An Anaphora For Those Who Are Searching

by Fr. John Shimchick

“Now You have come and saved us through love” (Kontakion, Feast of The Meeting of the Lord).

“Through the compassion of Your only-begotten Son” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)

Permanent things. Relentless questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What am I going to do now?

Made by Richard Bresnahan

We have been formed by the love of those we have known and who have known us. We have been formed by what we have known and seen, And kept alive and awakened by what we did not see and what we did not know.

In ways beyond knowing—it is also clear when something is not right,

When it is broken beyond remedy and repair.

We know—down to our very marrow—when it will never be the same.

We know—with head throbbing fear—when the one we have loved is hurt or will be taken away.

In fearing for them, we are afraid for ourselves.

They know something more.

They still “keep stable the fabric of the world and their prayer is in the practice of their trade” (Sirach 38:24).

They take what they find into their hands and rework it.

They break it open with fire and time.

They allow it to be what it can.

They give it back as a gift to everyone, changed, and receptive.

The permanent things, the relentless questions pursue us.

They come to us head on, they attack from the bushes.

Formed by love, broken by reality, and yet capable of being healed by compassion,

We bear His seal.

References

Gregory Wolfe, Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery. (Baltimore: Square Halo Books, 2003).

Don E. Saliers, “Artist, Clay, Fire, Ritual: A Potter’s Aesthetic,” in Visual Theology: Forming and Transforming the Community through the Arts, edited by Robin M. Jensen and Kimberly J. Vrudny. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009), 95-106.