker who seeks it is also what is being sought: if the seeker is the sought, and the seeker – the sought – is also the mystery to be known.

To fail to understand the nature of this custodianship – of the word, of the world, of mystery – is to lose an essence of ourselves, and forego the possibility of locating a fire that can only exist within a stone when it is more than a stone.

In our very denseness lies a spark that can set fire to our existence and make this life an illuminating revelation.

God

What builds is what destroys

what creates is what annihilates

what holds together is what keeps apart.

More than this, building is destroying

creation is annihilation

holding together is keeping apart.

God

Seeking information, we forego transformation; seeking entertainment, we forego happiness; seeking recognition, we forego self-knowledge; seeking you only in the visible, or in the invisible, we forego worlds of knowing.

God

Help us to understand how perfection can sometimes be bad and imperfection good, certainty bad and uncertainty good, unwavering belief bad and doubt good.

Help us to understand the importance of balance in our lives: understand that the least pain occurs at the point between leaning forward and falling backwards, between rising and falling, between hope and fear.

God

If there is fear in our lives, let it be a fear that is not devoid of hope; if there is loss, let it be a loss that can become an empty space that some gain can fill.

If there is sorrow, let it be a sorrow that can bring happiness into sharper focus; if there is seeking, let it be a seeking that is capable of questioning.

If there is doubt, let it be a doubt that eventually helps to reinforce our trust in that which cannot be known fully; if there is a turning away from love, let it continue until it becomes a turning towards love.

God

Fill us with such a deep sense of equilibrium that the seen becomes the unseen and the unseen seen; the known unknown and the unknown known.

Help us to remain needless of an answer to our prayer for closeness to you as a shadow remains needless of prayer in order to remain attached to what gives rise to it.

God

Help us to become as motiveless for spiritual gain as an empty grave that has no interest in knowing whether the body it is about to receive is that of a saint or a sinner, prepared to accept either with equal grace.

Help us to be detached from the outcome of our seeking or loving as a river is detached from the terrain it travels through on its journey to the sea.

God

In the innocence of a child

in the guilt of old age

in what moves or what remains still

in what cries out or what keeps quiet

in what passes or what stays

in what heats or what cools

in what lives or what dies

in what places burdens or removes burdens

is the birthplace of your presence.

God

Let grace draw close to us like a cat that unexpectedly starts sniffing our toes, licking our elbows, and rubbing itself against us, before lying down contentedly in the sun.

God

We have life and living to attend to

climbing and falling to attend to

laughing and crying to attend to

dancing and growing to attend to

and yet you wait for us

to tire of our dancing and our stillness

to tire of our forgetting and turning away

never tiring yourself, even for a second.

God

Help us to understand that our seeking is like climbing – except that the purpose is not so much to reach the top as to be always at a height from which we can fall, and in falling, be caught in a net of mercy.

But in order to fall we need to have climbed some distance at least – need to have shown some attraction for the peak; for even though this climbing cannot help us reach the top, it can help us to learn to trust that your love will embrace us when we fall.

God

The dangers of seeking, of which there are many, can be avoided by understanding that it is not our task really (as much as it is our task) to know you; for ultimately only you can truly know yourself.

Our task is a more humble one. It is to be less so that you can be more. It is to grow quiet, to let go of and forego ourselves, forego even the thought of attainment of the goal that causes us to seek or begin the climb, so that in the pool of our quietness you may find a reflection of your beauty, grace, love and compassion.

God

Help us to understand that whenever we lose our need of the physical, the physical becomes spiritual.

God

As much as you create us, in our own flawed way, each of us creates a knowable you.

What we create reflects our consciousness of the presence of your spirit within us.

Ultimately, we create a knowable you, and we are created by the unknowable you.

God

Help us

to stay ahead of that which we should stay ahead of

to fall behind that which we should fall behind

to rise above that which we should rise above

to sink beneath that which we should sink beneath

to remain close to that which we should remain close to

to keep far from that which we should keep far from.

Help us to remember that love does not just cry out that it is love to prove its existence, it heals the world; peace does not just descend into our hearts, it is built on a foundation of knowledge; freedom does not just make us human, it makes us humane.

God

We become confused when we look for certainty and find uncertainty, look at the seen and fail to notice the unseen, look for your presence and find your absence.

Help us to remain as non-interfering with our natural goodness as a canvas that remains non-interfering and at peace with the artist painting on it, regardless of whether it is being defaced or being turned into a masterpiece.

Help us, when we are fragile, to find fragility a strength, when we discover a door closed, to find doors immaterial.

Help us to be as patient as old clothes that lie unused for years but never ask to be worn; as trusting as a child that repeatedly refuses the food offered by its mother, knowing the offer will not be withdrawn.

God

Your integrity brings us to the truth by making us true

brings us enlightenment by making us light

allows the spirit to dwell in the body in knowable form

allows knowing ourselves to lead to knowing you

allows us to enjoy beauty without being destroyed by it

allows us to love without destroying what we love

allows us to cry when we are happy

to smile when we are sad.

God

If our knowledge of ‘bad’ does not lead us to knowledge of ‘good’, our knowledge is defective, so help us to remedy it.

If our knowledge of the physical does not lead us to knowledge of the spiritual, our knowledge is defective, so help us to remedy it.

God

If our love of beauty does not lead us to love of truth, and if our love of truth does not lead us to love of justice, our love is defective, so help us to remedy it.

If our love for you does not lead us to love all of creation, and if our love for creation does not lead us back to love of you, our love is defective, so help us to remedy it.

God

Make our certainty

a certainty of mystery and of wonder

a certainty of fragility and of bewilderment

a certainty of love, but not necessarily of our own love

a certainty of faith, but not necessarily of our own faith

a certainty of a light that exists within us and around us.

God

Help us to understand that the visible is created

so that the invisible may be known

the outer is created

so that the inner may be known

the finite is created

so that the infinite may be known

all is created so that nothing may be known

nothing is created so that all may be known.

God

Why then do we make so much depend

on finding a single moment

belief or image

that will say it all

begin it all

end it all

do it all

complete it all

make meaning of it all

when everywhere

is the birthplace of your presence.

How much to endure

how much to see

how much to be blind to

how much to hear

how much to be deaf to

how much to give birth to

how much to allow to die

how much to let blossom`

how much to subdue

how much to become

how much not to

how much to love

to discover everywhere

your presence.