Readings (Click the links to see the readings)

Malachi 4 | Psalm 80.14-19 | Matthew 17.10-13 |

The Slip
Wendell Berry

The river takes the land, and leaves nothing.
Where the great slip gave way in the bank
and an acre disappeared, all human plans
dissolve. An awful clarification occurs
where a place was. Its memory breaks
from what is known now, begins to drift.
Where cattle grazed and trees stood, emptiness
widens the air for birdflight, wind, and rain.
As before the beginning, nothing is there.
Human wrong is in the cause, human
ruin in the effect—but no matter;
all will be lost, no matter the reason.
Nothing, having arrived, will stay.
The earth, even, is like a flower, so soon
passeth it away. And yet this nothing
is the seed of all—the clear eye
of Heaven, where all the worlds appear.
Where the imperfect has departed, the perfect
begins its struggle to return. The good gift
begins again its descent. The maker moves
in the unmade, stirring the water until
it clouds, dark beneath the surface,
stirring and darkening the soul until pain
perceives new possibility. There is nothing
to do but learn and wait, return to work
on what remains. Seed will sprout in the scar.
Though death is in the healing, it will heal.
— The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, Counterpoint, 1999.

Prayer

Dancing God,
you exult over us with joy;
as we celebrate what has past
renew us by your love
that we may face the future with hope and joy;
through our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever. Amen.
— Bosco Peters

The sun of righteousness shall dawn from on high, by Jeanne Kun, 1997.

"But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. " Malachi 4:2

With healing in His wings, by J.F. Morin of Châteauguay, Quebec, from his album Sel et Lumière / Salt and Light.