Above:  Part of the Rough Draft of the Poem

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My preferred and primary style of private prayer is contemplative.  I become more contemplative as I age, in fact.  Besides, excessive talking to God gets in the way of listening as much as one should.

KRT

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As the deer longs for the water-brooks,

so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;

when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

–Psalm 42:1-2, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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I sit amid quiet

interrupted by the gentle

movement of a clock hand,

the sound of the conditioning of air,

and the slight

voice of vehicles

driven on the close thoroughfare.

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I sit, think, and listen

to the near-absence of noise

and find it appealing

and necessary for my soul.

To it I have learned to hasten

so I can hear its voice

through my inner self ring;

its absence takes a terrible toll.

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This stillness I need;

this quiet I crave and desire,

for to my life it is crucial

yet sometimes in short supply.

In this stillness there is a seed

of spiritual life higher,

life which is essential;

that is no lie.

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To find this quiet one must still be,

distracted not, nor too occupied,

for noise can drown out peace

and concerns be as idols.

To find this voice spiritually

one must not in overactivity abide

and excessive sound must cease;

sometimes one must be idle.

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The reward is truly great–

beyond comparison and most precious–

and if one must sacrifice

to find it, so be it,

for this holy desire only God can sate.

It comes without fuss

and is worth any price

one pays it to get.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 30, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES CHAPMAN GRAFTON, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF FOND DU LAC

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Adapted from this post:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/morning-stillness/

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Above:  Quill Pen

(Image in the Public Domain)

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God of grace and glory,

you have given a rich variety of interests and talents to us; thank you.

Thank you for those who have served you and helped their fellow human beings

in their daily lives habitually via their vocations yet most memorably their avocations,

and for those who do so.

May we, reminded of and encouraged in our responsibilities to you and each other by their examples,

continue faithfully in the endeavors you assign us.

In the name of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 38:24-34a

Psalm 33

Romans 14:7-8

Matthew 5:13-16

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 14, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CROFT, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF JONATHAN MYRICK DANIELS, EPISCOPAL SEMINARIAN AND MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR

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Adapted from this post:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/proper-for-those-who-serve-god-and-those-who-have-served-god-most-memorably-via-their-avocations/

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Above:  Marie and Randolph the Teddy Bears, July 3, 2013

Image Taken Via My Computer Camera

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If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.  But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

–1 Corinthians 13:1-13, The New Revised Standard Version

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Love, O God,

was a state into which I doubted once that I might fall.

When it did begin to occur,

I needed over a year to understand what was happening to me.

This love has enabled me to aid my beloved

(with admittedly limited success sometimes) under difficult circumstances,

but it did empower me to that much

–which mattered at the time–

at least.

Love, by which I delight in her,

requires much of me and has hurt.

Yet it has persisted.

And it has made me a better man,

a rejuvenated person,

and a grateful individual.

Thank you.  Amen.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 4, 2013 COMMON ERA

PROPER 13–THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF J. ROBERT HARRIS, SOUTHERN BAPTIST WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN BAPTIST VIANNEY, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

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Adapted from this post:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/a-prayer-of-thanksgiving-for-love/

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