Friday, October 13, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 2:5-11

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father” (Phil. 2: 9-11).

Prayer

The song of the universe goes on, and this day also in me. It continues: the voice of your Spirit, risen and exalted One, is the wonder of prayer itself. For I do not pray; you pray within me. On days of particular wonder, you consume my soul, tuning it to the alleluia chorus of all the created. The melody lilting from the radio, lifting my soul, is but a single theme in the Spirit’s ancient harmony. Your song is near me and in me, as in the depths of all being. For there, in the black abyss, where all the fibers of the manifold meet, you labor in joy, as we wait the day when praise of you as Lord is no longer implicit but the universal cry of all that is.

So, for now, I shall sing eternity’s song even when no words come from the fullness of my soul. For how shall I praise you my Lord, you who fill all time with your loving presence and purpose? You are unending, unfailing, unchanging, yet moving ever to encompass the disjointed confusion of life, surrounding and enveloping every molecule with a love that I cannot speak.

With what words can I praise you? What language is up to the task? What nouns and verbs will do? What superlatives can name you, O Unspeakable Loving Wonder, so that in the speaking I may know you and fall into the blessed silence of having spoken your name as well as I can? Your immense nearness, your intimate infinity chokes every word before it can cross my lips. I want to praise you as love infinite and eternal, giving voice to an eloquence always beyond me. I stumble in the dark, catching faintest shadows of you and trying to name that which I see. And nothing quite works. Your beauty overwhelms my every attempt.

But I will go on trying, knowing I shall always fail. For each failure bears me to wordless wonder, where I know again what I cannot speak. May it ever be so. Amen.