Hands

Hand's inner self. Sole, that does its walking
just with feelings. That holds itself face up
and, as in a mirror,
receives from heaven its own meandering pathways.
That has learned to walk on water
when it splashes.
That walks on wells,
transforming every journey.
That finds itself in other hands
and turns them into landscapes,
wanders and arrives in them,
fills them with arrival. 

Rainer Maria Rilke Uncollected Poems

                                                           The Cathedral by Rodin from here

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Show of Hands : Witness. Lyrics below video

We've got land, we grow food
We bake bread, and fell wood
Spring lambs in the fields
Sweet water in our hills

And at sunrise each day
We connect, we pray
We've got faith to spare
We bond, we share

So, sit down, stop running
He's near, he's coming

And Jackie taught, Alan drove a tank
Ellie travelled, and I drank.
John was a farmer, Ben flew
We broke ranks, but we grew

So, sit down, stop running
He's near, he's coming

We found haven here in the Devon hills
Until the icecaps melt and the valleys fill
We'll sail away and look right down
At the carbon footprints in the sand
The upturned faces, outstretched hands
They never made this promised land

Lookout

No TV, no net
No phones, no regret
No past, no doubt
We say, we shout

It's on the wind, and the trees
It's on land, it's at sea
Join hands its clear
That this time he's near

Sit down, stop running
He's here, he's coming

Sit down, stop running
He's here, he's coming

And finally from my inbox this morning from The Henri Nouwen Society.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'What about you, do you want to go away too?' Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life'... (John 6) 

I have found over and over again how hard it is to be truly faithful to Jesus when I am alone. 

I need my brothers and sisters to pray with me, to speak with me about the spiritual task in hand...But far more importantly, it is Jesus who heals, not I, Jesus who speaks words of truth, not I...