Readings (Click the links to see the readings)

Isaiah 40.25-31 | Ps 103.1-5 | Matthew 11.28-30

Warning
Anna Mae Marheineke RSCJ

Be careful, Lord, this year.
We may not let you in.
We fear
the color of your skin,
your poverty,
and do not wholly trust
your speech, whose ambiguity can irritate
those who want things
black or white, not gray.
Peace and the sword must
not cohabitate
any more than may
the wolf and lamb,
the hawk and dove
relate in love.
So state
your platform well before
you come knocking
at our door.
The scar
of sin sits deep
in church and state,
and inconsolable Rachels weep lost sons, sons lost in war,
in drugs, in alcohol and crime, in misplaced dreams.
O bid all time
stand still
among our petty human schemes. And if you dare and will,
step quietly again
into our hearts. Their pain
will be familiar.
Now you will know
how far
and where to go.

Prayer

O God,
from whom all holy desires,
all good counsels,
and all just works proceed,
give your servants that peace which the world cannot give;
that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments and that,
defended by you,
we may pass our time in rest and quietness.

"Be careful, Lord, this year. We may not let you in."

Detail from a window based on Holman Hunt's The Light of The World.

"His yoke is easy" (Matthew 11.30) from Messiah by GF Handel, in a 1979 performance by the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, Toronto, directed by Ivars Taurins.