ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Lord of the Skies and of All Creation,

How frightening must an eclipse of the sun have seemed to people of ages past
without telescopes and photographs,
before astronomers began to look beyond
the most visible stars and planets,
and astronauts were hurled into outer space.

Eclipse!

The light of the sun vanishing at midday! What a frightening omen! And how charlatans and soothsayers and unscrupulous astronomers must have put it to their use as "heavenly confirmation" of their false predictions.

But today, Lord, even with our most powerful telescopes, we cannot see the end of space.

We know that there are whole galaxies
of stars and planets thousands of light years away in the vast and beautiful creation
of Your infinite skies.

How humbled I am, my Lord, to realize
that You, who cast those countless flickering candles into deep space, created me as well.

I am confident that You continue to know me, to care about me, and to invite me to live with You in Your kingdom forever, if I just find the path to goodness here on earth,
and follow it to the gates of infinity.

I am weak, Lord, but with You I can be strong as the lion, swift as the deer, and loyal
as the most faithful of loving canines.

Poet Francis Thompson envisioned You
as the Hound of Heaven, whose fierce
and determined love compels You to track us down all our days and all our nights,
giving us every opportunity to return to You one human portion of the infinite eternal love which You give daily to us.

Lead me home, Lord, to Your palace
in the heavens! Your paradise is beyond
our farthest imagining, but perhaps the poet Homer captures some tiny glimpse,
some miniscule inkling of heaven
when he writes of Mount Olympus:

It stands firm and unmoving forever,
and is not shaken with winds, nor drenched with rains, nor does snow pile ever there, but the shining bright air stretches cloudless away, and the white light
glances upon it.

May every sign of charity and caring,
purity and nobility in this haggard world
be to me a reminder of You, my God, my King, my Hope, my Lord of all Love and Goodness.



May my weak imagination, God, conjure pale thoughts of Your Your green pastures,
and Your heavenly mansions.

May my will, and my earnest desire,
to join You, Lord, make me worthy of entering there to feast with You one day,
and for all eternity.

May the sun of Your love never be eclipsed
by the midnight dark of my sinfulness.

This I pray in faith and hope and love,
my dearest Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen

 

 

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