Daily Primer — July 3, Narvik — Norway, Arctic Circle

Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things—
  
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
  
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
      
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
  
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                    
Praise Him.

Florilegium is the Medieval Latin word for bouquet, or more literally flowers (flos, flor-) which are gathered (legere). The word florilegium was used to refer to a compilation of writings, often religious or philosophical. These florilegium are literary flowers—beautiful words/prayers/thoughts I have gathered.  During my sabbatical they will give me something to ponder each day. — PHL.

Lord, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  We pray that you would lead us in paths of truth.  Help us not only to know the truth, but to love it — even as we grow in our knowledge of you and in our love for you.  Let us have confidence not in our own possession of the truth so much as in your embodying the truth in your person.  So, like old friends, we come to a place where our knowledge of you allows us to anticipate what you want for us and from us.  We pray this in the name of our Lord who told us, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”  Amen.

Lord, you have saved us from slavery to sin:
Give us the freedom of your children.
Help all who seek your light to find it:
Let them be consecrated in the truth.
We remember the widowed and the orphaned:
Comfort them in your love.

Lord God, ever faithful,
see us gathered before you
as the day draws to a close;
confirm our hearts in your love,
and keep alive in us
the memory of your goodness and kindness,
which have appeared in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

May God be merciful to us and bless us.
May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy
of God rest in peace. Amen.