Ash Wednesday Prayer from U2 (Yahweh)

On this Ash Wednesday, here is a heartfelt prayer from U2 that I thought would be appropriate.

Yahweh

Take these shoes

Click clacking down some dead end street

Take these shoes

And make them fit

Take this shirt

Polyester white trash made in nowhere

Take this shirt

And make it clean, clean

Take this soul

Stranded in some skin and bones

Take this soul

And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh

Always pain before a child is born

Yahweh, Yahweh

Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands

Teach them what to carry

Take these hands

Don't make a fist no

Take this mouth

So quick to critisize

Take this mouth

Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh

Always pain before a child is born

Yahweh, Yahweh

Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up

The sun is coming up on the ocean

His love is like a drop in the ocean

His love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh

Always pain before a child is born

Yahweh, tell me now

Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city

A city should be shining on a hill

Take this city

If it be your will

What no man can own, no man can take

Take this heart

Take this heart

Take this heart

And make it break

(This post originally appeared at Not Dark Yet)

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I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)

The Sufi mystic Rumi wrote many poems about the mystery of relating to the sacred. In "Love Dogs," he indicates that one way to understand the spiritual longing we have is that the longing is for the longing itself.  Our crying out is sometimes the connection we need. The U2 hit, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,” is an excellent example of this longing. Here it is presented by Bono along with a gospel choir in Harlem. (Scroll down to see Rumi’s poem, “Love Dogs.”)

Love Dogs

by Rumi

One night a man was crying Allah! Allah!

His lips grew sweet with praising,

until a cynic said, “So!

I’ve heard you calling out, but have you ever

gotten any response?”

The man had no answer to that.

He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,

in a thick, green foliage.

“Why did you stop praising?” “Because

I’ve never heard anything back.”

“This longing you express

is the return message.”

The grief you cry out from

draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness

that wants help

is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.

That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs

no one knows the names of.

Give your life

to be one of them.

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