Retreat

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 CLASSIC POEM: Retreat Henry Vaughan Happy those early days! when I Shined in my angel infancy. Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race, Or taught my soul to fancy aught But a white, celestial thought; When yet I had not walked above A mile or two from my first love, And looking back, at that short space, Could see a glimpse of His bright face; When on some gilded cloud or flower My gazing soul would dwell an hour, And in those weaker glories spy Some shadows of eternity; Before I taught my tongue to wound My conscience with a sinful sound, Or had the black art to dispense A several sin to every sense, But felt through all this fleshly dress Bright shoots of everlastingness. O, how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track! That I might once more reach that plain Where first I left my glorious train, From whence th’ enlightened spirit sees That shady city of palm trees. But, ah! my soul with too much stay Is drunk, and staggers in the way. Some men a forward motion love; But I by backward steps would move, And when this dust falls to the urn, In that state I came, return. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Retreat Andrew Forster SNIPPET: Once a month they escape the world of tube-trains, deadlines, traffic jams, to slip on country selves with their woollen shirts and cement-spattered trousers, slowing their pace in the time it takes to break an orange crate into kindling and fire the stove enough to boil a kettle. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]