Daily Primer — June 2

“On a dark night
Kindled in love with yearnings
Oh, happy chance!
I went forth unobserved,
My house being now at rest.”

How does one hush one's house,
each proud possessive wall, each sighing rafter,
the rooms made restless with remembered laughter
or wounding echoes, the permissive doors,
the stairs that vacillate from up to down,
windows that bring in color and event from countryside
or town, oppressive ceilings and complaining floors?
The house must first of all accept the night.
Let it erase the walls and their display,
impoverish the rooms till they are filled
with humble silences; let clocks be stilled
and all the selfish urgencies of day.

Midnight is not the time to greet a guest,
Caution the doors against both foes and friends,
and try to make the windows understand
their unimportance when the daylight ends.
Persuade the stairs to patience, and deny
the passages their aimless to and fro.

Virtue it is that puts a house at rest.
How well repaid that tenant is, how blest
who, when the call is heard,
is free to take his kindled heart and go.

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.

You, Lord, dwell among us in grace and truth — but in our blindness, you are a stranger to us.  “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.”
As the rune taught this morning, “Often, often, often, goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.”  Teach us, Lord, as you did on the road to Emmaus, that we will encounter you as we walk this life’s journey and invite the stranger to be our companion.  In entertaining the stranger, may our eyes be opened, our hearts be set aflame, and our zeal for the good news of your love be renewed.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend myself, my spirit, my soul, and my body,  for thou hast created and redeemed them, O Lord, thou God of truth. Together with me, take also under thy fatherly care and protection all that are near or dear to me, all that thou givest me leave to call mine: for all these are the gifts of thy bountiful hand to thy poor unworthy servant. Preserve my lying down and my rising up, from this time forth, and even for evermore. Make me to remember thee in my bed, and to think upon thee when I am  waking: then let me commune with my own heart, and search out my spirits, for thou art about my path, and about my bed; and when I awake, I am present with thee. I will lay me down in peace and take my rest; for it is thou, Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety.