Attraction, Longing, Desire,
Ownership, Power, Influence, Control;
Fickle and misleading signposts on all our journeys.
They read like place names on the tortured map
of the human heart.
And not just the web-like story of individual human beings;
the political map of the world,
the roll call of Statesmen, Churchmen, Businessmen,
Educators, Writers and Artists,
bears equal testimony
to the ideals, the ambitions, the plans and hopes,
the schemes and machinations
that are the route map of history.
With wonderful directness,
the first page of The Bible tells us:
"In the image of God He made Him, Male and female he created them."
Placed against that statement of belief
All our twisted motivations lie revealed.
The pain is like a crucifixion.
Today, Trinity Sunday,
We do our daily blessing of ourselves,
With care, and awed awareness.
To bless is to dress,
To go out into the day, wearing the livery of God.
Invoking the Blessing of the Trinity on our lives,
We present ourselves as we would have people
see us
and bring to them the blessing we enjoy.
We do not worry that words fail us on this day
for the Trinity is not a riddle to be solved
but a mystery to be explored,
not an arrangement of characters,
but a relationship of persons,
a relationship of love;
free, yet interdependent, life-giving, love.
We know this by the sign we drew
while invoking the Trinity
It was the sign of all that we had to offer Him
that empty token of all our failures,
the Cross.
God took it as the token of His self-expression,
A compass-bearing for LIFE,
His Word is all.
Ownership, Power, Influence, Control;
Fickle and misleading signposts on all our journeys.
They read like place names on the tortured map
of the human heart.
And not just the web-like story of individual human beings;
the political map of the world,
the roll call of Statesmen, Churchmen, Businessmen,
Educators, Writers and Artists,
bears equal testimony
to the ideals, the ambitions, the plans and hopes,
the schemes and machinations
that are the route map of history.
With wonderful directness,
the first page of The Bible tells us:
"In the image of God He made Him, Male and female he created them."
Placed against that statement of belief
All our twisted motivations lie revealed.
The pain is like a crucifixion.
Today, Trinity Sunday,
We do our daily blessing of ourselves,
With care, and awed awareness.
To bless is to dress,
To go out into the day, wearing the livery of God.
Invoking the Blessing of the Trinity on our lives,
We present ourselves as we would have people
see us
and bring to them the blessing we enjoy.
We do not worry that words fail us on this day
for the Trinity is not a riddle to be solved
but a mystery to be explored,
not an arrangement of characters,
but a relationship of persons,
a relationship of love;
free, yet interdependent, life-giving, love.
We know this by the sign we drew
while invoking the Trinity
It was the sign of all that we had to offer Him
that empty token of all our failures,
the Cross.
God took it as the token of His self-expression,
A compass-bearing for LIFE,
His Word is all.
©Valentine Farrell 03-05-2007