{"id":4303,"date":"2015-11-16T07:39:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T12:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2015-11-16T11:31:36","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T16:31:36","slug":"cries-in-the-darkness-requital-in-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tomzampino\/2015\/11\/cries-in-the-darkness-requital-in-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Cries In The Darkness, Requital In The Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"A_frightened_and_an_angry_face,_left_and_right_respectively._Wellcome_V0009326\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We battle against not only the agony of destruction, carnage, and death everywhere now around us, but also with our own response.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, paralysis overwhelms the horror; itself replaced, swiftly, by despair.<\/p>\n

Then, anger.<\/p>\n

An anger sweet, and pure, and righteous, and human.<\/p>\n

An anger cold enough to unsheathe our courage, yet hot enough to stir us forward.<\/p>\n

Courage demands that all things be made right again.<\/p>\n

And it will make it so \u2013 or die in the trying.<\/p>\n

Still, these are the times when we cry out in the darkness.<\/p>\n

And our cries become our prayers.<\/p>\n

But, deep within, we fear that our cries will fail to reach up close enough.<\/p>\n

Or worse, are heard but are yet dismissed.<\/p>\n

Gerald Manley Hopkins<\/a>\u00a0helps us to understand this battle, this mortal drama with the divine.<\/p>\n

He describes as it as \u201cwarfare of my lips in truth.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Manley\u2019s words seem especially poignant this morning.<\/p>\n

May God bless the people of Paris.<\/p>\n

May God bless us all.<\/p>\n

My Prayer Must Meet A Brazen Heaven<\/strong><\/p>\n

My prayers must meet a brazen heaven<\/div>\n
And fail or scatter all away.<\/div>\n
Unclean and seeming unforgiven<\/div>\n
My prayers I scarcely call to pray.<\/div>\n
I cannot buoy my heart above;<\/div>\n
Above it cannot entrance win.<\/div>\n
I reckon precedents of love,<\/div>\n
But feel the long success of sin.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My heaven is brass and iron my earth:<\/div>\n
Yea iron is mingled with my clay,<\/div>\n
So harden\u2019d is it in this dearth<\/div>\n
Which praying fails to do away.<\/div>\n
Nor tears nor tears this clay uncouth<\/div>\n
Could mould, if any tears there were.<\/div>\n
A warfare of my lips in truth,<\/div>\n
Battling with God, is now my prayer.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/pre>\n