September 22

Ps 104:35 Let sinners vanish from the earth,

and the wicked exist no more.

Bless the LORD, O my soul.

Alleluia!

 

Spring and Fall: to a young child (Hopkins)

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Meditation

This sacrifice for the sake of sharing means learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is learning to share and to connect with others and with the natural world. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion. It is regaining a sense of wonder, being filled with a sense of goodness, seeing all things in God, and God in all things. (Bartholomew I)

Musical Selection (Doxecology)

Why are you downcast, O my soul,
so full of fear where once was hope?
Remember God still loves the world: 
be still, my soul.

Beneath the shadow of each storm,
in all the sorrow and despair,
Remember God still loves the world: 
be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul,
trust in your God,
his perfect ways,
his endless love.
Be still and know
he reigns above the earth.
Be still, my soul,
be still, my soul.

In all your striving, find his peace,
become a shining light of grace
and show that God still loves the world:
be still, my soul.