Patience is a Hard Thing

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This resource relating to 1 Timothy 1:12-17 provides a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1884-1889) highlighting the challenging nature of patience and a poem by Mary Oliver (1935-2019) highlighting the cultivation of patience.
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Lectionary: 
Revised Common Lectionary
Source: 
Englewood Review
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*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 CLASSIC POEM: Patience, hard thing! Gerard Manley Hopkins Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray, But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks; To do without, take tosses, and obey. Rare patience roots in these, and, these away, Nowhere. Natural heart’s ivy, Patience masks Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day. We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills Of us we do bid God bend to him even so. And where is he who more and more distils Delicious kindness?—He is patient. Patience fills His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Patience Mary Oliver SNIPPET: What is the good life now? Why, look here, consider the moon’s white crescent … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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Gerard Manley Hopkins
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Mary Oliver
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Key Scriptures: 
1 Timothy 1:12-17
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RCL Lectionary Week: 
Year C Proper 19 (Ordinary Time 24)
Date: 
Tuesday, September 6, 2022