Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often have I desired
to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and you were not willing!
—Luke 13.34
Gather me, Mother Christ.
Gather me in from my fears and doubts.
Hold me under your tireless wing,
shield me from hungers that wander,
guard me from flighty desires.
Save me from the evil I would suffer
and the evil I would do.
Gather me with all your children,
those I love and those I do not,
for we shelter together but alone, wander.
Mother Christ, keep me by your covering side,
tender me at your nursing breast,
close by you wherever you go,
so that even up Golgotha’s hill,
bearing the cross with you
I am under your wing,
under your wing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net