Te Deum Laudamus

("We Praise You, O God", an ancient liturgical text)

We praise You, O God; We acknowledge You to be the Lord.
All the earth worships You, O Father Everlasting.
To You all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein;
To the the cherubim and seraphim continually call out.

The noble army of the martyrs praises You:
The Holy Church throughout all the world acknowledges You,
O Father of infinite majesty, along with Your true and venerable only Son,
And, also, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

When You took it upon Yourself to deliver humanity,
You humbled Yourself to be born of a virgin.
When You had overcome the darkness of death,
You opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

We pray You, therefore, to help Your servants,
Those whom You have redeemed by Your precious blood.
Make us to be counted as Your saints
In glory everlasting.

O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we glorify You,
And we worship Your name forever in unending ages.

My Redeemer Liveth

This isn't very accurate to the Hebrew wording. But it's absolutely beautiful:

"I know that my Redeemer liveth,
And that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy my body,
Yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold,
And not another." Job 19:25-27 KJV

Martin Luther ended this section with: "Ich selbst werde ihn sehen, meine Augen werden ihn schauen und kein Fremder." Or: "I myself shall see Him, my eyes shall look upon Him, and not some stranger." This is a little closer to Hebrew, too, and the "not some stranger" is a really cool way of emphasizing that little ol' me will be put back together from my ground up atoms and molecules to look upon Christ!!!

Wildernesses [for Lent/Advent]

A message envelopes me, 

Permeating my whole person: 

The disembodied preaching, 

The tones of a tameless, timeless wind, 

Surge deep into my searching soul, 

As if, "A voice of one crying: 

'In the wilderness clear out the way of Yahweh; 

Make straight in the desert-plain 

A highway for our God.'" (Isaiah 40:3)* 

Ridge follows ridge into the horizon, 

Their shadows and mountain hues 

Growing hazy, at last to melt at the world's watery edge.

Ages old, yet seeming no older than I: 

Wind-whipped, scarred and, yet, still enduring. 

Forlorn, wild, untouchable seems this place... 

The lonely sadness of a lingering coyote howl 

Harmonizes the wind's haunting melody, 

Eerie to all but those who know and love such music, 

Whose very life and sustenance are this desert: 

Ground squirrels and kangaroo rats, 

Cacti and sagebrush, 

Rattlers, gnarly reptiles and other desert-dwellers 

Make peace with this wilderness, 

Surviving and thriving. 

In such a place settled Abraham, 

Blessed by Yahweh, prospering as a tent-dweller. 

Through such barrenness 

Moses led the multitudes of Israel. 

Elijah first retreated to the desert 

To find relief from wickedness. 

Christ came to the wastelands 

To fast His forty days; 

Here to be tempted, here to triumph; 

Here to prepare His soul 

For the rugged ministry ahead. 

And, so, a still, small voice (I Kings 19:12-13) 

Whispers softly inside me: 

" 'In the wilderness clear out the way of Yahweh; 

Make straight in the desert-plain 

A highway for our God.'"* 

---C. Marie Byars, November 1986 Ft. Irwin, CA

*original re-translations from the Hebrew Bible; somewhat more literal and, hopefully, more in line with poetic work