Leave behind illusion’s ways
Culture plants within the mind,
Clothed in vestments of the faith
Masking truths we need to find,
No one can share my inner space;
There I am alone, yet not alone,
For you are there, O God,
Deeper than my thinking,
An awakening is beginning,
The half living now arise.
All those scales which they accepted
Are now falling from their eyes.
Let opposites all share a common space,
The inner and the outer be as one;
Each mind reflect life’s interweaving grace
And hearts all find God’s presence deep within.
O child within the Christmas scene
Come play with us today.
Melt all the ice within our hearts
And warm us as we play.
Look behind the festive scene
Both to factory and land;
Contemplate the labour force
Using both the mind and hand.
In nature as in Jesus,
All life is truly one,
But we divide Christ’s mantle
And drown Creation’s song,
The world within and world outside
Both rest within God’s caring.
When inner streams unite with seas
They herald total sharing.
Come, let us think like mountain rocks,
Come breathe the song of scented breeze;
Come join the atoms’ quantum dance,
Come weep with all the fallen trees.
Most Holy Presence, fount of all becoming,
in you we live and move and have our being.
Can bread and wine transform our minds
With all their complex modes?
Can sharing festive liturgies
Unlock empowering codes?
All life’s many cycles
Rest within God’s circle
And reveal Earth dying and yet living.
Autumn comes in all its fullness
Harvesting both land and hearts.
Autumn has its birth in Winter
In the stillness where life starts.
If you want to be happy
Love life more than things
Finding the joys which sharing brings.
If you want to end grieving
For dying or loss
Cry till your tears dissolve your cross.
Within the shadows of our thinking
Dwell glimpses of an ancient past;
Dark tales of vengeance and of terror
Beyond what gentle hearts can grasp.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is God our Father dear;
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is man, his child and care.
What can we learn from war?
Gazing at ancient graves;
Name upon name preserved,
Marking the battle’s phase;
The lives of those who gave their all
That we should not be tyrants’ slaves.
We thank you God for history’s tales
But which version should we tell?
The story of the powerful rich
Or the poor’s oppressive hell?
