One of my favorite programs on public radio is ‘On Being’, which is broadcast on NHPR on Sunday mornings from 7-8 am, so I hear a snippet of the program as I drive to church. Krista Tibbett is the presenter and she has interviewed a vast array of people, from poets to priests to neuroscientists to the Dixie Chicks!
Her interview with John O’Donohue, an Irish poet, priest, and philosopher, was one of the last before he died in 2009. I have shared with you a number of blessings from his book ‘To Bless the Space Between Us’. Padraig O’Tuama is another Irish poet and theologian, the leader of the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland, and he has been described as ‘ an extraordinary healer in our world of fracture.’ Krista Tibbett interviewed Padraig O’Tuama in March 2017. He speaks of the work of reconciliation and reads some of his poetry – definitely worth a listen!
More recently I was introduced to the Daily Prayer book from the Corrymeela Community and among the wonderful offerings in their prayer book is The Prayer of Courage. The Daily Prayer Book includes 31 brief Scripture readings – a verse or two – and a prayer for that day. Here is one offering:
‘Leave your gift there before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.’ Matthew 5:24
God of Reconciliation, You demand much of us – inviting us to tell truths by turning towards each other. May we leave our trinkets where they belong and find our treasure by turning towards each other. Because you need this. Because we all need this. AMEN
‘May we leave our trinkets where they belong and find our treasure by turning towards each other.’ I have been carrying that phrase with me, praying that God might show me what trinkets need to be left where they belong, and how I might find the treasure that is in relationships; with God and with one another, telling truths by turning towards each other. As St. Paul writes: If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to God and gave us the ministry of reconciliation’.*
My prayer is that we might attend to the ministry of reconciliation, in our community, in our nation, and in our world.
Autumn blessings,
Anne
* 2 Corinthians 5:17-18