Wednesday 4 February 2015

A Letter To All Loved Ones

A Letter To All Loved Ones

Dearly Beloved,
Be-Loved and Beheld,
Broken-open and Born-anew
I long for you to heed this truth,
To hold it tightly to your delicate clay facade,
And to know it at the very centre of your being,
To grasp it in the very core of who you are;
The depths beyond which science shares no secrets,
I fitfully long for this word to bleed into your heart,
And plant a truth, a seed, bearing fruit in your understanding of yourself,
You are loved,
Beloved, you are loved,
Beloved,
You are loved, not for your achievements, though they are many,
And you are loved, not for your graciousness and compassion, though they are real also,
You are loved, beloved,
You are loved, not even because you simply, “are”,
The love with which you are loved is beyond quantifying,
And far beyond purport,
You are loved,
Whispered simply, you are loved,
Shouted from mountaintops, you are loved,
You are loved,
Let this truth soak deep into you,
Let it stain your self-respect,
Let it wash clean your notion of grace,
Let it cleanse the areas of your life that you’d rather forget,
You are loved,
Beloved,
I yearn for you to know a fraction of the artisan’s delight,
For you to grasp with unquenchable joy and enchantment, the love which formed you,
And the love which loves you,
For you are loved,
Time does not erode this love,
Disease can neither hinder nor diminish this love,
Guilt and fear and anger and grief and remorse are held by this love,
Not denied or ignored,
But embraced and understood by this love,
The grave shrieks and quakes insight of this love,
And the love knows the cost,
Dearly beloved,
Be-loved and Beheld,
Broken-open and Born-anew,
You are loved,
Beloved, you are loved.


A song of Plate and Cup

a song of plate and cup
there is noise
distractions and distortions

there is complexity
worries and concerns

there are conditions
expectations and stresses

there is fear
of what may be and what might never happen

there are temptations
trials and persistent damaging demands

there is worry
and there is peace
creator and sustainer
pioneer and saviour

give us your peace
held tightly in your love

bear us warmly
strengthen us when shadows lengthen

cultivate in us stability
rooted in your name

rooted in your word
rooted by your voice

give us deep roots
holding us together

keeping us firm
rooting us in our place

rooting us with you
rooted in our centre

help our roots build strong bonds
with the soil and fabric of our lives

strengthen our roots
with the nourishment we need

may our rootedness
interweave our lives together

and keep us ever onward
reaching towards your throne

keep us faithful and persistent
stable in fidelity

keep us creative and flexible
persistent in our searching

may our firm foundations
be yours and yours alone

that our deep entangled roots
would feed our hearts for life
help us to bear witness
to the journey that we take

and as we come to the plate and to the cup
as we have so many times before

feed us once again
with your flesh and with your blood

that plate and cup would root us in your story
rooted in earthly trouble and kingdom glory

build us up to tend your garden
shape our lives to grow for you

for your glory and in your name
to heaven’s son we pray, AMEN.





(c) Tim Watson, 2015



A song of Plate and Cup - a liturgy, used before the Eucharistic prayer, in a service thinking about "rootedness" - sly, unintentional nod to George R. R. Martin in the title!