Nov 12.97: Light For The Day - "Peaceful Heart"

"And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and
trust for ever."
-- Isaiah 32:17 (RSV)

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"Peaceful Heart"

Your life needs days of retirement, when it shuts
the gates upon the noisy whirl of action and is
alone with God.

I need wide spaces in my heart
Where Faith and I can go apart
And grow serene.

Life gets so choked by busy living,
Kindness so lost in fussy giving,
That Love slips by unseen.

I want to make a quiet place
Where those I love can see God's face,
Can stretch their hearts across the earth.
Can understand what spring is worth,
Can count the stars,
Watch violets grow,
And learn what birds and children know

-- Selected
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The most tempestuous wind cannot disturb the
quiet serenity of the stars.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that God gives us.
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

-- William Wordsworth
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"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your
hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." 
-- John 14:27 (RSV)

"I have said this to you, that in me you may have
peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world."
-- John 16:33 (RSV)
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