parting – poem prayer silence

Your friends were with you only for a season
To hear your word and share your holy life,
And then they scattered to the world’s far corners
To bring joy to indifference and strife.

Lord, so with us: we walk the path together
A year or two, we’re knit in friendship’s bands,
Until you bid us follow where you’re leading
In lonely coracle to unknown lands.

Teach us to part: for parting is not ending,
In glory we will meet if not before;
The bands of love in prayer grow ever stronger,
We bear each other to those separate shores.

And so we weave a net of grace and kindness
Across the world and down the passing years;
Christ is the net who binds us all together,
Who makes our souls through sharing hopes and fears.

And so farewell, in gratitude and laughter
For all that Christ has given in this place;
Lord, lead us on to find tomorrow’s blessings,
Tomorrow’s friends, tomorrow’s gift and grace.

tRuth 2019

I had the tune Londonderry Air in mind when writing this, but one would need to repeat the last verse.