Short and Sweet

One thing I enjoy about Lent is the hymn booklet we use for the songs we sing at prayer. Compared to the booklets we use at Christmas or Easter (Advent has quite a few, too), there are more options for songs sung as mantras. These shorter songs easily enter into memory and are nice to have in your head during the season as we prepare our hearts for Easter Sunday.

Recently I came across a shorter, maybe mantra-like Mary Oliver poem that I hadn't read before titled, Whispered Poem:

I have been risky in my endeavors,

I have been steadfast in my loves;

Oh Lord, consider these when you judge me.

Then, I remembered two others that I often read. First, The Uses of Sorrow:

Someone I loved once gave me

a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this, too, was a gift.

And, We Shake With Joy:

We shake with joy, we shake with grief.

What a time they have, these two

house as they are in the same body.

These, too, like the mantras we sing in chapel, enter into my memory bank quickly, and I recall them from time to time. As for my favorite mantras at prayer?

A Listening Heart (Bob Hurd)

A listening heart give us, O God,

that we may always hear your voice;

a listening heart give us, O God,

that we may always follow.

Turn Our Hearts To You, O God (Barbara Bridge)

Turn our hearts to you, O God

with you there is healing,

wholeness and forgiveness,

freedom from fear, lasting peace.

Your Love Is Finer Than Life (Marty Haugen)

O God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you,

your love is finer than life.

Perhaps it is because I am focused on a mantra in my Lenten meditation practice, but these short sets of words are keeping me good company this Lenten season.

Let us walk in the holy presence.

The birds are keeping me good company, too.