Truth is known in all tumbling clowns

For the Parish Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields last Sunday morning, our preacher was Pádraig Ó Tuama, Leader of the Corrymeela Community, a Christian movement working for reconciliation in Northern Ireland and throughout the world. At this service we were joined by members and supporters of the Corrymeela Community to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its foundation. This was followed by a lecture and discussion.

Pádraig was a softly-spoken but passionate, erudite and imaginative speaker. Poet, theologian and group worker, he has worked with groups in Ireland, Britain, the US and Australia. With interests in storytelling, groupwork, theology and conflict, he lectures, leads retreats and writes both poetry and prose.

Among the many insights he shared were his community prayer for courage and a wonderful poem by Patrick Kavanagh:

The Prayer of Courage

Courage comes from the heart

and we are always welcomed by God,
the Croí of all being.

We bear witness to our faith,

knowing that we are called 
to live lives of courage,
love and reconciliation in the ordinary and extraordinary
moments 
of each day.

We bear witness, too, to our failures

and our complicity in the fractures of our world.

May we be courageous today.
May we learn today.

May we love today.


Amen.

Untitled (The Circle is the Father)

The Circle is the Father 

Diameter His Son 

Spirit the mathematical centre 

Thus truth is known 

In all turning wheels 

In all tumbling clowns 

As in the firmament deeps 

Where the Prophet drowns. 

Blessed are the followers 

Of all wheel tracks 

Blessed the spoke-tortured 

Christ. The axe 

Traces a circle 

And in that trace 

Is the Power the Word 

And the Tortured Face.

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Pádraig Ó Tuama - Go In Pieces.