sun - Viriditas Ministries

Strawberries

A perfect strawberry, Farmer Robert says,
is red all over.
No green,
no white anywhere,
not even on the point.
It is a full,
bright
RED.
Shape and size do not matter.

The perfect strawberry
is picked,
fully ripe,
from its parent plant.
To find it
you must crawl through the dirt on your knees
seeking for bright red fruit
in nests of green leaves.

Some strawberries are tricky
tantalizing you with a bright shiny top
but when you turn them over
you find blotchy orange underneath,
or white or even a green hard place
at the tip of the fruit.
On these you must pass.
They will come into their own in time.

I would hold communion
out here in the strawberry patch.
All of us kneeling in the warm soil,
bright sun overhead.

Gently placing a strawberry
in each pair of cupped hands,
I would say,
“The Body of God.
The Body of God.
The Body of God.”
And we would all take, and eat.

Beloveds: By popular demand, this poem comes out every spring, with the strawberries. In my garden they are just now perfectly ripe. May you too taste the Body of God in the fruit of your choice, and may the juice run down your chin.

The Dance

Great Spirit of Life and Love,
moving source of all we know:

A great upheaval is taking place,
a sea change,
and we can no longer expect the same steps
to take us to the same places.

The patterns must change.
The music is changing
and the dance must also change.

No more solo performances.

In times such as these
it is important to gather with others
and to learn how to move
together.

May we hold each other and ourselves
in loving kindness.

May we see that each of us brings a tender heart
aching to share its deepest desires.

May we see that each of us brings a seeking spirit
longing to grow and be transformed.

May we know that there is a love
deeper than we can understand
ever holding us in safety.

And may we ever be aware
of these great cycles and circles:
the earth orbiting the sun
the sun spiraling in the Milky Way
the whole expanding outward to infinity.

In this great coming together
of matter with energy,
let us ground ourselves here,
in this place,
with each other.

With our feet on the earth,
our faces to the sky,
and our arms out to one another:
let us take our places in the dance.

Blessed Be.

Easter Prayer

Spirit of Life, you who are the greening of the world:

May we know you as that force which holds
the earth among the stars
and brings the sap rising in the maples.

May we know you as the deliciousness
of the sun’s warmth
and the movement of air
on our faces in spring.

May we know you as the urgent beckoning
that draws salmon up into streams
and eagles back to their nests.

May we know you as that in us
which responds to beauty with awakening
and to suffering with compassion;
which cries out for justice
and draws us together to create it.

In this time of the renewal of life
may we have the wisdom to know
that paradise is here and now
if we will but make it so.

Blessed be.