Fast and feast: prayer

In homage to George Herbert’s poem “Prayer,” our friend Kim Fabricius has written this hymn entitled “Prayer the Church’s Fast and Feast” (to the tune of England’s Lane / Heathlands):

Prayer the church’s fast and feast,
recipes for grief and praise;
prayer the creature’s common speech,
mind and soul in paraphrase:

Father God, how good to share
all our love and pain and care.

Prayer the land of sun and spice,
hearts on holiday abroad;
prayer the blood of sacrifice,
blessed spear that pierced our Lord:

Prayer the compass of desire,
pointing to the promised rest;
prayer the truth against the liar,
passing all the devil’s tests:

Prayer the token of the best,
poetry of cheerful rhymes;
prayer the sound of deep unrest,
thunderclaps for tempest-times:

Prayer the ear that hears the tones,
sounding from angelic spheres;
prayer the voice that moves the stone,
pressing on the tomb of years:

Prayer the raising of the dead,
turning evil into good;
prayer the way the world is read,
sense of something understood.