Ps 8:6 Yet you have made him little lower than the angels;
with glory and honor you crowned him,
7 gave him power over the works of your hands:
you put all things under his feet,
8 All of them, sheep and oxen,
yes, even the cattle of the fields,
9 birds of the air, and fish of the sea
that make their way through the waters.
10 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic
is your name through all the earth!
Sanctus/Benedictus from the Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (Levertov)
Powers and principalities–all the gods,
angels and demigods, eloquent animals, oracles,
storms of blessing and wrath–
all that Imagination
has wrought, has rendered,
striving, in throes of epiphany–
naming, forming–to give
to the Vast Loneliness
a hearth, a locus–
send forth their song towards
the harboring silence, uttering
the ecstasy of their names, the multiform
name of the Other, the known
Unknown, unknowable:
(.....)
Blesséd is that which comes in the name of the spirit,
that which bears
the spirit within it.
The name of the spirit is written
in woodgrain, windripple, crystal,
in crystals of snow, in petal, leaf,
moss and moon, fossil and feather,
blood, bone, song, silence,
very word of
very word,
flesh and
vision.
(.....)
Blesséd is that which utters
its being,
the stone of stone,
the straw of straw,
for there
spirit is.
(.....)
Blesséd
be the dust. From dust the world
utters itself. We have no other
hope, no knowledge.
The word
chose to become
flesh. In the blur of flesh
we bow, baffled.
Meditation
All of us have to work, each from his or her own place in the world; indeed, we must work together, irrespective of religious conviction, racial origin, and professional discipline. Our efforts will remain meaningless and fruitless if they remain fragmented and isolated. For, the protection of the world’s natural beauty is one consideration, one concern, one song, to the glory of God and all creation. (Bartholomew I)
Musical Selection (Mass for the Dat of St. Thoma Didymus by James Primsoch; cf. Poem)
Prayer