Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday – March 7 – Lent III (The First Day… and the Eighth)

Receive this poem as a poem –

or set it to the tune of Hymn 655 (O Jesus, I have promised) and let it sing to you:


Unless This Day Be Holy

Unless this day be holy

all days shall blur to one,

as orderly but empty

they march from sun to sun.

But if we keep the Sabbath

through prayer and rest and praise,

we’ll find the sacred meaning

of all our working days.

Our Sabbath, like the lightning

that lifts the curtained night,

shall cast before us shining

what darkness hides from sight:

the wonder and the glory

we dimly sense and feel,

the circling sacred presence

our busy lives conceal.

O let this day be holy

and rich in strength and peace,

and when the day is over

its meaning shall increase,

as day by day we labor

to shape our work and art

to fit the holy visions

that thunder in our heart.

- Thomas H. Troeger, alt by poet 2006

From Borrowed Light

© 1996 Oxford University Press




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