July 6 Devotion

Poem: "The Thing Is"
by Ellen Bass
read by Margaret Francik

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

Music: Vivace from Ten Duets, op. 53
Gliere
Karen Bart and Helen Byrne, cellos

Prayer
by B. D. Prewer
read by Margaret Francik

Most Holy Christ,
Come through our locked doors,
you persistent lover,
come where we’re hiding
and blow away our cover.
Come through disbelief,
enter and greet us,
with disruptive peace
come in and meet us.
Come in the doubting
when old fears molest,
come with your own breath
that we may know rest.
Come with your Spirit,
to lives sour and stale,
breathe forth your Spirit
that we may be hale.
Come with forgiveness
like no man has dared,
breathe in us your grace
that it may be shared.
Come in the evening
with your breath of peace
breathe on your people
that nightmares may cease.
Amen.

Artwork by Solly Smook & Zoey Frank