Druids Prayer

Original Welsh Dyro, Dduw, dy nawdd; ac yn nawdd, nerth; ac yn nerth, deall; ac yn neall, gwybod; ac o wybod, gwybod y cyfiawn; ac o wybod y cyfiawn ei garu; ac o garu, caru Duw. Duw a phob daioni.  The "Druid's Prayer" (Welsh: Gweddi'r Derwydd) or "Gorsedd Prayer" (Gweddi'r Orsedd) is a prayer composed by Iolo Morganwg

English translation Grant, God, thy refuge; and in refuge, strength; and in strength, understanding; and in understanding, knowledge; and from knowledge, knowledge of what is right; and from knowledge of what is right, the love of it; and from loving, the love of God. God and all goodness. Rev. John Williams ab Ithel,  ed.: Barddas; or, a Collection of Original Documents, Illustrative of the Theology, Wisdom, and Usages of the Bardo-Druidic System of the Isle of Britain: Longman & Co. (1862)  Grant us, O God, your protection; and in your protection, strength; and in strength, understanding; and in understanding, knowledge; and in knowledge, the knowledge of justice; and in the knowledge of justice, the love of justice; and in that love, the love of existence; and in the love of existence, the love of God, God and all goodness. Amen.

The Lover and the Beloved

Indeed, no lover seeks union without his beloved seeking him.

But the love of lovers makes their bodies into bowstrings,
while the love of beloveds makes them happy and plump.

When the lightning of love for the loved one flashes in *this* heart,
know that there is also love in *that* heart.

When love for God has doubled in your heart,
without doubt God has love for you.

You have never heard one hand clapping without the other.

The thirsty man laments, "Oh sweet water!"
The water also laments, "Where is the drinker!"

This thirst in our souls is the attraction of the Water -
we belong to It and It belongs to us.


Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnawi, book 3, vv. 4393-4399,
from "The Sufi Path of Love," translated by W. C. Chittick, p.209.

Graphic:  Song of Solomon, illustrations, music, pictures: brookwww.song-of-songs.net 

Sufism  is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī Sufis believe they are practicing ihsan (perfection of worship) as revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad: "Worship and serve Allah as you are seeing Him and while you see Him not yet truly He sees you".. Sufism is opposed by Wahhabi and Salafist Muslims.(adapted from Wikipedia)

If I ever needed someone

Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
Lord  I ever needed someone, 
I need You   
To see me through the daytime 
 And through the long lonely night 
 To lead me through the darkness 
 And on into the light
 
To stand with me when I'm troubled 
And help me through my strife  
When times get so uncertain to turn to You  
Turn to You in my young life
 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to hold onto  
And keep me from all fear 
Someone to be my guiding light 
And keep me ever dear
 
To keep me from my selfishness 
 To keep me from my sorrow  
 To lead me on to givingness 
 So I can see a new tomorrow 
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You  
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You
 
Someone to walk with  
Oh someone to hold by the hand  
Someone to talk with  
Someone to understand, yeah, yeah
 
Oh, when I need You Yeah
, I need You very much  
To open up my arms to You 
Feel Your tender touch
 
To feel it and to keep it 
To the right here in my soul 
 And care for it and keep it with me 
 Never to grow old
 
Lord if I ever needed someone, 
I need You 
Lord if I ever needed someone,
 I need You 
 Lord if I ever needed someone, I need You

                              Van Morrison

If i ever needed someone Van Morrison unplugged 

 Van Morrison, is an  Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as transcendental^.  Some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moon dance and the live album It's to Late to Stop Now are critically acclaimed and appear at the top of many greatest album lists.

To Love is to reach God.

To Love is to reach God.
Never will a Lover's chest 
feel any sorrow.
Never will a Lover's robe 
be touched by mortals.
Never will a Lover's body 
be found buried in the earth.
To Love is to reach God. 

~Rumi 

                          Translated by: Shahram Shiva

 Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, 
and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, was a 
13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. 

What do you want me to do

 

And I've tried to do what people say 
And I'm going nowhere fast\
And I'm turning to you at last
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I can see the lights of home
But I can't get there on my own  
I can see the landing strip 
But I need you to steer my ship
 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I've been a fool and I've been a clown  
I let the enemy turn me around 
I've wasted love and I've wasted time  
I've been proud and I've been blind
 

What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord?
I've got a lot of things to change 
A whole man to rearrange 
And if you show me how  
I'll begin right now
 
What do you want me to do? 
What do you want me to do?  
What do you want me to do, Lord? 
What do you want me to do, Lord?
 What do you want me to do, Lord?
 
I'm listening 
          I'm listening  
                    I'm listening 
                             I'm listening  
                                      I'm listening

 Mike Scott

What do you want me to do video: 

 Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and songwriter of The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning.

In the golden city of the heart

In the golden city of the heart dwells
The Lord of Love, without parts, without stain.
Know him as the radiant light of lights.

There shines not the sun, neither moon nor star,
Nor flash of lightning, nor fire lit on earth.
The Lord is the light reflected by all.
He shining, everything shines after him.

Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10-11

For more background about The Mundaka Upanishad: (Sanskrit: मुण्डक उपनिषद्, Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad) or the Mundakopanishad (Sanskrit: मुण्डकोपनिषद्, Muṇḍakopaniṣad) 

is one of the earlier, "primary" (mukhya) Upanishads, a genre of Hindu scriptures 

commented upon by Shankara. It is associated with the Atharvaveda.  

It figures as number 5 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed hardened lips
Felt the healing fingertips
It burned like a fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with eternal angels
I have held the hands of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
When all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosened the chains
Carried the cross
Of all my shame
all my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

 U2

                                      graphic: healing of the blind man 

still havn't found what i'm looking for video

  U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976,U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Ghandi on Jesus

When Mohandas K. Ghandi was assasinated in 1948, among his spare worldly possessions were about a dozen books, including the "Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ"  and the gospel of St. John. On the wall by his side was a picture of Jesus with the words, "He is our peace."

 Gandhi's interest in Jesus began early in his life. In England, sent to learn law in l888, the young Hindu was persuaded to read the Bible even before he had studied the Bhagavad Gita and other Indian classics. The Sermon on the Mount, he said, "went straight to my heart": "When I read in the Sermon on the Mount such passages as...'whoever smite thee on thy cheek turn to him the other also' I was simply overjoyed."

When i survey the Wondrous Cross & Pillar of the Cloud were among Ghandi's favorite hymns. He referred to the lyrics of Wondrous Cross frequently in His writings on prayer.  It was sung at his request in private services as he ended rigorous fasts in 1924 & 1948.

Below are some of Ghandi's own words regarding Jesus;

"The example of Jesus suffering is a factor in the composition of my un-dying faith in non-violence. What then does Jesus mean to me? To me, He was one of the greatest teachers humanity has ever had." For Gandhi, to say that Jesus was the only begotten son of God was to say that "in Jesus' own life was the key of his nearness to God, that he expressed as no other could, the spirit and will of God... I do believe it... If I did not believe it, I should be a skeptic, and to be a skeptic is to live a life that is empty and lacking moral content. Or, what is the same thing, to condemn the human race to a negative end." 

  "Of all the things I have read what remained with me forever was that Jesus came almost to give a new law - not an eye for an eye but to receive two blows when only one was given, and to go two miles when they were asked to go one. I came to see that the Sermon on the Mount was the whole of Christianity for him who wanted to live a Christian life. It is that sermon that has endeared Jesus to me." 

"The message of Jesus as I understand it," said Gandhi, "is contained in the Sermon on the Mount unadulterated and taken as a whole... If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, 'Oh, yes, I am a Christian.' But negatively I can tell you that in my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount... I am speaking of the Christian belief, of Christianity as it is understood in the west." 

  "I refuse to believe that there not exists or has ever existed a person that has not made use of his example to lessen his sins, even though he may have done so without realising it. The lives of all have, in some greater or lesser degree, been changed by His presence, His actions and the words spoken by His divine voice... I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world; to all races and people, it matters litle under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith or worship a God inherited from their ancestors." 

The opening is an excerpt from Immitastion of Christ by Harris Wofford, what follows are quotes from Ghandi on his relationship to Chnrist. the information about the hymns is taken from Ghandi's book of prayers.

Martin Luther King Jr. read Wofford's 1955 paper advocating Gandhian action in the civil rights movement. Wofford became an adviser to King until his death.

Ephrem the Syrian ( 306-373 )

Nick named the Harp of the holy spirit due  to his  musical creativity and elegant speech Ephrem Syrus  wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons  in verse, as well as prose. His sermons had the metrical beat of music and his theological treatises have been described as poetic. Ephrem introduced the extensive use of hymns into public worship for both praise and teaching. 

 Another Syriac father, Jacob of Serugh, wrote that Ephrem rehearsed all-female choirs to sing his hymns set to Syriac folk tunes. Over four hundred hymns composed by Ephrem still exist. 

He composed in three distinct styles, the most important of his works are his lyric, teaching hymns or madrāšê. These hymns are full of rich, poetic imagery drawn from biblical sources, folk tradition, and other religions and philosophies. The madrāšê are written in stanzas of syllabic verse, and employ over fifty different metrical schemes.

 He also wrote verse homilies or mêmrê. These sermons in poetry are far fewer in number than the madrāšê. The mêmrê are written in couplets (pairs of lines of seven syllables each).

 The third category of Ephrem's writings is his prose work. He wrote biblical commentaries on the on Genesis Exodus, the Acts of the apostles and Paul's Epistles.

 His poetry in particular showed an acute sensitivity toward  the human condition.

 Ephrem's works witness to an early form of Christianity in which western ideas take little part. He has been called the most significant of all of the fathers of the Syriac (Syrian)-speaking church tradition.

 He was in  his 60's  when he died, while in Egypt after succumbing to the plague while distributing food, money and medical relief to the poor.

graphics: top left,Icon of St. Ephrem.

bottom right, Newly excavated Church of Saint Jacob  in nisbis, where Ephrem taught and ministered.

fragments

 The eye of the great God, 

 the eye of the God of Glory

 the eye of the King of hosts, 

 the eye of the King of the living,  
 Pouring upon us

 at each time and season. 

 Pouring upon us 

 gently

 and 

 generously

Glory to thee, 
thou glorious sun
Glory to thee, 
thou sun, 
face of the God of life
 
 FRAGMENTS FROM SOUTH UIST AND THE OUTER ISLES OF BARRA

Christmas Eve (4)

 

Nativity Prayer from The Orthodox Liturgy

Your nativity, O Christ our God,

has shed the light of knowledge upon the world.

Through it,

those who had been star-worshipers

learned through a star to worship you,

O Sun of Justice,

and to recognize in you the one who rises

and who comes from on high.

O Lord, glory to you!

Feast of the Nativity Liturgy

Rememberance day

If there is to be peace in the world,

There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,

There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,

There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,

There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,

There must be peace in the heart.

~Lao-Tus