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Poems, Prayers and Reflections
Friday 11th October 2019
Phil Craine
Poems, prayer and reflections are a key part of the Journeying experience. Please send us a poem, a thought, a quote from a verse and let us know why it inspires you and we'd be happy to publish it in the blog.
To start us off, here is a poem by George Herbert along with an introduction by one of our leaders, Phil Craine, on why it inspires him:
"This poem is simply a list of metaphors attempting to grasp different aspects of prayer. They are all different but still ring true to my ear. Prayer can be angry, desperate, consoling and comforting - and the poet's vivid images bring life to these qualities. I think too that he captures the sense of prayer as mystery but real - perhaps especially in the final 'something understood'. 'Something' is vague but nevertheless the message is picked up."
Prayer (1) by George Herbert
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.