Newsbrief: Holy Week

In the midst of a very busy Holy Week, I’m pulling the old newsletter trick of borrowing something that someone else wrote!

It is one of my favorite poems and it comes from a poet who just so happened to be a member of the church I served back in seminary. His name is Mark Jarman and this is number 11 in his collection titled “Unholy Sonnets”. It can be found in his book of poetry Questions for Ecclesiastes.

Half asleep in prayer I said the right thing

And felt a sudden pleasure come into

The room or my own body, In the dark,

Charged with a change of atmosphere, at first

I couldn’t tell my body from the room.

And I was wide awake, full of this feeling,

Alert as though I’d heard a doorknob twist,

A drawer pulled, and instead of terror knew

The intrusion of an overwhelming joy.

I had said thanks and this was the response.

But how I said it or what I said it for

I still cannot recall and I have tried

All sorts of ways all hours of the night.

Once was enough to be dissatisfied.

I hope to see you tonight for our Maundy Thursday Service, on Friday when the Sanctuary will be open from 10-2 for prayer and meditation, and of course on Sunday morning for our Easter Worship Service.

Yours in the Journey, Rev. Brian