Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Prayer of Rilke


My prayer life has always been characterized by departures and returns. Each abandonment different from the others, each homecoming sweeter than the last. This constant battle of staying and leaving eventually strengthens the bond with my personal Jesus. Finding ways to make Him smile, I stumbled into this Rainer Maria Rilke poem which is my current favorite prayer:

Oh, tell us, poet, what you do? I praise.

But those dark, deadly, devastating ways, how do you bear them, suffer them? I praise.

And then the Nameless, beyond guess or gaze, how can you call it, conjure it? I praise.

And whence your right, in every kind of maze, in every mask, to remain true? I praise.

And that the mildest and the wildest ways know you like star and storm? Because I praise.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

nindot!

tailwagger said...

Ai, kaayo nga nagustuhan nimo. Somtimes when I feel inadequate saying my own prayer, I am in constant search of alternatives. If you know of any, please share it with me.

Rilke is such a treasure. Di man ko familiar niya except for "Letters to a young poet" which I read years ago then I stumbled into this poem. Very providential. Divine intervention, I must say.

Nalipay ko. It's a beautiful prayer. Even Georgelablab likes it.

Maria Ganja said...

I love Rilke too, i have his Stories of God - let me bring it home one of these days, and we can have a Rilke prayer night.

tailwagger said...

Sige!!!Rilke is expensive. Letters to the young poet which is a payat-book, baga la hin pamphlet cost a bit, more than the price of a CD. sky-high na for a lumpenproletariat like me, huhu.