Sunday Prayer

Last week I posted one of my favorite poems as our Easter Prayer. This week, as we ponder the readings of doubt and our fear that resurrection is impossible I offer this poem/prayer from The Odes of Solomon, written in the 1st or 2nd century.(again, from The Enlightened Heart, an anthology of sacred poetry edited by Stephen Mitchell

My heart was split, and a flower
appeared; and grace sprang up;
and it bore fruit for my God.
You split me, tore my heart
open, filled me with love.
You poured your spirit into me;
I knew you as I know myself.
Speaking waters touched me
from your fountain, the source of life.
I swallowed them and was drunk
with the water that never dies.
And my drunkeness was insight,
intimacy with your spirit.
And you have made all things new;
you have showed me all things shining.
You have granted me perfect ease;
I have become like Paradise,
a garden whose fruit is joy;
and you are the sun upon me.
My eyes are radiant with your spirit;
my nostrils fill with your fragrance.
My ears delight in your music,
my face is covered with your dew.
Blessed are the men and women
who are planted on your earth, in your garden,
who grow as your trees and flowers grow,
who transform their darkness to light.
Their roots plunge into darkness;
their faces turn toward the light.
All those who love you are beautiful;
they overflow with your presence
so that they cando nothing but good.
There is infinite space in your garden;
all men, all women are welcome here;
all they need do is enter.

We pray for the courage, the stamina, the grace, to enter the room of our doubts. We pray for the love of God to work in us and produce the fruits of God's love. We pray that we can be the eyes through which others see God. The hands through which others know the love of Christ, and heart of the Holy Spirit, bringing reconciliation to this broken world. Amen.