Butch's Blog for 3/16
Butch Ritter
Jeremiah 20: 1-6
“A curse on the day I was born,
On the day my mother bore me,
On the man who brought my father the news.
Why did the man not kill me in the womb,
So that the womb might be my tomb?
Why did I ever come out to live in toil and sorrow,
And to end my days in shame?”
That is called a lament, a serious lament, a hopeless and bleak lament. Life is stacked against Jeremiah according to this passage.
Risk and reward- all lives have risks and rewards. As we move ever closer to the Passion of Jesus we see the risk, the dark storm clouds gathering. The days become more and more depressive. It becomes harder to see the good news.
So we pray…
Christ be with us, Christ before us, Christ behind us,
Christ be in us, Christ beneath us, Christ above us,
Christ on our right, Christ on our left,
Christ where we lie, Christ where we sit, Christ where we arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of us,
Christ in every eye that sees us,
Christ in every ear that hears us.
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Christ,
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.
(Saint Patrick, Ireland, 5th C.)
That was St. Patrick. This is Navajo:
“Beauty before me,
Beauty behind me.
Beauty above me,
Beauty below me.
Beauty all around me.
Beauty within me.
I walk in beauty.
A universal longing, a universal desire.