Daily Primer — June 27, Stvanger — Norway

God’s Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
 
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,
 
  It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil
 
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck His rod?
 
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
       
  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
 
  And bears man’s smudge, and shares man’s smell; the
soil
 
Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.
 
And for all this, nature is never spent;
 
  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
       
And though the last lights from the black west went,
 
  Oh, morning at the brown brink eastwards springs—
 
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
 
  World broods with warm breast, and with, ah, bright
wings.

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, you tell us that to be like our Father in heaven we should let the sun rise and the rain fall on the good and bad alike — that we should be generous in mercy.  Help us as we make our pilgrimage of faith to grow in generosity of spirit so that we too become so full of mercy that we become disinterested in the merit of those around us, because we are more interested in serving as ambassadors of your reconciling love.  Amen.

Thou Being of marvels,
Shield me with might,
Thou Being of statutes
And of stars.

Compass me this night,
Both soul and body,
Compass me this night,
And on every night.

Compass me aright
Between earth and sky,
Between the mystery of Thy laws
And mine eye of blindness;

Both that which mine eye sees
And that which it reads not;
Both that which is clear
And is not clear to my devotion.