One only is worthy

One only is worthy,

and we know it,

and we know Him.

So as we go suffering as He suffers,

rejoicing as He rejoices,

let's keep following Him,

and decide to do now and always

exactly what He asks,

no matter what it looks like,

no matter whom it may offend,

no matter what it feels like,

but without malice,

without superiority,

without resentment.

This way is the hardest

because it is the Cross,

and it is the lightest

because it is Jesus.

And to be at His side,

no matter what happens to us by day or night,

is why we live.
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Keep My Commandments

            I wouldn’t call them beautiful exactly,
            but these few lines inscribe my life,
            a life that it’s easy to hate;
            but then I heard it said to me,
            ‘the man who hates his life in this world
            will keep it for eternal life.’

            ‘Remember to breathe,’
            I tell myself each morning;
            ‘Cast your eyes ahead,’
            that voice within me calls,
            and like you, brother,
            though I light no candles,
            my vigils take the place of sleep.

            Lying flat on my face,
            no pillow drenched with tears,
            I watch for dawn’s hint of light,
            and then pray I expire
            before the sun rises;
            no other answer to despair,
            except a kiss whispered in my ear,
            ‘keep my commandments.’
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Outside the world

This is the life we live
outside the world.

We still have to live in this world,
but that world to come
is for us so fully present
that we feel its breezes blowing on us,
even while we walk in this world.

That world to come
is for us so fully tangible
that we sometimes scrape ourselves
on the door jambs of that narrow gate
as we pass through it,
going in and out.

That world to come
is for us so fully real
that we feel truly at peace and at home
only when we are together,
following the Lord,
in this world strangers in a strange land.

Heaven is no more a pious dream for us
than God Himself is,
who is our Father, Friend and Guide,
who welcomes us into His presence beyond all worlds,
and sets our feet down in heavenly places.

This is the life
we live outside the world,
which is so rich that we are willing
to leave all behind even before death’s door,
to inherit the world to come,
prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

Glory to You, Christ our God,
for You have made mere fisherman wise
by sending upon them the rain of fire of Your Spirit,
as You said,
‘I have come to bring fire to earth!
O, that it were ablaze!’

We follow You, Jesus, in this world,
and You refresh us in the world to come, even now.

Barukh ha-ba ba-shem Adonay.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Barukh ha-olam ha-ba.
Blessed is the world to come.

Brethren,
this is the life we live
outside the world.
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