Praying with Poetry
Smashwords Edition
Published by L. Thompson at Smashwords
© July 26, 2011
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Foreword
Introduction
Saint Francis: Troubadour of God
Saint Teresa of Avila: Seeking God’s Plan
John Donne: Confronting Our Sinfulness
Gerald Manley Hopkins: Oozing with God’s Grandeur
Emily Dickinson: A New Hermit
Francis Thompson: God’s Fugitive
Robert Frost: God’s Naturalist
Sara Teasdale: Living in God’s Love
Helen Steiner Rice: Becoming an Ambassador of “Son”-shine
Philip Larkin: Seeking Healing
Foreword
Prayer is essential to developing a relationship with God. This book introduces a method of using poetry to deepen one’s prayer life. The introduction discusses the psychological aspects of poetry. Allow me to make a few suggestions regarding prayer.
The first suggestion is to make room for prayer in your life. It should take place at a scheduled time on a regular basis in a designated place. Arrange a sacred place in your home designated for prayer. Set a schedule and make every effort to keep to your schedule. It might take six weeks or more adjust to it, so be patient and persevere.
Another suggestion—preview the meditation before praying with it. It is a good idea to know ahead of time the content of the meditation. During prayer, you should read slowly; taking time to contemplate what you are reading and how it relates to you, your life and your relationship with others, including God. Pay special attention to words, phrases and ideas that stand out for you.
One more suggestion—examine the words, phrases or ideas that stand out for you. Discuss their relevancy in your journal. Conclude your journal entry with a resolution. This resolution is your “take-away” to further consider as you go about your day.
These meditations can also be used for group prayer. Group prayer would enable community to learn more about themselves as well as learn about the spiritual journey of community members.
Introduction
Poetry is a form of literature that eludes definition. It is an art form that emerges from the pure human need to express oneself. Poetry that is used for healing and personal growth may be traced back to primitive man who used it in religious rites in which shamans chanted poetic prayers or incantations for the well-being of the group or individual. Ancient poems have been found on Sumerian wax tablets and Egyptian papyrus. The poetic music of a shepherd boy named David date to 1030 BC. It is of interest to note that the first hospital in the United States, Pennsylvania Hospital founded by Benjamin Franklin, employed treatments for their patients which included reading, writing and publishing their poems. Doctor Benjamin Rush, the father of American Psychiatry, included music and poetry as part of his treatments.
Poetry is a powerful therapeutic tool; unique in its use of metaphor, imagery, rhythm and other devices. Freud and Jung among other great figures of medicine recognize the role of literature, like poetry, in the art of healing. By reading and reflecting on literature, such as poetry, the reader identifies and empathizes with the writer. The shared experience is similar to that of a group therapy situation. After all, there is nothing new under the sun. 
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
TROUBADOUR OF GOD
Theme – Each of us is given certain gifts and called to a specific mission in life.
Opening Prayer
Lord, give us listening hearts. Enlighten our minds to discern your call. Strengthen our bodies to serve you be helping others
About Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone. He was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis begged with the beggars at St. Peter's. The experience moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His order was endorsed by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which was an enclosed order for women, as well as the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In 1219, he went to Egypt where crusaders were besieging Damietta, hoping to find martyrdom at the hands of the Muslims. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the order. Once his organization was endorsed by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. Though he desired to live in solitude, people sought him out. This is one of the reasons he wrote The Canticle of the Sun.
The Canticle of the Sun, also known as the Laudes Creaturarum (Praise of the Creatures), was written in the Umbrian dialect of Italian but has since been translated into many languages. It is believed to be among the first works of literature, if not the first, written in the Italian language.
The Canticle of the Sun in its praise of God thanks Him for such creations as "Brother Fire" and "Sister Water." It is an affirmation of Francis' personal theology as he often referred to animals as brothers and sisters to mankind, rejected material accumulation and sensual comforts in favor of "Lady Poverty."
Saint Francis is said to have composed most of the canticle in late 1224 while recovering from an illness at San Damiano, in a small cottage that had been built for him by Saint Clare and other women of her order. According to tradition, the first time it was sung in its entirety was by Francis and Brothers Angelo and Leo, two of his original companions, on Francis' deathbed, the final verse praising "Sister Death" having been added only a few minutes before.
Historically, the Canticle of the Sun is first mentioned in the Vita Prima of Thomas of Celano, in 1228. Francis is also credited for the first Christmas manger scene in 1223. In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first person to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion. He died in 1226 while singing Psalm 141.
On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine of Siena), and it is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.
Pause: Reflect on your spiritual journey. What steps do you need to take in order to become the person God is calling you to be?
Poet’s Words - Canticle of the Sun
Most High, all powerful, good Lord, /Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, /and all blessing. /To You alone, Most High, do they belong,/and no man is worthy to mention Your name.
Praise be You, my Lord, with all your creatures, /especially Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day and/through whom you give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor, /and bears a likeness of You, Most High One. /Praise be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon/and the stars, in heaven you formed them /clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, /and through the air, cloudy and serene, /and every kind of weather through which/You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, /which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, /through whom you light the night and he is beautiful /and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, /who sustains us and governs us and who produces /varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Praised be You, my Lord, /through those who give pardon for Your love,/and bear infirmity and tribulation.
Blessed are those who endure in peace/for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord, /through our Sister Bodily Death,/from whom no living man can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin. /Blessed are those whom death will find/in Your most holy will, /for the second death shall do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord, /and give Him thanks/and serve Him with great humility.
Exercises
Pick one or two elements of nature that Francis mentions and journal about the role this element plays in your life and your spiritual journey
God’s Word – Psalm 113
Hallelujah! Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD both now and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the LORD be praised. High above all nations is the LORD; above the heavens God's glory. Who is like the LORD, our God enthroned on high, looking down on heaven and earth? 
The LORD raises the needy from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap, Seats them with princes, the princes of the people, gives the childless wife a home, the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah! 
Closing Prayer
Hallelujah and praise to God who raises up the lowly and bestows good things. Let us walk in God’s abundant goodness and share it with all we meet. 
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA
SEEKING GOD’S PLAN
Theme – Each of us is called to be a mystic.
Opening Prayer
Lord, you call us to separate ourselves from the things of this world, help us to set aside all things which impede our complete surrender to you.
About Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa of Ávila was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa's writings stand among the most remarkable in the mystical literature of the Catholic Church. 
The wisdom St. Teresa of Avila expresses in Lines Written in Her Breviary is a wisdom born from much prayer, contemplation, and perseverance in doing God's will. St. Teresa of Avila lived in a time when Spain's Catholic Church was very much dominated by a male hierarchy. St. Teresa though heard and responded to the call of God to reform Carmel and lead it in the direction of its original spirit - poverty, simplicity, prayer and self-denial, but she was greatly opposed by many for her efforts. Despite all the opposition she experienced, St. Teresa continued on, and built the mission entrusted to her by the Lord to reforming Carmel.
The poem is a fruit of St. Teresa's spiritual experiences and her work in the reformation of the Carmelite Order. She learned that ultimately, only God is what is important above all others. Possessing God's Spirit is the one thing necessary, and we are called to be single-minded and single-hearted in our pursuit of God.
With God in our mind and heart, nothing will disturb us. Nothing will frighten us. We realize that all things are passing in relation to One who is Eternal. And in our life and work, we will be able to do God's will if we patiently endure. Our perseverance will help us attain what is necessary for both our body and the salvation of our soul. With God as our primary end, we will have trust and confidence in His Divine Providence, and will never lack anything we need to do what is required for us in our state of life.
In 1622, forty years after her death, St. Teresa was canonized by Pope Gregory XV, and in 1970 named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Her books, which include her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and her seminal work, El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle), are an integral part of the Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices as she entails in her other important work Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection).She died in 1582.
Pause: Reflect on the “things” in life that are obstacles to becoming closer to God. 
Poet’s Words - Lines Written in Her Breviary
Let nothing upset you, /Let nothing frighten you, /All things pass, all things pass, /God never changes.
Patience will gain for you /Everything you strive for. /When you have God /you lack nothing at all; /God alone is enough.
Exercises
Create a list of your talents and abilities; research community organizations where your skills could be useful and volunteer at least one hour each month.
God’s Word – Romans 8:28 - 30
Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Closing Prayer
Lord, I choose now to set aside those things which keep me from you. Strengthen my resolve to grow closer to you and to know your will for me.
JOHN DONNE
CONFRONTING OUR SINFULNESS
Theme – We are called to reflect and look below the surface for life’s deeper meaning.
Opening Prayer
Sometimes life is difficult, we don’t understand why things happen. We don’t understand why God would allow some things to happen. Lord, we struggle because we do not know your plan. We cannot see the “big picture.” Help us to endure troubles patiently and offer our sufferings to the benefit of others.  
About John Donne
John Donne was born in Bread Street, London in 1572 to a prosperous Roman Catholic family - a precarious thing at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was rife in England. Donne's first teachers were Jesuits. He was admitted to study law, and it seemed natural that Donne should embark upon a legal or diplomatic career. In 1593, Donne's brother Henry died of a fever in prison after being arrested for giving sanctuary to a proscribed Catholic priest. This made Donne begin to question his faith. His first book of poems, Satires, written during this period of residence in London, is considered one of Donne's most important literary efforts. Although not immediately published, the volume had a fairly wide readership through private circulation of the manuscript.
Donne inherited a considerable fortune and frittered away his money on womanizing, on books, at the theatre, and on travels. At age 26, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, afterward Lord Ellesmere and began a promising career. Three years later, Donne secretly married Lady Egerton's niece, seventeen-year-old Anne More--effectively committing career suicide. His father-in-law had Donne thrown in Fleet Prison for some weeks. Donne lost his job and for the next decade had to struggle near poverty to support his growing family. It was not until 1609 that reconciliation was effected between Donne and his father-in-law, who was finally induced to pay his daughter's dowry.
In the intervening years, Donne practiced law, but they were lean years. As Donne approached forty, he published two anti-Catholic pamphlets. They were final public testimony of Donne's renunciation of the Catholic faith but their publication won Donne the favor of the King. Donne had refused to take Anglican orders in 1607, but King James persisted, finally announcing that Donne would receive no post or preferment from the King, unless in the church. In 1615, Donne reluctantly entered the ministry and was appointed a Royal Chaplain later that year. Donne's style, full of elaborate metaphors and religious symbolism, his flair for drama, his wide learning and his quick wit soon established him as one of the greatest preachers of the era. The most famous of Donne’s poems is undoubtedly Meditation 17, which includes the immortal lines "No man is an island" and "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
“Hymn to God the Father” features three stanzas, each with six lines. In the first stanza, the speaker begins his prayer asking for forgiveness for a sin—original sin. The speaker’s sin-consciousness demonstrates that he has made significant spiritual progress. But in addition to the original sin, he is aware that he has been locked in the physical body with the inclination to sin. He then says that after the Divine has relieved him of personal sin, he still needs further Divine aid for he has more sins to confess. 
In the second stanza, the speaker continues his self-examination by examining his relationship with other people. He realizes that he has encouraged “others” to sin. After the Great Soul has unburdened him from that sin, the speaker still has more to ask. 
In the third stanza, the speaker then names his final sin, and that is the “sin of fear.” He fears that when he dies he shall simply disappear. He believes in his immortal, eternal soul, but he confesses to doubts, because he knows he has not yet achieved union with the Divine. He then declares that he strongly believes in Christ, and with God the Father’s help, he will become aware of Christ’s shining presence. He knows that his Christ-consciousness “shines now and heretofore.” With that strong faith and complete reliance of “God the Father,” the speaker then can finally say, “I fear no more.”
Pause: Reflect on the role music and song play in your spiritual journey.
Poet’s Words - Hymn to God the Father
Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,/Which was my sin, though it were done before?/Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,/And do run still, though still I do deplore?/When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,/For I have more.
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won/Others to sin, and made my sin their door?/Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun/A year or two, but wallowed in a score?/When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,/For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun/My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;/But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son/Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;/And having done that, Thou hast done;/I fear no more.
Exercises
Listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (or another favorite recording of classical music.) Write a journal entry on the intricacies and complexities of orchestral and choral components. 
God’s Word – 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”  Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David;
but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.  Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong; for who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him: “Because you have asked for this—not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right—I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.”
Closing Prayer
Lord, be with us as we continue on the way. Guide us to put aside our sinful desires and to seek your will.
GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS
OOZING WITH GOD’S GRANDEUR
Theme – All of creation is overflowing with the goodness of God.
Opening Prayer
Create in us a clean heart, O God. Renew us a right spirit within us. 
About Gerald Manley Hopkins
Gerard Hopkins was born July 28, 1844, to Manley and Catherine (Smith) Hopkins, the first of their nine children. At grammar school, he won the poetry prize for "The Escorial" and a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. At one time he wanted to be a painter-poet like D. G. Rossetti (two of his brothers became professional painters), and he was strongly influenced by the aesthetic theories of Pater and John Ruskin and by the poetry of the devout Anglicans George Herbert and Christina Rossetti. Even more insistent, however, was his search for a religion which could speak with true authority; at Oxford, he came under the influence of John Henry Newman. Newman, who had converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845, provided him with the example he was seeking, and in 1866 he was received by Newman into the Catholic Church. In 1867 he won First-Class degrees in Classics and "Greats" (a rare "double-first") and was considered by Jowett to be the star of Balliol. 
The following year he entered the Society of Jesus; and feeling that the practice of poetry was too individualistic and self-indulgent for a Jesuit priest committed to the deliberate sacrifice of personal ambition, he burned his early poems. Not until he studied the writings of Duns Scotus in 1872 did he decide that his poetry might not necessarily conflict with Jesuit principles. Scotus (1265-1308), a medieval Catholic thinker, argued (contrary to the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas) that individual and particular objects in this world were the only things that man could know directly, and then only through the haecceitas ("thisness") of each object. With his independently-arrived at idea of "inscape" thus bolstered, Hopkins began writing again.
Hopkins was not published in his own lifetime. His good friend Robert Bridges, whom he met at Oxford, preserved much of his work. The two maintained a steady correspondence throughout their lives. Hopkins' poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in the English language.
The first four lines of God’s Grandeur describe a natural world through which God’s presence runs like an electrical current, becoming momentarily visible. God’s presence is a rich oil, a kind of sap that wells up “to a greatness” when tapped with a certain kind of patient pressure. Given these clear, strong proofs of God’s presence in the world, the poet asks how it is that humans fail to heed (“reck”) His divine authority (“his rod”).
The second quatrain within the octave describes the state of contemporary human life—the blind repetitiveness of human labor, and the sordidness and stain of “toil” and “trade.” The landscape in its natural state reflects God as its creator; but mankind has transformed the landscape, and robbed humans of their sensitivity to those few beauties of nature still left. The shoes people wear sever the physical connection between our feet and the earth they walk on, symbolizing an ever-increasing spiritual alienation from nature.
The sestet (the final six lines) transforms or shifts the argument that, in spite of the fallen-ness of the world, nature does not cease offering up its spiritual signs. The world is permeated with a deep “freshness” that testifies to the continual renewing power of God’s creation. This power of renewal is seen in the way morning always waits on the other side of the dark night. The source of this constant regeneration is the grace of a God who “broods” over a seemingly lifeless world with the patient nurture of a mother hen. This final image is one of God guarding the potential of the world and containing within Himself the power and promise of rebirth. With the final exclamation (“ah! bright wings,”) Hopkins suggests both an awed intuition of the beauty of God’s grace, and the joyful suddenness of a hatchling bird emerging out of God’s loving incubation.
Pause: Reflect on your times of faith and your times of doubt.
Poet’s Words - 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 wears 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 off the black West went /Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—/Because the Holy Ghost over the bent /World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings!
Exercises
Create a list of gratitude that you can prominently display on your bathroom mirror or maybe the refrigerator so that every time you see the list you remember to say a prayer of thanks to God.
God’s Word – Psalm 95:1 - 8
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation. Let us greet him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms. For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods, whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains. 
The sea and dry land belong to God, who made them, formed them by hand. Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. For this is our God, whose people we are, God's well-tended flock. Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert. 
Closing Prayer
Lord, we have doubted. We have complained. And, now we begin again in your loving kindness. We thank you, Lord, and we praise you for by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. 
EMILY DICKINSON
THE NEW HERMIT
Theme - They will know we are Christians by our love
Opening Prayer
Let us set aside the noise and busy-ness of life and spend time in solitude and silence, listening to God’s still small voice.
About Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
Pause: Reflect on how silence and solitude or how noise and busy-ness can have an impact on our prayer life.
Poet’s Words - Triumphant
Who never lost, are unprepared /A coronet to find; /Who never thirsted, flagons /And cooling tamarind.
Who never climbed the weary league -- /Can such a foot explore /The purple territories /On Pizarro's shore?
How many legions overcome? /The emperor will say. /How many colors taken /On Revolution Day?
How many bullets bearest? /The royal scar hast thou? /Angels, write "Promoted" /On this soldier's brow!
Exercises
Spend time in a hermitage or create a hermitage on your own by spending a day in solitude and silence. Journal on this experience.
God’s Word – Matthew 13:44 - 46
Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
Closing Prayer
We go forth seeking the pearl of great price. Lord, be with us as we seek your kingdom.
FRANCIS THOMPSON
GOD’S FUGITIVE
Theme – We all struggle with surrender.
Opening Prayer
Lord, we have turned away—even run from you. Yet, you did not abandon us. 
About Francis Thompson
Born in Preston, Lancashire, his father Charles was a doctor who had converted to Roman Catholicism, following his brother Edward Healy Thompson, a friend of Cardinal Manning.
Francis was educated at Ushaw College, near Durham, and then studied medicine at Owens College in Manchester. He took no real interest in his studies and never practiced as a doctor, moving instead to London to try and become a writer. Here he was reduced to selling matches and newspapers for a living.
During this time, he became addicted to opium, which he first had taken as a remedy for ill health. Thompson came to London in 1885 and lived a life of destitution until in 1888 he was 'discovered' after he sent poetry to the magazine Merrie England. He was sought out by the editors of 'Merrie England', Wilfrid and Alice Meynell and rescued from the verge of starvation and self-destruction. Recognizing the value of his work, the couple gave him a home and arranged for publication of his first book, Poems in 1893. The book attracted the attention of sympathetic critics in the St James's Gazette and other newspapers, and Coventry Patmore wrote a eulogistic notice in the Fortnightly Review of January 1894.
A lifetime of extreme poverty, ill-health, and an addiction to opium took a heavy toll on Thompson, even though he found success in his last years. He would eventually die from tuberculosis, at the age of 48. G. K. Chesterton said shortly after his death that "with Francis Thompson we lost the greatest poetic energy since Browning." His grave is in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery in London. His most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven describes the pursuit of the human soul by God.  This poem is 185 lines long, I have therefore supplied only the first stanza and the last two. You can find the entire poem at various sites online. 
Pause: Reflect on those steps in your life that have guided you to the path you follow today. How do you see God’s constancy in those steps?
Poet’s Words - Hound of Heaven
I fled Him down the nights and down the days /I fled Him down the arches of the years /I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways /Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears /I hid from him, and under running laughter. /Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated /Adown titanic glooms of chasme’d hears /From those strong feet that followed, followed after /But with unhurrying chase and unperturbe’d pace, /Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, /They beat, and a Voice beat,/More instant than the feet: /All things betray thee who betrayest me.
Such is. What is to be? /The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind ? /I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds, /Yet ever and anon, a trumpet sounds /From the hid battlements of Eternity. /Those shaken mists a space unsettle, /Then round the half-glimpse’d turrets, slowly wash again. /But not 'ere Him who summoneth /I first have seen, enwound /With glooming robes purpureal; Cypress crowned. /His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. /Whether Man's Heart or Life it be that yield thee harvest, /Must thy harvest fields be dunged with rotten death ?
Now of that long pursuit, /Comes at hand the bruit. /That Voice is round me like a bursting Sea: /And is thy Earth so marred, /Shattered in shard on shard? /Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me. /Strange, piteous, futile thing; /Wherefore should any set thee love apart? /Seeing none but I makes much of Naught (He said). /And human love needs human meriting --- /How hast thou merited, /Of all Man's clotted clay, the dingiest clot. /Alack! Thou knowest not /How little worthy of any love thou art. /Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, /Save me, save only me? /All which I took from thee, I did'st but take, /Not for thy harms, /But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms. /All which thy childs mistake fancies as lost, /I have stored for thee at Home. /Rise, clasp my hand, and come. /Halts by me that Footfall. /Is my gloom, after all, /Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest, /I am He whom thou seekest. /Thou dravest Love from thee who dravest Me.
Exercises
Get out those musical instruments, CD player or mp3 player and sing along with your favorite hymn of praise to God.
God’s Word – Luke 18:1 – 8
Then Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" Then Jesus said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" 
Closing Prayer
Lord, help me be persistent in my will to love and to serve you.
ROBERT FROST
GOD’S NATURALIST
Theme – We have to deal with the effects of original and personal sin.
Opening Prayer
Loving Father, you show us your loving kindness and goodness through the world that surrounds us and sustains us.
About Robert Frost
Frost studied at Harvard, but left without receiving a degree. Early in his writing career, he sent his poems to The Atlantic Monthly. They were returned with this note: "We regret that The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous verse." At the time of his death on January 29, 1963, Frost was considered a kind of unofficial poet laureate of the US. "I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world," Frost once said. In his poems Frost depicted the fields and farms of his surroundings, observing the details of rural life, which hide universal meaning. His independent, elusive, half humorous view of the world produced such remarks as "I never take my side in a quarrel", or "I'm never serious except when I'm fooling." Although Frost's works were generally praised, the lack of seriousness concerning social and political problems of the 1930’s annoyed some more socially orientated critics. While preferring to stay at home, he traveled more than any poet of his generation to give lectures and readings, even though he remained terrified of public speaking to the end..."
In God’s Garden, the first image is God’s creation of a garden. This is reminiscent of scripture. But then the speaker creatively claims that God placed in the garden “one straight, narrow pathway” that is clear, without the beauteous decoration of flower or tree. After creating the beautiful garden of flowers and one straight, clear pathway, God brings “mankind to live,” and instructs mankind to take care of the “vines and fig trees” and to care for the flowers, but they are to “keep the pathway open/Your home is at the end.”
In the second stanza, the speaker announces that another “master” who “did not love mankind” came along. By planting alluring “gold flowers, the evil one distracts mankind from his original command to keep the pathway open. Instead of obediently attending to the luscious fruit trees and beautiful flowers they are commanded to tend, they scurry off down the forbidden pathway in search of the empty and deceptive “gold flowers,” which “hid the thorns of av’rice / That poison blood and bone.” By abandoning God’s command and following evil’s deceptive path, instead of working diligently to connect with the power of their soul causes them to lose that precious commodity, and at the end of their life, they experience only helplessness and loneliness coupled with a feeling of being lost.
In the third stanza, the speaker urges listeners to forsake the deception of “glamour / That blinds your foolish eyes.” Instead of looking for phantom gold flowers, they should look up to “the stars of God’s clear skies.” The stars metaphorically represent the command from God to follow the narrow pathway of right living, while avoiding the deceptive glitter of empty pleasures represented by the “gold flowers.” The open pathway leads to “heaven” which is the soul’s true home.
Oh about those poems to Atlantic Monthly, when Frost achieved notoriety in 1915, the magazine asked him to submit some poems for publication with a feature article. Frost gave the very ones that had previously been rejected.  
Pause: Reflect on your roles, goals and accomplishments in life. Write your own eulogy.
Poet’s Words - God's Garden
God made a beauteous garden /With lovely flowers strown, /But one straight, narrow pathway /That was not overgrown. / And to this beauteous garden /He brought mankind to live, /And said: "To you, my children, /These lovely flowers I give. /Prune ye my vines and fig trees, /With care my flowerets tend, /But keep the pathway open /Your home is at the end."
Then came another master, /Who did not love mankind, /And planted on the pathway /Gold flowers for them to find. /And mankind saw the bright flowers, /That, glitt'ring in the sun, /Quite hid the thorns of av'rice /That poison blood and bone; /And far off many wandered, /And when life's night came on, /They still were seeking gold flowers, /Lost, helpless and alone.
O, cease to heed the glamour /That blinds your foolish eyes,/Look upward to the glitter /Of stars in God's clear skies. /Their ways are pure and harmless /And will not lead astray, /Bid aid your erring footsteps /To keep the narrow way. /And when the sun shines brightly /Tend flowers that God has given /And keep the pathway open /That leads you on to heaven. 
Exercises
Take a walk in the park or nature preserve, pay close attention to how God’s creation engages your five senses. Journal on this experience.
God’s Word – Genesis 1:25 – 31a
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was. Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth." God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. 
Closing Prayer
In the way of virtue, there is no standing still; anyone who does not daily advance, loses ground. To remain at a standstill is impossible; he that gains not, loses; he that ascends not, descends. If one does not ascend the ladder, one must descend; if one does not conquer, one will be conquered.”
SARA TEASDALE
LIVING IN GOD’S LOVE
Theme – God’s love is unconditional; live in it!
Opening Prayer
Lord have there been times when I have hesitated in showing I love you? Forgive me and help me to live in your love.
About Sara Teasdale
Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884 in St. Louis Missouri. She was the youngest child of Mary Elizabeth Willard and John Warren Teasdale. At the time of Sara's birth, Mary was 40, and John was 45. Teasdale had three other siblings. She had two brothers; George, who was the oldest child at 20, and John Warren Jr., was 14. Teasdale also had a sister, named Mary (she was fondly called "Maime"), and she was 17. Mary loved her sister Sara and took very good care of her. Sara was named after her grandmother. Teasdale's first word was "pretty." According to her mother, Sara's love of pretty things was what inspired her poetry. 
Teasdale was always very frail, and caught diseases easily. For most of her life, she had a nurse companion that took care of her. Teasdale grew up in a sheltered atmosphere. She was the youngest child. Because of that, she was spoiled and waited on like a princess. She never had to do normal chores, like make her bed, or do the dishes. She was known to have described herself as "a flower in a toiling world". Because she was so sickly, she was homeschooled until she was nine. She never had communication with her peers. Teasdale grew up around adults. She was forced to amuse herself with stories and things that she made up in her own lonesome world. When Teasdale was ten, she had the first communication with her peers. Her parents sent her to Miss Ellen Dean Lockwood's school for boys and girls. When she was fourteen, she went to Mary Institute. She didn't graduate there, but switched to Hosmer Hall when she was fifteen. There, she began to put the thoughts and dreams that amused her as a girl onto paper. Thus, she wrote her first poem. Teasdale's first published poem was "Reedy's Mirror", and it was published in a local newspaper. Her first collection, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, was published in 1907. In 1911, her second collection, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems was published. She published many other collections including Rivers to the Sea, Love Songs, Flame and Shadow, Dark of the Moon, Stars To-night, and finally, Strange Victory. 
Teasdale married her sweetheart Ernst Filsinger in 1914. They had a happy marriage, but it was too good to last. They divorced in 1929, and she lived the rest of her life only for her poetry. Sara was always frail and sickly, but in 1933, Teasdale caught chronic pneumonia and it weakened her not only in body but also in mind and spirit. No longer able to see the beauty in simple things, Teasdale committed suicide at age 48 in New York, NY on January 29, 1933. Her final book of poetry was published that year. Teasdale's works continue to be admired by poets everywhere. Her works show us what a lovely person she was, and how much she appreciated the beautiful things about life. Her love for beautiful things appeared in her poetry. She was a very talented poet, and we are glad she shared her talent with us.
Pause: Reflect on the various ways God’s exhibits his love.
Poet’s Words - I Would Live in Your Love
I would live in your love/As the sea-grasses live in the sea, /Borne up by each wave as it passes, /Drawn down by each wave that recedes; /I would empty my soul of the dreams /That have gathered in me, /I would beat with your heart as it beats, /I would follow your soul as it leads.
Exercises
Show God’s love to others in your words and actions. Show compassion or mercy to someone today.
God’s Word- Song of Songs 2:10 – 13
My lover speaks; he says to me, “Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!”
Closing Prayer
I will walk in the love of the Lord!
HELEN STEINER RICE
BECOMING AN AMBASSADOR OF “SON”-SHINE
Theme – We are called to be Christ to one another.
Opening Prayer
Let God’s light shine before all—be an ambassador of Christ!
About Helen Steiner Rice
Helen Steiner Rice, often referred to as the "poet laureate of inspirational verse," was born Helen Elaine Steiner on May 19, 1900. Even as a little girl, the older daughter of Anna and John Steiner of Lorain, Ohio loved to write rhyming couplets and to preach about God's love to her family. Pretty, pert and precocious, young Helen became a conscientious and outstanding high school student. Her teachers, some of whom were suffragists supporting women's right to vote, encouraged the teenager to set high goals. She dreamed of attending college - her high school yearbook noted that she hoped to become a Congress Woman - but her plans changed unexpectedly when her father died in the flu epidemic of 1918, the same year she graduated from high school. Instead of attending college, Helen became the family breadwinner and supported her mother and sister. Initially she was employed at the Lorain Electric Light and Power Company. Energetic and enterprising, Helen eventually became the company's advertising manager. In time she was invited to be a spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Service Company and, in her twenties, crisscrossed the country giving speeches. Her positive outlook and enthusiasm for her work made her a popular motivational speaker. Her speeches won newspaper acclaim and prompted additional bookings.
She married in 1929, and after the Stock Market Crash, became the major bread winner. In 1931 she was offered a job by the Gibson Art Company in Cincinnati. She became their troubleshooter, visiting their greeting card installations and making recommendations on how to improve sales. She was so successful and her outlook so cheerful that one colleague christened her Gibson's "Ambassador of Sunshine." She became the greeting card editor at Gibson in the mid-1930s. It was a position she held for more than forty years.
Helen’s wrote inspirational verse that reflected how her own faith in God was growing and deepening. Her rhymed Christmas cards became a tradition and family and friends anticipated this annual spiritual message. By the 1950s, Helen's talent for putting inspirational messages into verse prompted the vice-president at Gibson to approach her about signing some of her verses for use on cards. Helen's life changed forever when, in 1960, one of her Christmas verses, "The Priceless Gift of Christmas", came to the attention of a performer on the Lawrence Welk Show. He read the verse on national television and Gibson was deluged with requests for it. Not long after, Helen was asked if she could supply another verse for the Welk Show. She gave permission for the use of a poem she had written for a religious convention. It was entitled "The Praying Hands". The poem praised the holiness of daily selfless acts of service that often go unnoticed. When that verse was read on television the inspirational poems of Helen Steiner Rice catapulted into the national limelight. "The Praying Hands" became one of the most popular greeting cards ever produced.
In the years that followed, Helen was approached to write books of inspirational verses. She gathered together into books many of the rhymed stanzas originally sent to those she loved, and she wrote dozens and dozens of new inspirational verses, all this in addition to her full time work producing greeting cards for Gibson. Her simple, sincere expressions of profound religious truths touched hearts and lives in the United States and beyond. People from around the world began to write to Helen for encouragement and support with their personal problems. She tried to answer as many of their letters as she could for she saw her correspondence as another form of service to God. Helen believed her talent for easing human heartache through her verses was a God-given gift, one through which she could channel God's love into the world. She remained amazingly active until she was nearly 80 years old, despite the fact that she battled an increasingly painful and crippling arthritic condition. Eventually she had to give up the work she loved and the correspondence she so cherished. During her last years, she decided to set up the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation. Helen believed that through this charitable foundation she could continue, even after her death, to give both inspiration and assistance to those in need. Books, cards and other memorabilia bearing Helen Steiner Rice's verses still sell tens of thousands of copies annually and, over the years; the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation has awarded millions to charitable agencies in her name. Helen spent her final months living in a retirement center. Those who visited her there contend that, until the last, Helen Steiner Rice remained an "Ambassador of Sunshine".
Pause: Reflect on times of discouragement and triumph
Poet’s Words - Never Be Discouraged
There is really nothing we need to know /or even try to understand. /If we refuse to be discouraged /and trust God’s guiding hand. /So take heart and meet each minute /with faith in God’s great love, /Aware that every day of life /is controlled by God above… /And never dread tomorrow /or what the future brings, /Just pray for strength and courage /and trust God in all things. /And never grow discouraged /be patient and just wait /for “God never comes too early /and He never comes too late!”
Exercises
Spend time with a young child or an elderly person. Help them to do the small things that most of us take for granted. Journal about your experience
God’s Word – 1 Peter 2:2-5, 9-12
Beloved: Like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation, for you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that if they speak of you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Closing Prayer
Today I will walk in the light of the Lord.
PHILIP LARKIN
SEEKING HEALING
Theme – Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
Opening Prayer
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
About Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin was born on August 9, 1922, in Coventry, England. He was the second child, and only son, of Sydney and Eva Larkin. He attended the City's King Henry VIII School between 1930 and 1940, and made regular contributions to the school magazine, The Coventrian, which, between 1939 and 1940, he also helped to edit. After leaving King Henry VIII, he went to St. John's College, Oxford, and despite the war (Larkin had failed his army medical because of his poor eyesight), was able to complete his degree without interruption, graduating in 1943 with First Class Honors in English. 
The first of his poems to be published in a national weekly was 'Ultimatum', which appeared in the Listener, November 28, 1940. Then in June 1943, three of his poems were published in Oxford Poetry (1942-43). These were 'A Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb', 'Mythological Introduction', and 'I dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land'. After graduating, Larkin lived with his parents for a while, before being appointed Librarian at Wellington, Shropshire, in November of 1943. Here, he studied to qualify as a professional librarian, but continued to write and publish. In 1945, ten of his poems, which later that year would be included in The North Ship, appeared in Poetry from Oxford in Wartime.
In October 1950, he became Sub-Librarian at Queen's University, Belfast. It was in Belfast that he applied fresh vigor to his poetry activities, and, in 1951, had a small collection, XX Poems, privately printed in an edition of 100 copies. Larkin took up the position of librarian at the University of Hull on March 21, 1955, and it was in October of that year that The Less Deceived was published. It was this collection that would be the foundation of his reputation as one of the foremost figures in 20th Century poetry.
Faith Healing describes watching the women who line up to be blessed by an American faith healer. The encounter each woman has with the healer is very brief–twenty seconds, in which he asks her to tell him ‘what’s wrong’ and then asks God to cure the troubled part: ‘this eye, that knee’. The women are deeply affected by this experience. Larkin wonders what motivates people to need faith healing. He concludes that within everyone is a sense of the life they could have lived if they had loved more, or, particularly, if they had been loved more.
The poem is written in the present tense–giving it immediacy. The speaker is an observer of the experience. We, the reader share his analytical view of the emotional event he witnesses. This gives authority to his general conclusions in the final stanza ‘in everyone there sleep/a sense of life lived according to love’.
The poem is divided into three stanzas of ten lines, with five stresses each, and a regular but complex rhyming pattern. This pattern mirrors the regular succession of women who file up to meet the faith healer. The three stanzas divide the poem’s action: in the first the women file forward; in the second they disperse; in the third Larkin takes over with his exclamation ‘What’s wrong!’ and analysis. Notice how the phrase ‘then, exiled’ causes an abrupt break at the end of the first stanza. This makes us feel the women’s loneliness as they move away from the comfort of the faith-healer’s touch. The lines run on into each other–this helps to create a sense of movement and progression.
One important image is of rain or tears. Do you see the ‘warm spring rain of loving care’ in line five? This is a metaphor: rain releases the fruitfulness of the soil that has been hardened by winter’s frost; similarly, the healer’s loving care releases the women’s pent-up feelings. This links to the ‘tears’ and ‘eyes squeezing grief’ in the second stanza, and ‘thawing, the rigid landscape weeps’ in the third. Another image is of being a child. The faith healer’s repeated words ‘now, dear child’ are emphasized by italics, in the first and third stanzas. His silver hair and blessing make the healer himself seem like God, and emphasize his fatherly role. In the second stanza, Larkin’ s use of words projects the image of a crowd converging on the faith healer–“they cry and lose control of speech like young children.” Look at the phrase ‘tongues blort’ in line nineteen. A made-up word, near to ‘blurt’, its sound suggests an excited confusion echoed by ‘jam’, ‘crowd’ and ‘rejoice’. Larkin uses the vocabulary of Christianity (which refers to worshippers as ‘children’ and ‘sheep’) to suggest that the women’s need for religious blessing arises from a common craving for love.
Larkin received many awards in recognition of his writing, especially in his later years. In mid-1985 Larkin was admitted to hospital with an illness in his throat, and on June 11 an operation was carried out to remove his esophagus. His health was deteriorating, and when he was awarded the much prized Order of the Companion of Honor, he was unable to attend. The investiture was due to take place at Buckingham Palace on November 25. Philip Larkin died of cancer on Monday December 2 1985. He was 63 years old.
Pause: Reflect on the role community plays in your faith journey.
Poet’s Words - Faith Healing
Slowly the women file to where he stands /Upright in rimless glasses, silver hair, /Dark suit, white collar. Stewards tirelessly /Persuade them onwards to his voice and hands, /Within whose warm spring rain of loving care /Each dwells some twenty seconds. Now, dear child, /What’s wrong, the deep American voice demands, /And, scarcely pausing, goes into a prayer /Directing God about this eye, that knee. /Their heads are clasped abruptly; then, exiled 
Like losing thoughts, they go in silence; some /Sheepishly stray, not back into their lives /Just yet; but some stay stiff, twitching and loud /With deep hoarse tears, as if a kind of dumb /And idiot child within them still survives /To re-awake at kindness, thinking a voice /At last calls them alone, that hands have come /To lift and lighten; and such joy arrives /Their thick tongues blort, their eyes squeeze grief, a crowd /Of huge unheard answers jam and rejoice— 
What’s wrong! Moustached in flowered frocks they shake: /By now, all’s wrong. In everyone there sleeps /A sense of life lived according to love. /To some it means the difference they could make /By loving others, but across most it sweeps /As all they might have done had they been loved. /That nothing cures. An immense slackening ache, /As when, thawing, the rigid landscape weeps, /Spreads slowly through them—that, and the voice above /Saying Dear child, and all time has disproved.
Exercises
Spend time in helping another person heal…look to the works of corporal or spiritual mercy for guidance
God’s Word - Mk 10:46-52
Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.