“Blessed are the pure in heart”

Austere country, this, scrubbed

By spring’s ravaging avalanche.

Talus slope and Appekunny

Mudstone make a meadow where

High-country beargrass gathers light

From lichen, rock, and icy tarn,

Changing sun’s lethal rays

To food for grizzlies, drink for bees–

Heart-pure creatures living blessed

Under the shining of God’s face.

Yet, like us the far-fallen,

Neither can they look on the face

And live. Every blossom’s a breast

Holding eventual sight for all blind and

Groping newborn: we touch our way

Through these splendors to glory.

…from “Holy Luck” …from the book, “Subversive Spirituality” …by Eugene Peterson

* * * * * * *

…also from “The Message”: Matthew 5:

You are blessed when you get your inside world–your mind and heart–put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

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• “You Raise Me Up” (Do they sing this at your church?)
• Great God your love has called us here (Brian Wren)
• Amazing Grace by Wintley Phipps
• An Australian Hymn To The Tune Of Waltzing Matilda
• By the Babe Unborn

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