This week is filled with memories, Lord,
beautiful, wonderful memories
of a beginning... and an end...
This week marks the anniversaries
of my ordination, 48 years ago
and of my leaving Concord, 2 years ago...
These two anniversaries hold together
most of the happiest moments of my life:
sweet, precious memories
of people I loved and who loved me,
of a place I called home for it sheltered my heart,
of life and times shared in work, song and prayer,
of all that it means to be yours, O Lord,
and to find in faith, together with others,
the peace and the joy for which we were made...
But our memories are seldom just sweet, Lord:
when we treasure them carefully we soon come to see
how they're bittersweet, filled with a wistful, wishful longing
to go back, to return to a time and place now passed,
a past alive in the smiles of our hearts,
in the sweet, precious, grace filled memories
collected and kept for decades
with loving, tender care...
So, I choose to embrace the bitter parts
for the sake of embracing the sweetness:
it's worth the pain to find again
the peace of so many years, with so many people,
in so many moments shared together,
in sorrow and joy, times bitter and sweet,
all precious memories
saved and redeemed
by the gift of your grace...
Protect us, Lord, while we're awake
and watch over us as we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace...
Amen.
Precious Memories by J.B.F. Wright
Precious memories, how they linger,
How they ever flood my soul;
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious sacred scenes unfold
Precious memories, unseen angels,
Sent from somewhere to my soul;
How they linger, ever near me,
And the sacred scenes unfold.
Precious memories, how they linger,
How they ever flood my soul;
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious sacred scenes unfold.
Precious sacred scenes unfold
Unfold ...
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