Anam Cara

The nature of the calling can change over time, taking a person down pathways never anticipated. The calling opens new territories within the heart; this in turn deepens the calling itself. The faces of the calling change; what at the beginning seemed simple and clear can become ambivalent and complex as it unfolds. To develop a heart that is generous and equal to this complexity is the continual challenge of growth. This is the creative tension that dwells at the heart of vocation. One is urged and coaxed beyond the pale regions into rich territories of risk and promise.

It is devastating to feel trapped in a form of life where you feel utterly misplaced and all your effort is labored; everything you do is done against the grain. You take no joy or pleasure in what you do, and your heart is haunted by alternative lives you will never have. When you feel like this it can make for a resentful and bitter life—a life where you are neither seen nor understood for much of the time—and your gifts remain locked away, never to emerge. It is clearly time to change what you are doing, perhaps sacrifice the familiar in order to find your true calling. Such change can utterly transform your life. It is such a relief and joy to find the calling that expresses and incarnates your spirit. When you find that you are doing what you love, what you were brought here to do, it makes for a rich and contented life. You have come into rhythm with your longing. Your work and action emerge naturally; you don’t have to force yourself. Your energy is immediate. Your passion is clear and creative. A new calling can open the door into the house of vision and belonging. You feel at home in your life, heart and hearth at one. FOR PRIESTHOOD

May the blessings released through your hands

Cause windows to open in darkened minds.

May the sufferings your calling brings

Be but winter before the spring.

May the companionship of your doubt

Restore what your beliefs leave out.

May the secret hungers of your heart

Harvest from emptiness its sacred fruit.

May your solitude be a voyage

Into the wilderness and wonder of God.

May your words have the prophetic edge

To enable the heart to hear itself.

May the silence where your calling dwells

Foster your freedom in all you do and feel.

May you find words full of divine warmth

To clothe the dying in the language of dawn.

May the slow light of the Eucharist

Be a sure shelter around your future.

FOR MARRIAGE

As spring unfolds the dream of the earth,

May you bring each other’s hearts to birth.

As the ocean finds calm in view of land,

May you love the gaze of each other’s mind.

As the wind arises free and wild,

May nothing negative control your lives.

As kindly as moonlight might search the dark,

So gentle may you be when light grows scarce.

As surprised as the silence that music opens,

May your words for each other be touched with reverence.

As warmly as the air draws in the light,

May you welcome each other’s every gift.

As elegant as dream absorbing the night,

May sleep find you clear of anger and hurt.

As twilight harvests all the day’s color,

May love bring you home to each other.

ELEMENTAL BLESSING FOR A NEW HOME

Before a human voice was ever heard here,

This place has known the respect of stone,

The friendship of the wind, always returning

With news of elsewhere, whispered in seed and pollen,

The thin symphonies of birdsong softening the silence,

The litanies of rain rearranging the air,

Cascades of sunlight opening and closing days,

And the glow of the moon gazing through darkness.

May all that elemental enrichment

Bless the foundation and standing of your home.

Before you came here, this place has known

The wonder of children’s eyes,

The hope of mornings in troubled hearts,

The tranquillity of twilight easing the night,

The drama of dreams under sleeping eyelids,

The generous disturbance of birth,

The anxieties of old age unclenching into grace

And the final elegance of calmly embraced death.

May the life of your new home enter

Into this inheritance of spirit.

May the rain fall kindly,

May daylight illuminate your hearts,

May the darkness never burden,

May those who dwell here in the unseen

Watch over your coming and going,

May your lives of love and promise

Refine and deepen the mind of this land.

FOR THE FARMER

Before the human mind could warm to itself,

The hands of the farmer had first to work,

Creating clearances in the earth’s thicket:

Cut into the thorn-screens of wild briar,

Uproot the clusters of scrub-bush,

Dig out loose rock until a field emerged

Whose clay could be loosened and softened

To take seed and bring forth crops.

The earth was able to trust

The intention of the farmer’s hands,

Opening it, softening it, molding it

Into a domain of shelter and nourishment.

It waits through its secluded winter

For his imagination of springtime

To feed into its darkened heart

New seeds for it to work its mind on

Until the harvest gathers and thickens

With golden corn, honey-scented hay,