Breathe in
Breathe out
Run the other way
From all the doubt
Dark beats the light
We push others away
Light blinds the dark
In a brand new day.
We need a breath of hope
In this dying place
In this valley of death
We need a kiss of grace.
Breathe out
Breathe in
Let’s search our souls
And find we are forgiven
Being right’s so wrong
Confession is so wise
Wrongs can lead to right
From sacrifice we rise.
We need a breath of hope
In this dying place
In this valley of death
We need a kiss of grace
Will I be the dark
Will I be the death
Will I be the kiss
Will I be the breath?
This is a random collection of thoughts on the current Northern Irish political collapse. A whole range of things came together around a phrase that Corrymeela’s Susan McEwen used at a meeting I was at this week. Susan suggested we need a breath of hope.
I was at a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert later that evening and in the very first song their blissful harmonies hit me with the breath of hope:
“Carry on
(Carry on)
Love is coming
(Love is coming)
Love is coming
(Love is coming)
To us all”
Elsewhere in these couplets there is a Saint Ignatius’ thought that Fr Martin Magill shared with me that we should run the opposite way from how we feel. I needed to turn away from my disillusionment and discouragement and breath in some hope so that I could breath out some hope.
I also believe that the idol of Northern Ireland life is the need to be right. Sometimes what is right is not always what is good or that which will bring peace and well being. The Gospel is actually about wrong things. We believe that it was wrong that Jesus should die on a cross and wrong that the sinner should go free. If God had stuck with right then redemption and the Kingdom coming would never have been possible!
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