A prayer, a poem, a recitation about sanctifying oneself...to be with God...

I have liked this poem from the time I wrote it some years ago. It is posted on my website www.petermenkin.com . Usually, I stick with poems that are newer or at least not on the website. Yet I liked this one so much at this time of year in Pentecost that I am posting it here. Note that it was originally written in March, from my notes at a Study House in Berkeley, California, Incarnation Monastery. Some how, this year it fits here as we continue in the season.

I hope it will speak to you as it has spoken to me, and some others who have read the poem. You can tell that I like it very much. I do not always like my own poems "very much." It is something I endeavor to find when writing these, that they will continue to speak some time after conception and writing.

Notes from the study house in March, No. 3 (2001)
by Peter Menkin

In God of God,
beginning with the mnemonic--with Christ
beside others.
Around the Abba.The Alpha.

Tree of the Cross,
giving voice to yearning
within. The returning
movement
of intention to be
with God the whole day.

The master says,
"not to be habitually forgetful,"
prayer of aspiration!
Help me in this God.

Exploring prayer time, a short poem about approaching the Lord...

Today I visited Grace Cathedral in San Francisco for Evening Prayer. On Thursdays, like today's Evening Prayer, the time is a choral Prayer time. Two friends went with me, and as usual everyone who has gone with me has enjoyed the prayer experience, and certainly the music of the choral group.

In this short poem posted today, the reader will find one sense of prayer, for here I outline the self approaching the Lord. It is a known issue for Christians that we are thankful for Christ's life, for his redeeming mankind. At some point, this becomes personal to the extent that the inner man, the self, the part of a man or woman who has an essence, still an observing self made stronger through succumbing to the knowledge that the persecuted Christ, the Christ of the Cross is able to evoke for us the sense of self that we are sinners. We pray through God's grace. In prayer one is received.

The part of the identity of a man or woman that is human, individual and universal, yearns for the peace and forgiveness that is part of the Christ one gets to know.

We want to grasp this eternity, what is there for us we do grasp through humility and the gift of grace that there is an essential part that is reached. So I have written about some of the matter of experiencing belief and faith in the Lord Jesus and in the continuing love and faithfulness of God the Father in this poem, making that word "self" broader and hopefully a more imaginative self.

Prayer Time...
by Peter Menkin

The afternoon comes,
Each day prayer time:
Being with You.
Quiet,
Silence my thoughts.

In the presence of God,
In Christ,
In the Spirit
My self approaches,
My self it waits,
To just be.

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God's presence is known to man, in quiet ways...a poem...

This is another of my poems written a few years ago, revised. It talks of that quiet voice of God. A voice we know.



Love mysterious ours...
by Peter Menkin

I read
the books of the Prophets,
Isaiah the most recent: searching
with him the presence
and love God
in faithfulness offers generation
by generation.
The reason to know,

He seeks and searches
the heart
of men and women, whom
His everlasting
love comes to in self giving;
a grace
unearned changing me and all of us
in a cosmos of ways of calming
comfort
love mysterious ours.

A poem (again, a poem) about God in one's life: The Rule of St. Benedict... turning to God in vigil...

Most recently, I have begun a vigil for a woman who is nearing death. I visit a nursing home health care unit weekly, and a woman I have known for a while is refusing to eat, apparently too old now to live. This disturbs me, and it has been going on for some time. No one could do anything about it, including doctors and nurses. What do I do? How do I react? I chose to turn to God and a vigil.

I called it my vigil, but when I mentioned it to others they suggested some prayers (for it is their vigil, too). I chose to turn to God, and this poem is about a way of turning to God.

Poetic recitation on The Rule of St. Benedict
by Peter Menkin

Attend with the ear of your heart
Listen in the silence
at night or daytime
through trials and living.

This Rule brings God, the Lord
closer: do so to me.

Labor of obedience:
Before beginning a goodwork, pray earnestly.
We are the Lords counted
sons and daughters.
The path offers good gifts,
open your eyes to the light.
Arise from sleep.

The Rule proffers the voice
from heaven this day.








This prayer was suggested as one for the vigil:

For All Who Suffer: O God, look with mercy on those who suffer, and heal their spirits,that they may be delivered from sickness and fear. Restore hopefor the desolate, give rest to the weary, comfort the sorrowful, bewith the dying; and bring them, finally, to their true heavenly home, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

Poetic notes on the Rule of St. Benedict; an introduction...

For 12 years and more I have endeavored to follow the Rule of St. Benedict, a short text that says so much about man and living in relation to Christ. This is a Trinitarian God set forth in this little book. Here is a poetic note on the Prologue. My hope is that it praises God and praises the Rule.

Prologue of great Text of The Rule...
by Peter Menkin

Savoring the words of meaning
in The Rule is an offering
for understanding"...let us open
our eyes to the light...

"and come to know language--arise from asleep
that reaches across centuries--to listen.
Saint Benedict!

Awakening heart and mind, in His goodness
stirring the fear of God, King, Christ the Lord
through the words of "...this message of mine..."

notes the sloth
of disobedience is in us. Calls to ears that listen
"Run while you have the light..."

inviting all to the voice of the Lord;
call delightful, what is more?