George Herbert on Prayer (mid-week message)

George Herbert statue at Salisbury Cathedral

Fr. Tony's Mid-week Message
George Herbert on Prayer

 January 22, 2014

Anglican Priest and Caroline Divine George Herbert wrote the following exquisite poem on prayer, a catena of lapidary images plumbing what prayer is about and how we experience it, for good or ill: 

  Prayer (I)

 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.

I hope that all of us are remembering to say our prayers. 

  
Grace and peace,

   Fr. Tony+