{"id":2654,"date":"2021-06-23T20:38:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T20:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2022-04-06T13:49:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T13:49:21","slug":"paraclete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/poetry\/paraclete\/","title":{"rendered":"Paraclete"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/19584497\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/87A93A\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" oallowfullscreen=\"\" msallowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><p style=\"margin-left:30px; margin-right: 30px;\">\u201c<em>When prayer allows itself to be exploited for purposes which are beneath itself, then it becomes strictly impure<\/em>.\u201d <br>\u2014Thomas Merton<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The air thick, the evening soft,<br>a flash of red amidst green: a cardinal<br>flies past the porch posts and my toes resting<br>in a hammock, content, while my prayers<br>circle in eddies stuck between rocks without<br>a freeing sluice. I wonder: where is the key<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>to unclose the anxious clasp, the key<br>to free me from the silken, soft<br>and sticky web of worries without<br>beginning, without end. My cardinal<br>sin: too much rumination in my prayers,<br>pettiness piled like rubble resting<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in heaps, too heavy to hoist, resting<br>and weighing me down whimpering. The key?<br>The shovel to unearth deeper prayers,<br>to free my soul to soar on soft,<br>strong wings? I hear the cardinal\u2019s<br>shrill song, notes articulated without<br>shame or second thoughts, pure cries without<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>expectation. I remain stuck, resting<br>yet restive. Not roused by the cardinal\u2019s<br>song nor moved to follow his flight. The key<br>to freedom foiled by my pride. Soft<br>submission to silence, prayers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>surfacing without sound, prayers<br>emerging without agenda, without<br>words, allow worries to be softly<br>spooned up and set aside, heat reduced. Rest<br>now and heal. The overwrought need key<br>disciplines to be observed, cardinal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>rules to be followed. Quiet! The cardinal<br>glides past my hammock and beckons my prayers<br>to fly into the sky. The key<br>is letting this harbinger without<br>worry carry me to rest,<br>in the evening air\u2014thick and soft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My soul is resting now\u2014still and without<br>concern. Prayers released, weight lifted. The key<br>found in the soft dusk flight of a cardinal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is your cardinal sin? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[420],"tags":[316,66,317,207,255,259],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-cardinal","tag-debbie-eisenbise","tag-holy-spirit","tag-messenger","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2672,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/2672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}