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a new generation of believers. Indeed, the language and rhythms of the original--so Scottish, so Calvinist, so stately--can be off-putting to some folk (I once gave a paperback of the classic to a friend named Celeste who scanned a page or two and handed it back to me: "I don't talk like that!"
I told her that was the power of it, or part of the power: to make your mouth say words they don't always say, in an order and cadence that is more like music than banter. Like the Psalms, I said. She was uninterested. It was oasis to me, but some people find it dry and gritty. So, thanks, Susana. Tell Tom I said "hello."
That said, this morning's prayer loses something in her translation from the original to the updated.
In the newer rendering:
"Almighty God, in your infinite wisdom you have sent my life with the narrow bounds of time and circumstance..."
In the copy I have, which has almost not survived my praying of it through many long years and many dark nights, the prayer begins this way:
"Almighty God, who on Thine infinite wisdom hast ordained that I should live my life within these narrow bounds of time and circumstance, let me now go forth into the world with a brave and trustful heart."
No, Celeste, I don't talk that way, either, but I surely wish I did. So, I guess this morning I let Dr. Baillie speak for me as well as pray for me.
"These narrow bounds of time and circumstance." And today, of course that takes on new meanings as we continue to get the numbers on COVID-19... and people are going crazy.
Not that there are riots or anything.... but you have senators betraying the public trust, apparently, greedily using dire information that have heard in classified briefings to protect their portfolios... at least that is the allegation. You have people in Kansas and Louisianna and cyperspace denying, doubting, entertaining the wildest kind of conspiricy theories...and it all is a hoax, right? An international collusion of financial markets, health officials, even hospitals and morgues that are running out of room--oh, yeah, and "the media," as it that is one monolithic thing--to besmirch the President. Who is now telling people not to sit so close together, so I guess he's now in on it.
Crazy times. Interesting times, at the very least, which is the old Sufi curse: "May you live in interesting times."
Praying Dr. Baillie this morning--these narrow bounds of time and circumstance"--I was reminded of the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo, as they sat in the mausoleum-like gloom of Moria, contemplating the evil and darkness that had overtaken Middle Earth: "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that it given to us."
What resource do we have? Where do we find wisdom and strength? Dr. Baillie prays for us, and this morning I pray with him and many others who are using this prayer book for Lent:
"It has pleased Thee to withhold from me a perfect knowledge; therefore deny me not the grace of faith by which I may lay hold of things unseen" (Wright: "It has pleased you to hold back from me a knowledge of everything; therefore give me the grace of faith so that I may grasp what I cannot see.")
Thou has given me little power to mould things to my own desire; therefore use Thine own omnipotence to bring Thy desire to pass within me: (Wright: "You have given me little power to shape things to my own desires; therefore use you own great power to make what you desire happen within me.")
Thou has willed it that through labour and pain I should walk the upward way; be Thou then my fellow traveler as I go" (Wright: "It is your will that through hard work and suffering I should walk the upward road; so be my fellow traveler as I go").
"Let me face what Thou does send with the strength Thou dose supply... does that part of it need translation?
I, like Frodo, wish "this" need not have happened in my time. Like Gandalf, I remind myself and others that no one likes it, but what we do now reveals much about our faith and our understanding of God's call and claim on our lives. Like John Baillie, I pray for us all that When (God ) callest us to go through the dark valley, we will not persuade ourselves that we know a way around, whether iby unethical stock deals, hoarding of supplies, irresponsible gatherings, or denial.
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One more literary reference: Really interesting article in the NYT yesterday: "Camus on the Corona Virus": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-camus-plague.html
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