Prayer

A collection of fragmentary meditations

Prayer


A prayer on prayer

For prayer through prayer

The need I have to speak

To Him who formed a cosmos from the sod

For men are galaxies of complexity 

Star-like children of the God who kindled stars.

Every cell a solar system

Every man a wandering planet

On a planet in a system

In a universe of a cell.

We—the  middle men of infinity 

A little lower than the angels 

But stamped in God’s own image.

“In His image He created them.

Male and female He created them.”



Prayer.



Men and women speak unto their Maker

She knowing he will ne’er forsake her,

He knowing he is called to awaken her

To glories only he can see 

That he a priest of God to her might be

Descrying glory—told in song and story.

Every man a cell

But no two cells the same.

These cosmic men are heirs of God

For in their hearts they bear His name

The Craftsman’s imago dei is signed

Where only saints have learned to find

(It’s in the human heart)

That black, deceptive hole

That God is making whole

Until in glory every soul

Is pulled into its end.

The end which is the beginning 

The Alpha and the Omega 

Our last thought as we prayed in death

That grace might mark the final breath

Our first thought when we wake in glory

Ready to begin the story   

For which our character was formed.

That, its one, final purpose

To act amid the cosmic circus

Fools for Christ like Francis 

Who like a madman dances

With David in procession,

Who kneeling in confession,

Bore the wounds of Jesus Christ

Who on a dusty hill was sacrificed.

In some forgotten corner of the world,

Love’s crimson banner was unfurled



Praise. Prayer. Love.



Loving, praising prayer

Lifting from the dragon’s lair

Shielding from Medusan stare,

The glance of the abyssal unknown 

At the good seed gladly sown 

By the missionary God,

By her stare made stone.

Beware, my friend, the dark unknown.

God take it and her and throw them in

The raging infernos of their sin

That burning, self-consuming,

Is ever shrinking into nothing

Evil’s final consummation.



Prayer.


Teach us to pray.

You guided my steps in life this day.

And as I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

And if I die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take. 

And make it fit to bear the throne

Intent on You and You alone. 



Prayer.


I pray to God, my God, my Saviour

That He would burn my prideful behaviour

In the furnace of His love.

I pray to Christ, my King, God’s Son,

That as in His life the battle’s won

So He would win in me

Conquer every enemy and make him be my friend.

Take every sinful strength and skill

And make it serve His sovereign will

That they might in me be reborn

Through the shredding of the storm

Dedragoned and befriended

By the Gardener who has mended

Every pain and every fear

Through the mirror of the tear

Rolling down the lion’s face

Ending in divine embrace.

This the hope of every soul

That one day it will be made whole. 

But for now—prayer.