Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Saturday Noonday Prayer

Opening: Lead me in your truth and teach me, O God of my salvation.

Psalm: Let it be your desire now
To relieve me of this
May all that is in me that caused it
Find a true humility
May all that seeks to dim my soul –
Let all that restlessness come to quiet
Let it be turned around, confounded
May all that says to me, “Aha!  Aha!”
Be astonished and humbled
Let it blush with its shame
And may all that seeks for you
Be glad and take delight in you
And may they continually sing of your magnificence
Those who love your ways

Reading:  Spiritual experience is a modest woman who looks lovingly at only one man.

It's a great river where ducks live happily, and crows drown.

The visible bowl of form contains food that is both nourishing and a source of heartburn.

There is an unseen presence we honor that gives the gift.

You're water. We're the millstone. You're wind. We're dust blown up into shapes. You're spirit. We're the opening and closing of our hands. You're the clarity. We're this language that tries to say it. You're joy. We're all the different kinds of laughing.

The Lord’s Prayer: Holy One,
We honor your name.
Let the world know your justice
Here as everywhere.
Give us the food we need
For both the body and the soul.
Forgive us the wrongs we do
As we forgive the wrongs of others.
Keep us safe from the evil
At large or of our own making.
We trust you for you made us and
We are yours, now and always.  Amen.

Prayer: I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that I may be strengthened in my inner being with power through the Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith, as I am being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that I may know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with the fullness of God.

Going Forth:  May God's face shine on us through all our lives, and God's love strengthen our works.