Mary Oliver Evensong 

A Service of Poetry and Song, guided by the work of Mary Oliver 

Tuesday November 10, 2020, 5:00 pm 

 

 

 

Since I discovered her work around ten years ago, Mary Oliver has always had a way of speaking to me. I have always been drawn to writers who can say something profound in just a few words. She has a connection to nature, to the cycles and life of creation that is admirable, reflective and grounding for me. These are the things that I had in mind when I proposed a Mary Oliver CIS last spring, just as we were entering into the world of the pandemic.   When I turned to begin planning the service this fall, I was worried that her work wouldn’t cover the immense amounts of discomfort, fear and disruption we are in the midst of. I worried that poems about dogs and flowers and deer wouldn’t cover all that needs to be said in this time. How very wrong I was.   The majority of the words we will speak in the service tonight come from her book of poems, Thirst. This is a work that was written after the death of her partner, Molly Malone Cook, and grapples deeply with the struggles of finding God in the midst of grief. She writes of returning to God through attentiveness, letting go of our need for perfection in God’s presence, and finding our place in the liturgy of death and resurrection in Creation. In this time, I hope her words can be balm, a reminder of God’s eternal invitation to relationship for us.  I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. Then I pray.   Mary Oliver, Six Recognitions of the Lord     Thank you to Claire Columbo, Cynthia Kittredge, Kevin McClure, Derek Larson, Alyssa Stebbing, Stacey Carpenter, Santi Rodriguez, Ashley Colley and James Reiss.   Cover artwork is by Kelly Latimore. Poems within the service are from Mary Oliver’s Thirst, with the exception of Wild Geese which comes from Dream Work. The arrangement of the hymn, Abide With Me, is from the 2017 Sara Groves album of the same name.  

  

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Tuesday, November 10, 2020: Mary Oliver Evensong 

Opening Sentence Based on the poem Praying  Officiant:  It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small   

stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to  make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak. 

 

Confession Based on the poem Thirst  

Reader 1:  Another morning and I wake with thirst for goodness I do not have. 

Reader 2:  I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons.  

Reader 1:  Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books  past the hour and the bell; grant me in your mercy a little more time. 

Reader 2:  Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my  heart.  

People:  Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already  I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.  

 

Invitatory  Officiant: 

 

People: 

 

 

Praise to the holy and undivided Trinity, one God. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia! 

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Phos Hilaron O Gracious Light, Liturgical Folk, see pg #9 

Psalm  Psalm 42: 1-7, 10 St. Helena Breviary 

 

1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *  so longs my soul for you, O God.  

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *   when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?   3 My tears have been my food day and night, *  

while all day long they say to me,  “Where now is your God?”  

4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things: *  how I went with the multitude and led them into the  house of God,  

5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *  among those who keep holy-day.  

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, *  and why are you so disquieted within me?  

7 Put your trust in God, *  for I will yet give thanks to the Holy One,   who is the help of my countenance, and my God.  

10 You grant me your loving-kindness in the daytime; *  in the night season your song is with me,  

a prayer to the God of my life.   

Praise to the holy and undivided Trinity, one/God* As it was in the beginning, is/now And will be for/ever.* A/men. 

 

 

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The Lesson  Philippians 4:4-9 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.   Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.  People: Thanks be to God.  

The Canticle When I am Among the Trees, set to Hymn #42, see page #11 

The Apostles' Creed  

I believe in God, the Father almighty,  creator of heaven and earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,  who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,  born of the Virgin Mary,  suffered under Pontius Pilate,  was crucified, died, and was buried;  he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again;  he ascended into heaven,  he is seated at the right hand of the Father,  and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit,  the holy catholic Church,  

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the communion of saints,  the forgiveness of sins,  the resurrection of the body,  and the life everlasting. Amen.   

The Prayers 

Officiant: Hear our cry, O God. People: And listen to our prayer. Officiant: Let us pray.  The Lord’s Prayer, Liturgical Folk, see pg #12  The Suffrages  Based on the poem Six Recognitions of the Lord 

Reader 1: I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. All: Then I pray.  Reader 2: Lord God, mercy is in your hands, pour me a little. And tenderness too. All: My need is great. Beauty walks so freely and with such gentleness...  Reader 3: When I first found you I was filled with light, now the darkness grows and it is filled with crooked things, bitter and weak, each one bearing my name.  All: I have always known you are present in the clouds, and the black oak I especially adore, and the wings of birds.  Reader 1: But you are present too in the body, listening to the body, teaching it to live...  All: We do not do this easily. We have lived so long in the heaven of touch, and we maintain our mutability, our physicality, even as we begin to apprehend the other world.  Reader 2: Slowly we make our appreciative response. All: Slowly appreciation swells to astonishment.   Reader 3: I thirst and am given water. All: My eyes thirst and I am given the white lilies on the black water.  

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Reader 1: My heart sings… All: but the apparatus of singing doesn’t convey half what it feels and means...  Reader 2: There is everywhere the luminous sprawl of gifts... All: ...the hospitality of the Lord and my inadequate answers…  Reader 3: We enter the dialogue of our lives that is beyond all understanding or conclusion. All: It is mystery. It is love of God. It is obedience.    Officiant Oh, feed us this day, Holy Spirit, with the fragrance of the fields and the  

freshness of the oceans which you have made, and help us to hear and to hold in  all dearness those exacting and wonderful words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying: Follow me.  

 

Collect Wild Geese 

You do not have to be good.  You do not have to walk on your knees  for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.  You only have to let the soft animal of your body  love what it loves.  Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.  Meanwhile the world goes on.  Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain  are moving across the landscapes,  over the prairies and the deep trees,  the mountains and the rivers.  Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,  are heading home again.  Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,  the world offers itself to your imagination,  calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —  over and over announcing your place  in the family of things.   

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Hymn Abide With Me, for lyrics see pg. #13 

Authorized Intercessions, ChapelVue 

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom  Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.  

 Officiant Let us bless the Lord.  People Thanks be to God.    May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.  Romans 15:13  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Abide With Me  Abide with me, fast falls the eventide The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide When other helpers fail and comforts flee Help of the helpless, abide with me  Thou on my head in early youth didst smile And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile Thou hast not left me though I oft left Thee On to the close, Lord, abide with me  I need Thy presence every passing hour What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power? Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be Through cloud and sunshine, abide with me  I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless Ills have no weight, tears lose their bitterness Where is thy sting death? Where grave thy victory? I triumph still, abide with me  Hold out Thy cross before my closing eyes Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies Thy morning breaks and earthly shadows flee In life and death, Lord, abide with me In life and death, Lord, abide with me  

*Sara Groves version, from her 2017 album Abide With Me 

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