NAPC — LIFE ILLUMINATED TRAVEL

“By The Light Of The Moon” Judean Wilderness, Palestine

But perhaps God needs the longing

But perhaps God needs the longing, wherever else should it dwell,

Which with kisses and tears and sighs fills mysterious spaces of air—

And perhaps is invisible soil from which roots of stars grow and swell—

And the radiant voice across fields of parting which calls to reunion there?

O my beloved, perhaps in the sky of longing worlds have been born of our love—

Just as our breathing, in and out, builds a cradle for life and death?

We are grains of sand, dark with farewell, lost in births’ secret treasure trove,

Around us already perhaps future moons, suns, and stars blaze in a fiery wreath.

- Nelly Sachs (1891-1970)
From Women In Praise Of The Sacred Edited by Jane Hirshfield

Rest In Prayer

The sun hears the fields talking about effort
And the sun
Smiles,
And whispers to
me,
“Why don’t the fields just rest, for
I am willing to do
everything
To help them
Grow?”
Rest, my dears,
In prayer.

- St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
From Love Poems from God edited by Daniel Ladinsky

My God

My God is color blind,
crossed picket and color lines
stood in the thickets against the wicked
and heard my mother's cries.
He carried crosses and picked cotton
with my sisters and brothers
I'm talking about, my God.

The same God
that my mom and dad told me to fear, respect;
and be quiet and be still
when the thunder cracked loud and the rain came down hard.

The same God
that when the stats said by the age of eighteen, I'd be dead or behind bars
covered me in his grace
so that I could face and defy the odds.

The same God that I pray to on my knees
Spoke to Joseph in his dreams
Parted the Red Sea
Raised Elijah are among the stars
And lately I've been thanking him for the hard times
Because it's in those times that my lessons come that my blessings come.

I have a little more than a few, and a lot less than some
But anything I have comes from nothing I've done.
I'm still living off the prayers of my great grandma’s tongue.
I'm still blessed by the hymns that my late grandma sung
To honor the Holy Spirit, from the heavenly father and the son.
Oh, my God.

- Jon Goode, Atlanta-based writer
From Conduit

“Path To The Apple Orchard” Bossey, Switzerland

For A New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

- John O’Donohue (1956-2008)
From To Bless The Space Between Us

HOPE

“The most important thing is that we must not give up hope. People ask us, I mean, how do you hope in this hopeless situation. My answer is that, you know, as a Christian, my hope does not come from a human being, does not come from a state, or does not come from, from a powerful quote-unquote Christian cities and Christian countries. My hope comes only from our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Ashraf Tannous, Palestinian Lutheran minister, Beit Jala, Palestine

“Kibbutznik”, Kibbutz Ein HaShofet Israel

Your World

Your world is as big as you make it.
I know, for I used to abide
In the narrowest nest in a corner,
My wings pressing close to my side.

But I sighted the distant horizon
Where the skyline encircled the sea
And I throbbed with a burning desire
To travel this immensity.

I battered the cordons around me
And cradled my wings on the breeze,
Then soared to the uttermost reaches
With rapture, with power, with ease!

- Georgia Douglas Johnson
From Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art