Sunday Wisdom

From One Mountain, Many Paths
An American Freemason Speaks Out for Peace

by Dr. Patrick Swift
Click book or here to go to the page and buy it for yourself,


This week in the chapter on prayer:

See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of the prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:15-22
Christianity

Cast your burden on the lord and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalm 55:22
Judiasm & Christianity

It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life to forget about God. These two verses remind me that I need to "pray without ceasing." What is that prayer? It is a constant communion with the Deity. Not to ask for something but to just say "God I acknowledge you and what you are and what you have already done for me - That is everything.

In yesterday's York Rite Festival in the Council Degree Hiram Abif goes and kneels in prayer. The prayer he gives is beautiful Evidently the folks who put our ritual together thought so also. It was written by Max Ehrmann and was co-opted for our Ritual I will put the few changes we made in parenthesis as I go through. It goes like this.

A Prayer by Max Ehrmann

Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome (overtake)me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation (sadness) of other times.

May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood, or dreaming on the margin of a quiet river, when a light glowed within me, and I promised my early God
to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.

Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments. (May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit- line omitted). Though the world know(s) me not, may my thoughts and actions besuch as shall keep me friendly with myself.

Lift up my eyes from the earth,( and let me not forget) teach me the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. Let me not follow the clamor (glamor) of the world, but walk calmly in my path.

Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am (and not for what little I may posses) (; and keep ever burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope. - omitted)

And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life, and for time's olden memories that are good and sweet; and may the evening's twilight find me gentle still. (Amen)

- Max Ehrmann

(Ehrmann also wrote Desiderata another of my favorite pieces of writing)

That is enough for today. We should always keep God with us in our hearts. To me that is prayer and while I "miss the mark" (sin ) more often than not I at least try. And I am always grateful when hurts are mended and we move forward as also happened yesterday. It was good to listen to the degrees and be reminded of the obligations I and all York Rite Masons are under in our "society of obligated men."