Eternal God,
since silence seems
to be the voice of
holiness,
the only language
you speak directly,
then I pray
to be steeped in it
until I fear it less
and welcome it
as an
usher to grace,
a narrator of sacred mysteries;
until silence cease the fretful conversations
of my mind with too little else
than itself;
until silence calm my heart to an ease,
convene my senses to an
anchored focus,
hush my tongue to a chastened hold;
until I discern in the silence
an answer to that
necessary question
which, for the very life of me,
it has not yet occurred to me to ask;
until I am stretched alive
and deep to its
dimensions,
and catch, at last and ready,
your assuring wink at me.
Amen.
Reprinted from My Heart In My Mouth by Ted Loder, copyright © 2000 Innisfree Press. Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress.
Ted’s imaginative leadership led the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (Philadelphia) PA in a refreshing openness to hard questions, to change, and to justice for almost 40 years.