Day 4: A prayer to Mary

I once heard it said, that praying to Saints is really just asking them to intercede for us.  And I liked that concept.  It makes me feel little, like I'm barely a little drop in an ocean filled with little drops. And while it makes me feel little, it also makes me feel like I belong, like the things I'm feeling, experiencing and praying are all woven into the massive sewing project of history. That I get to groan with the same voice what has been prayed for centuries before me, and will be prayed for centuries after me.

I like feeling little. And I like belonging and so every now and then I pray to saints.

And this past week I went to a Taze service, a contemplative prayer service, for those of you wondering. With icons, candles, and quiet. Everything I love! I felt like I was coming home, like some of the lost parts of me could rest, at last, again. And we prayed this prayer together, to Mary, and I wanted to share it with you this Thursday morning:

You bore for me the One who came to bless
And bear for all, to make the broken whole.
You heard his call, and in your open 'yes'
you spoke aloud for every living soul.
Oh gracious Lady, child of your own child,
whose mother-love still calls the child in me,
Call me again, for I am lost and wild.
Waves surround me now.  On this dark sea
shine as a star and call me to the shore.
Open a door that all my sins would close
and hold me in your garden.  Let me share 
the prayer that folds the petals of the Rose.
Enfold me too in love's last mystery,
and bring me to the One you bore for me.

-Malcome Guite, in Sounding the Seasons p.14

Because if I'm really honest with you this morning, I feel "lost and wild".  Thrown out to sea, just ridding the waves out between huge gulps of salt water, and I wish I was a mermaid. A mermaid because then I would feel more at home in the wild sea of my life. But I'm a human, so I open my hands and my heart to the mystery of Christ, and the wonder of his love. Again. Today. A Thursday morning in December.