Daily Lenten Thought March 3rd

Next Saturday I’m due to lead a Lenten Retreat at the Galilee Centre, Boyle. I’ve been there before and it’s a very special place – lovely location overlooking the lake.

The nearest landmark to it is the “GAELIC CHIEFTAIN”, that noble horse and horseman overlooking the Curlews.  I like that piece of art a lot, not least because I know the man who created it – Maurice Harron.  Maurice lived in Cloonloo for a number of years and was a family friend.  Though we’ve lost contact in recent years, I still number him in that category and know that were we to meet tomorrow there’d be plenty to speak about.

The Community in Galilee asked me for a theme for the day and one of Leonard Cohen’s songs came to mind.  It’s called “COME HEALING” and there’s a powerful line in there that says: “The splinters that you carry, the cross you left behind” and that struck me as a good title for the day.

Now to put something with that title!  I wonder would any of you be willing to offer a few suggestions?  I won’t publish them if you don’t want me to but maybe they’d help me to focus on what people might want, having taken a day out of their lives, to come to Galilee.

So the thought for today: The “horseman” is a landmark, made all the more real and meaningful because I know the hands behind it.  We need landmarks in life and we need to know “The Creator” too.

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These are Cohen’s Lyrics for “COME HEALING”

O gather up the brokenness
And bring it to me now
The fragrance of those promises
You never dared to vow

The splinters that you carry
The cross you left behind
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
The cruelty or the grace

O solitude of longing
Where love has been confined
Come healing of the body
Come healing of the mind

O see the darkness yielding
That tore the light apart
Come healing of the reason
Come healing of the heart

O troubled dust concealing
An undivided love
The Heart beneath is teaching
To the broken Heart above

O let the heavens falter
And let the earth proclaim:
Come healing of the Altar
Come healing of the Name

O longing of the branches
To lift the little bud
O longing of the arteries
To purify the blood

And let the heavens hear it
The penitential hymn
Come healing of the spirit
Come healing of the limb

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A fine version with “The (Sublime) Webb Sisters”