Readings and Reflections 25 October 2024 St Mary's Church
Welcome
Opening Prayer Creator God, we thank you for all the joys of the natural world. As we focus on rivers today, we give special thanks for the thousands of rivers there are in the world today – we pray for the communities which exist around them – for their wellbeing, nurture, and safety. Help us to ponder how our lives might resemble the flowing and meandering of rivers, from the source to their entry into the sea or a lake, and how we might share that gift with others. Amen Introductions Readings and Reflections Judy Early one Saturday morning at the beginning of September, the Nazareth Companions (St Martin in the Fields) were treated to a beautiful boat ride on the river Thames (virtual, of course!) for the weekly Contemplative Prayer Walk, which was led by Rev Catherine Duce. The moment we ‘stepped onto the boat’ I was inspired to consider ‘River’ as one of our topics for Quiet Spaces. So, here we are!! |
For many of us, I imagine that the word river will conjure up all sorts of memories, from long ago, and more recently. Gosh – as I was typing that, it got me thinking!!! The river I related to as a child and young adult, was of course the River Thames, as I was born and raised in South London … and, in those days, we were often in London, near to the Thames … or travelling over it on a bus or train.
As I travelled, virtually, with Catherine, and around 200 others on the Thames that Saturday morning, the words of ‘The Ballad of London River’ (which we used to sing at school) came to mind …. Apparently it was written as a ‘Massed School Song’ by John Borland maybe in the 1950s … with words by May Byron (1861-1936)
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs,
Flow down, O London River, to the seagull's silver wings:
Isis or Ock or Thame, forget your olden name.
And the lilies and the willows and the weirs from which you came.
(the complete version is in Thoughts to Ponder)
Another river remembered from childhood was the Usk in South Wales - bearing the same name as the small town where my gran – my dad’s mum – was born and grew up in. Others I remember are the Soar, Dove and Trent bringing memories of my visits to Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire many times over several decades. ….and many more, of course. But I must just mention the mighty Mississippi, in North America, crossing it several times, and travelling beside it on Amtrak – on our way from Minneapolis to Kansas City on my first visit to the States – and, perhaps the most beautiful, the Walnut and Arkansas rivers flowing through eastern Kansas, one of which adjoined the land where my friend Sue lives.
I’m very fortunate to now be so near to both the Plym and Tamar ….
and then of course, is the River Jordan – yes, the one where Jesus was baptised – a river which often today runs almost dry in places.
I must say it’s been great experience to have seen both the source and mouth of some of these rivers … and sometimes to explore the different landscapes of the journey the river takes.
Perhaps it doesn’t take too much imagination to liken a river and its course, its journey, or its path, to our own journeys in life …. even down, perhaps, to how some of our lives have come together – through meeting at tributaries of our life’s river.
We’re going to have the opportunity to reflect on our own river, to read some of the words, poems, scripture and so on which might prompt our thoughts.
Margaret Silf (a former Patron of the Quiet Garden Movement) has some wonderful thoughts and inspiration in her book ‘Landscapes of Prayer’ – in the chapter entitled ‘River’ – some excerpts of which are in Thoughts to Ponder. We’d just like to mention a couple, before we enter our time of stillness …
“You can keep on going to the same river, and even the same spot on the riverbank, but you'll never see the same water twice. Rivers are wonderful teachers, of how the continuum of our being can be perfectly balanced with the immediate present moment.
The river never stands still. It has to continually let go of yesterday in order to bring life to tomorrow. Is there anything you need to let go of, in order that you might be free to keep on becoming the person God is dreaming you to be?”
Revd Judy Greenfield
Stillness and Quiet
Group Sharing
Blessing
May your life be a river.
May you flow with the purpose
of the One who created and called you,
who directs your course and turns you ever toward home.
May your way shimmer with the light of Christ
who goes with you, who bears you up, who calls you by name.
May you move with the grace of the Spirit
who brooded over the face of the waters, at the beginning
and who will gather you in at the end.
© Jan Richardson
As I travelled, virtually, with Catherine, and around 200 others on the Thames that Saturday morning, the words of ‘The Ballad of London River’ (which we used to sing at school) came to mind …. Apparently it was written as a ‘Massed School Song’ by John Borland maybe in the 1950s … with words by May Byron (1861-1936)
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs,
Flow down, O London River, to the seagull's silver wings:
Isis or Ock or Thame, forget your olden name.
And the lilies and the willows and the weirs from which you came.
(the complete version is in Thoughts to Ponder)
Another river remembered from childhood was the Usk in South Wales - bearing the same name as the small town where my gran – my dad’s mum – was born and grew up in. Others I remember are the Soar, Dove and Trent bringing memories of my visits to Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire many times over several decades. ….and many more, of course. But I must just mention the mighty Mississippi, in North America, crossing it several times, and travelling beside it on Amtrak – on our way from Minneapolis to Kansas City on my first visit to the States – and, perhaps the most beautiful, the Walnut and Arkansas rivers flowing through eastern Kansas, one of which adjoined the land where my friend Sue lives.
I’m very fortunate to now be so near to both the Plym and Tamar ….
and then of course, is the River Jordan – yes, the one where Jesus was baptised – a river which often today runs almost dry in places.
I must say it’s been great experience to have seen both the source and mouth of some of these rivers … and sometimes to explore the different landscapes of the journey the river takes.
Perhaps it doesn’t take too much imagination to liken a river and its course, its journey, or its path, to our own journeys in life …. even down, perhaps, to how some of our lives have come together – through meeting at tributaries of our life’s river.
We’re going to have the opportunity to reflect on our own river, to read some of the words, poems, scripture and so on which might prompt our thoughts.
Margaret Silf (a former Patron of the Quiet Garden Movement) has some wonderful thoughts and inspiration in her book ‘Landscapes of Prayer’ – in the chapter entitled ‘River’ – some excerpts of which are in Thoughts to Ponder. We’d just like to mention a couple, before we enter our time of stillness …
“You can keep on going to the same river, and even the same spot on the riverbank, but you'll never see the same water twice. Rivers are wonderful teachers, of how the continuum of our being can be perfectly balanced with the immediate present moment.
The river never stands still. It has to continually let go of yesterday in order to bring life to tomorrow. Is there anything you need to let go of, in order that you might be free to keep on becoming the person God is dreaming you to be?”
Revd Judy Greenfield
Stillness and Quiet
Group Sharing
Blessing
May your life be a river.
May you flow with the purpose
of the One who created and called you,
who directs your course and turns you ever toward home.
May your way shimmer with the light of Christ
who goes with you, who bears you up, who calls you by name.
May you move with the grace of the Spirit
who brooded over the face of the waters, at the beginning
and who will gather you in at the end.
© Jan Richardson
Thoughts to Ponder
The Little River
This story is attributed to the late Henri Nouwen
Once upon a time there was a little river that said, “I can become a big river.” It worked hard to get big, but in the process, encountered a huge rock. “I won’t let this rock stop me,” the river said. And the little river pushed and pushed until it finally made its way around the rock.
Next the river encountered a mountain. “I won’t let this mountain stop me,” the river said. And the little river pushed and pushed until it finally carved a canyon through the mountain. Next the river came to an enormous forest. “I won’t let all these trees stop me,” the river said. And the river pushed and pushed until it finally made its way through the forest.
The river, now large and powerful, finally arrived at the edge of a vast desert. “I won’t let this desert stop me,” the river said. But as the river pushed and pushed its way across the desert, the hot sand began soaking up its water until only a few puddles remained.
The river was quiet.
Then the river heard a voice from above. “My child, stop pushing. It’s time to surrender. Let me lift you up. Let me take over.”
The river said, “Here I am.”
The sun then lifted the river up and turned it into a huge cloud. And the wind carried the river across the desert and let it rain down on the hills and valleys of the faraway fields, making them fruitful and rich.
Where to Take It from Here…
Ambition and determination are wonderful attributes, but, apart from God, they won’t get you very far. When you’re young, you tend to feel invincible. You think you can accomplish almost anything on your own. Who needs God?
But what will you do when you get to the desert? There’s one up ahead, you know. There will come a time when the heat will be intense, and you won’t know what to do. You won’t have the strength or the resources to make it through. Your desert may contain failure, rejection, disappointment, or loss. What will you do then?
When your desert comes, you may not have the opportunity to hear the voice of God saying, “It’s time to surrender.” But you can hear him now. He wants you to stop pushing and give your life to him today. He wants to lift you up and make you fruitful for him in ways you never imagined. Can you hear him?
https://youthays.wordpress.com/a-z-illustration/the-little-river/
Excerpts from Margaret Silf’s Landscapes of Prayer – the chapter ‘River’
“You can keep on going to the same river, and even the same spot on the riverbank, but you'll never see the same water twice. Rivers are wonderful teachers of how the continuum of our being can be perfectly balanced with the immediate present moment. The river reveals an endless cycle of life, flowing from an almost imperceptible source, through all the shifting scenes of our lives, continually striving towards its destiny in the ocean, there to be taken up as a cloud, and to fall once more on the high ground to become another river. And all the while it brings life. Above all else the river is the bringer of life. There is growth where there is water.
A story tells how a stream flowed through hills and dales, and eventually came to the edge of the desert. It pitched itself in vain at the desert sand, but every time it did so, it simply drained away into nothing. At last the wind intervened and shared its wisdom with the stream. ‘If you want to cross the desert,’ it whispered to the stream, ‘you have to surrender yourself to the wind, and be taken up into the cloud, and then let yourself be carried across the desert.’ The stream protested at first, at this apparent loss of identity, but eventually surrendered, and the cloud and the wind carried its essence across the desert, where it fell again in a new place, a new stream, a new source of life.
Reflection:
“Prayer can flow like a river, following a sometimes winding course reflecting the terrain of our everyday lives, not subject to all our plans and programmes, but finding its own natural direction.
Q. Do you feel comfortable letting your prayer flow in this way, not knowing perhaps at any given time exactly how you are praying?
Q. Reflecting on the course of your life in terms of a river is a prayer in itself. Try drawing or describing in words, to yourself or to a trusted friend, how your river has flowed and is continuing to flow.
Q. In what ways is your river bringing life to the world beyond yourself? In what ways are the rivers of others’ lives nourishing you?
Q. Can you risk being ‘out of your depth,’ and letting your focus shift from yourself and how you are doing, to the river and the life it is bringing, recognizing yourself as part of that flow of life?
The river never stands still. It has to continually let go of yesterday in order to bring life to tomorrow. Is there anything you need to let go of, in order that you might be free to keep on becoming the person God is dreaming you to be?”
“The river is always part of a greater cycle, and our prayer, too, is always part of a greater conversation, a single note in a great symphony. The river remembers your story and all our stories and carries their treasure with it to its destiny in the ocean of God's love. And even as it flows it calls us to be where we are, and who we are, in the only moment we have, the eternal present moment.”
John O’Donohue
“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding”
John 0' Donohue - From his book of poetry, Connemara Blues
Take me to the River
Jesus presented himself to John the baptizer, submitting himself to the sacramental waters of the Jordon River. Jesus, who has been who knows where for something like three decades, discerning and preparing. He is ready to fling himself into the work awaiting him. And yet not ready. He needs something. A river. A ritual. A recognition. You are my Son, the Beloved, he hears as he comes up from the waters, drenched with the Jordan; with you I am well pleased. © Jan Richardson
https://paintedprayerbook.com/2009/01/08/epiphany-1-take-me-to-the-river/
“Even Stalin could not stop the river from entering people's dreams again, the river with its long memory and the eternal present.”
Anne Michaels - The Winter Vault
Deep River
Deep river, my home is over Jordan,
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Oh, don’t you want to go to that gospel feast,
That promised land where all is peace?
Oh don’t you want to go to that promised land,
That land where all is peace?
Deep river, my home is over Jordan,
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Words: Traditional Spiritual
Music: Deep River | Traditional Spiritual
Along the Riverbank - Coming home
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns …
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
Psalm 46:4-5, 9-10
“The Healer’s Tree” – Along the Riverbank – Iona Community
And from that beautiful well-loved Welsh hymn …When I tread the verge of Jordon bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell’s destruction - land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, I will ever give to thee.
The Ballad of London River
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs,
Flow down, O London River, to the seagull's silver wings:
Isis or Ock or Thame, forget your olden name.
And the lilies and the willows and the weirs from which you came.
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns …. (refrain)
Forgo your crystal shallows and your limpid, lucid wave.
When the swallows dart and glisten, where the purple blooms are brave,
For the city's dust and din. For the city's shame and sin,
For the toil and sweat of Englishmen with all the world to win.
The stately towers and turrets are the children of a day:
You see them lift and vanish by your immemorial way:
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns …. (refrain)
In an online Q and A – it was noted …
So I think the poet is not talking about old names for the River Thames but old names that the same water has had in its journey 'from the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs' to the city and the change in environment along the way.
It is well with my soul …
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul
Horatio Gates Spafford
Excerpts from Nazareth Walk on the Thames – led by Revd Catherine Duce
Nazareth Contemplative Prayer Walk 7th September 2024
A wonderful river journey on a Thames Clipper!
What can rivers teach us about the spiritual life?
The River Cannot Go Back by Kahlil Gibran
It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has travelled, from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter - there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way. The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2422
Revelation 22:1-5
And he showed me a river of the water of life . . . .
Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
"The river is a miracle of presence. Each place it flows through is the place it is. The river holds its elegance regardless of the places it flows through .... It gives itself to the urgency of becoming but never at the cost of disowning its origin. It engages the world while belonging always secretly within its memory and still strives forward into the endless flow of emerging possibility. In the sublime and unnoticed artfulness of its presence, the wisdom of a river has much to teach us."
Amos 5:24
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. Then in these swelling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea.”
River Jordan
Few ruins now those willowy banks disclose,
But fresh as in old days the current flows;
Here lofty reeds and palms shut out the beam,
And there romantic rocks o'erhang the stream.
Rare flowers, man trains not, deck the mossy ground,
And each slight breeze wafts almond-blooms around;
The bee secure along the lilied shore
Winds her blithe horn, and steals her honeyed store;
Blue skies look down on bluer waves, the air
Is soft and fragrant, as some angel there,
Just flown from Paradise, had spread his plume,
Hushing the earth, and shaking round perfume.
Sweet Jordan! surely here sad hearts might rest,
And calm Religion love a scene so blest.
Nicholas Mitchell
http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/4041/river-jordan.html
Malcolm Guite
On Prebends Bridge
I linger on this bridge above the flow,
And idle stir, the swirl of the slow Wear,
Whose purling turns and gentle fallings call
Some inner spring to stir and rise in me.
The morning light lies richly on each arch
And signs its white reflections on their stone,
Telling me more than I can see or know
I am a passing eddy in the flow
And force of centuries that raised this hill,
That shaped this sheer peninsula and let
The Wear’s slow curve enclose the city’s crown.
Above me on that crown I sense the pull
And presence, hidden deep within their shrines,
Of saints through whom the primal spring still flows:
Bede in the west and Cuthbert in the east,
A field of force in flux between two poles,
Perhaps the great cathedral is a bridge
Above the hush and hum of their exchange
Pushing and pulling through the pulse of things.
And now a bell is calling me to climb
And take my place with others where the choir
Unbinds a waiting Sanctus from its chords
And joins our voices, in rich Latin words
With all the company of heaven and earth
And with these two, between whose hearts we sing.
Feet in Flowing Water – from ‘Sing but keep on Walking’You, God, are my shepherd; I need nothing more. You let me lie down in green pastures, you lead me beside still waters;
there you revive my spirit.
You guide me in the right paths,
for you are true to your name.
(From Psalm 23, Iona Abbey Worship Book)
The Little River
This story is attributed to the late Henri Nouwen
Once upon a time there was a little river that said, “I can become a big river.” It worked hard to get big, but in the process, encountered a huge rock. “I won’t let this rock stop me,” the river said. And the little river pushed and pushed until it finally made its way around the rock.
Next the river encountered a mountain. “I won’t let this mountain stop me,” the river said. And the little river pushed and pushed until it finally carved a canyon through the mountain. Next the river came to an enormous forest. “I won’t let all these trees stop me,” the river said. And the river pushed and pushed until it finally made its way through the forest.
The river, now large and powerful, finally arrived at the edge of a vast desert. “I won’t let this desert stop me,” the river said. But as the river pushed and pushed its way across the desert, the hot sand began soaking up its water until only a few puddles remained.
The river was quiet.
Then the river heard a voice from above. “My child, stop pushing. It’s time to surrender. Let me lift you up. Let me take over.”
The river said, “Here I am.”
The sun then lifted the river up and turned it into a huge cloud. And the wind carried the river across the desert and let it rain down on the hills and valleys of the faraway fields, making them fruitful and rich.
Where to Take It from Here…
Ambition and determination are wonderful attributes, but, apart from God, they won’t get you very far. When you’re young, you tend to feel invincible. You think you can accomplish almost anything on your own. Who needs God?
But what will you do when you get to the desert? There’s one up ahead, you know. There will come a time when the heat will be intense, and you won’t know what to do. You won’t have the strength or the resources to make it through. Your desert may contain failure, rejection, disappointment, or loss. What will you do then?
When your desert comes, you may not have the opportunity to hear the voice of God saying, “It’s time to surrender.” But you can hear him now. He wants you to stop pushing and give your life to him today. He wants to lift you up and make you fruitful for him in ways you never imagined. Can you hear him?
https://youthays.wordpress.com/a-z-illustration/the-little-river/
Excerpts from Margaret Silf’s Landscapes of Prayer – the chapter ‘River’
“You can keep on going to the same river, and even the same spot on the riverbank, but you'll never see the same water twice. Rivers are wonderful teachers of how the continuum of our being can be perfectly balanced with the immediate present moment. The river reveals an endless cycle of life, flowing from an almost imperceptible source, through all the shifting scenes of our lives, continually striving towards its destiny in the ocean, there to be taken up as a cloud, and to fall once more on the high ground to become another river. And all the while it brings life. Above all else the river is the bringer of life. There is growth where there is water.
A story tells how a stream flowed through hills and dales, and eventually came to the edge of the desert. It pitched itself in vain at the desert sand, but every time it did so, it simply drained away into nothing. At last the wind intervened and shared its wisdom with the stream. ‘If you want to cross the desert,’ it whispered to the stream, ‘you have to surrender yourself to the wind, and be taken up into the cloud, and then let yourself be carried across the desert.’ The stream protested at first, at this apparent loss of identity, but eventually surrendered, and the cloud and the wind carried its essence across the desert, where it fell again in a new place, a new stream, a new source of life.
Reflection:
“Prayer can flow like a river, following a sometimes winding course reflecting the terrain of our everyday lives, not subject to all our plans and programmes, but finding its own natural direction.
Q. Do you feel comfortable letting your prayer flow in this way, not knowing perhaps at any given time exactly how you are praying?
Q. Reflecting on the course of your life in terms of a river is a prayer in itself. Try drawing or describing in words, to yourself or to a trusted friend, how your river has flowed and is continuing to flow.
Q. In what ways is your river bringing life to the world beyond yourself? In what ways are the rivers of others’ lives nourishing you?
Q. Can you risk being ‘out of your depth,’ and letting your focus shift from yourself and how you are doing, to the river and the life it is bringing, recognizing yourself as part of that flow of life?
The river never stands still. It has to continually let go of yesterday in order to bring life to tomorrow. Is there anything you need to let go of, in order that you might be free to keep on becoming the person God is dreaming you to be?”
“The river is always part of a greater cycle, and our prayer, too, is always part of a greater conversation, a single note in a great symphony. The river remembers your story and all our stories and carries their treasure with it to its destiny in the ocean of God's love. And even as it flows it calls us to be where we are, and who we are, in the only moment we have, the eternal present moment.”
John O’Donohue
“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding”
John 0' Donohue - From his book of poetry, Connemara Blues
Take me to the River
Jesus presented himself to John the baptizer, submitting himself to the sacramental waters of the Jordon River. Jesus, who has been who knows where for something like three decades, discerning and preparing. He is ready to fling himself into the work awaiting him. And yet not ready. He needs something. A river. A ritual. A recognition. You are my Son, the Beloved, he hears as he comes up from the waters, drenched with the Jordan; with you I am well pleased. © Jan Richardson
https://paintedprayerbook.com/2009/01/08/epiphany-1-take-me-to-the-river/
“Even Stalin could not stop the river from entering people's dreams again, the river with its long memory and the eternal present.”
Anne Michaels - The Winter Vault
Deep River
Deep river, my home is over Jordan,
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Oh, don’t you want to go to that gospel feast,
That promised land where all is peace?
Oh don’t you want to go to that promised land,
That land where all is peace?
Deep river, my home is over Jordan,
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Words: Traditional Spiritual
Music: Deep River | Traditional Spiritual
Along the Riverbank - Coming home
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns …
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
Psalm 46:4-5, 9-10
“The Healer’s Tree” – Along the Riverbank – Iona Community
And from that beautiful well-loved Welsh hymn …When I tread the verge of Jordon bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell’s destruction - land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, I will ever give to thee.
The Ballad of London River
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs,
Flow down, O London River, to the seagull's silver wings:
Isis or Ock or Thame, forget your olden name.
And the lilies and the willows and the weirs from which you came.
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns …. (refrain)
Forgo your crystal shallows and your limpid, lucid wave.
When the swallows dart and glisten, where the purple blooms are brave,
For the city's dust and din. For the city's shame and sin,
For the toil and sweat of Englishmen with all the world to win.
The stately towers and turrets are the children of a day:
You see them lift and vanish by your immemorial way:
From the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns …. (refrain)
In an online Q and A – it was noted …
So I think the poet is not talking about old names for the River Thames but old names that the same water has had in its journey 'from the Cotswolds, from the Chilterns, from your fountains and your springs' to the city and the change in environment along the way.
It is well with my soul …
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul
Horatio Gates Spafford
Excerpts from Nazareth Walk on the Thames – led by Revd Catherine Duce
Nazareth Contemplative Prayer Walk 7th September 2024
A wonderful river journey on a Thames Clipper!
What can rivers teach us about the spiritual life?
The River Cannot Go Back by Kahlil Gibran
It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has travelled, from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter - there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way. The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2422
Revelation 22:1-5
And he showed me a river of the water of life . . . .
Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
"The river is a miracle of presence. Each place it flows through is the place it is. The river holds its elegance regardless of the places it flows through .... It gives itself to the urgency of becoming but never at the cost of disowning its origin. It engages the world while belonging always secretly within its memory and still strives forward into the endless flow of emerging possibility. In the sublime and unnoticed artfulness of its presence, the wisdom of a river has much to teach us."
Amos 5:24
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. Then in these swelling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea.”
River Jordan
Few ruins now those willowy banks disclose,
But fresh as in old days the current flows;
Here lofty reeds and palms shut out the beam,
And there romantic rocks o'erhang the stream.
Rare flowers, man trains not, deck the mossy ground,
And each slight breeze wafts almond-blooms around;
The bee secure along the lilied shore
Winds her blithe horn, and steals her honeyed store;
Blue skies look down on bluer waves, the air
Is soft and fragrant, as some angel there,
Just flown from Paradise, had spread his plume,
Hushing the earth, and shaking round perfume.
Sweet Jordan! surely here sad hearts might rest,
And calm Religion love a scene so blest.
Nicholas Mitchell
http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/4041/river-jordan.html
Malcolm Guite
On Prebends Bridge
I linger on this bridge above the flow,
And idle stir, the swirl of the slow Wear,
Whose purling turns and gentle fallings call
Some inner spring to stir and rise in me.
The morning light lies richly on each arch
And signs its white reflections on their stone,
Telling me more than I can see or know
I am a passing eddy in the flow
And force of centuries that raised this hill,
That shaped this sheer peninsula and let
The Wear’s slow curve enclose the city’s crown.
Above me on that crown I sense the pull
And presence, hidden deep within their shrines,
Of saints through whom the primal spring still flows:
Bede in the west and Cuthbert in the east,
A field of force in flux between two poles,
Perhaps the great cathedral is a bridge
Above the hush and hum of their exchange
Pushing and pulling through the pulse of things.
And now a bell is calling me to climb
And take my place with others where the choir
Unbinds a waiting Sanctus from its chords
And joins our voices, in rich Latin words
With all the company of heaven and earth
And with these two, between whose hearts we sing.
Feet in Flowing Water – from ‘Sing but keep on Walking’You, God, are my shepherd; I need nothing more. You let me lie down in green pastures, you lead me beside still waters;
there you revive my spirit.
You guide me in the right paths,
for you are true to your name.
(From Psalm 23, Iona Abbey Worship Book)
Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 22 November at St Anne’s Church with a theme of 'Angels'