November Rememberings – Godspacelight

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by Carol Dixon

Picture: Laura M Goodsell Unsplash 

Our most solemn remembering takes place on 11 November – Remembrance Day (referred to as Veterans’ Day in some locations) and the sombre tone of poems written by these concerned in warfare and by these left to mourn are coronary heart wrenching.

POEM: Anthem for Doomed Youth – Wilfred Owen​

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Solely the monstrous anger of the weapons.
Solely the stuttering rifles’ fast rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from unhappy shires.
What candles could also be held to hurry all of them?
Not within the fingers of boys however of their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of women’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of affected person minds,
And every gradual nightfall a drawing-down of blinds.

[Written September-October 1917. Wilfred Owen was killed at Ors, near the French Belgian border, on 4 November 1918, aged 25.]

Track: The place have all of the flowers gone? https://youtu.be/-lJw0Y2BJfI?characteristic=shared

The place have all of the flowers gone?
Very long time passing
The place have all of the flowers gone?
Very long time in the past
The place have all of the flowers gone?
Younger women picked them,
each one
When will they ever study?
When will they ever study?

The place have all of the troopers gone?
Very long time passing
The place have all of the troopers gone?
Very long time in the past

The place have all of the troopers gone?
Gone to graveyards each one
When will they ever study?
When will they ever study?
……….
Right here’s to the heroes
Who change our lives
Due to the heroes
Freedom survives

Right here’s to the heroes
Who by no means relaxation
They’re the chosen
We’re the blessed

Right here’s to the heroes
Who intention so excessive
Right here’s to the heroes
Who do or die

Right here’s to the heroes
Who intention so excessive
Right here’s to the heroes
Who do or die
Right here’s to the heroes
Who do or die 

Remembrance Day 2000

​She stands within the chilly
Her black fabric coat
Fits the event
However fails to maintain her heat
Regardless of the gleam of silver
At her breast.*

Her ideas circle spherical:
“Why did we’ve one other warfare?
Didn’t we lose sufficient males already?
Why did my sons should die?
O God, hold me upright.
Assist me to not scream
Out their names.

“What is going to we’ve for dinner tonight?
What would Joey and Invoice have needed?
It’s so exhausting to have religion…
It’s so exhausting to have hope…
Why did my sons should die?
Jesus, you comforted your mom
As she stood and watched you die.
If I pray exhausting sufficient
Will you convey consolation to me?

“If that preacher says ‘Noble Sacrifice’
Yet another time I’ll scream…
I’ll scream out their names
So exhausting the lifeless will hear me.
Solely this time, I’ll scream out loud
As a substitute of in my coronary heart.”

However she doesn’t scream…
She stands beside the Honour Guard
Who’re older than her sons
Had been once they died.

The folks close by watch her,
Questioning how she will stand

So nonetheless, so calm,
Realizing she misplaced two boys,
Pondering she has misplaced her grief
In spite of everything these years
When to her it would
Have been at this time.  © Clare Stewart November 2000

Picture: mwangi gatheca Unsplash

* “Gleam of silver.” Clare Stewart, who’s a Canadian, explains: “Yearly, a Silver Cross mom is invited to put a wreath on Remembrance Day on the Nationwide Conflict Memorial in Ottawa on behalf of all moms. The Memorial Cross is depicted in bronze with the three completely different cyphers, at three of the 4 corners of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, unveiled in Could 2000. There’s additionally a big duplicate of the Memorial Cross hanging above the door of the Memorial Chamber within the Peace Tower of the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, the place the Books of Remembrance are saved.” Clare Stewarts additionally hosts a Remembrance Artwork Present on the net each November for all the month. Right here is the hyperlink. http://www.cscomps.on.ca  Click on on Clare Stewart and comply with the hyperlinks.

And eventually, Dylan Thomas’s defiant poem of hope…..  

AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION

And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.
Lifeless males bare they shall be one
With the person within the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clear and the clear bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Although they go mad they shall be sane,
Although they sink by the ocean they shall rise once more;
Although lovers be misplaced love shall not;
And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.

And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.
Beneath the windings of the ocean
They mendacity lengthy shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give manner,
Strapped to a wheel, but they shall not break;
Religion of their fingers shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them by;
Cut up all finally ends up they shan’t crack;
And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.

And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.
No extra might gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
The place blew a flower might a flower no extra
Carry its head to the blows of the rain;
Although they be mad and lifeless as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer by daisies;
Break within the solar until the solar breaks down,
And loss of life shall don’t have any dominion.

PRAYERS (from Roots worship)  

God of justice and peace,
we pray for many who have been injured
or disabled by warfare.
For individuals who have misplaced houses
and safety by battle;
for many who have misplaced liked kin in wars;
for many who face hazard and take dangers for peace;
for all these, particularly kids,
caught up in present conflicts;
for refugees and all these in want of assist and different assist.
God of encouragement
and Saviour of the despairing,
consolation those that bear in mind previous sacrifices
and information us in constructing
a simply and peaceable neighborhood for all.

As one household, we mirror at this time
on the horrors of the previous that proceed
to hang-out humanity and darken our world.
Lord, the place ache nonetheless overwhelms, convey therapeutic.
The place hearts are nonetheless breaking, convey consolation.
The place peoples are nonetheless oppressed, convey liberation.
The place communities are nonetheless victimised, convey justice.
The place kids are nonetheless brutalised, convey compassion.
The place lives are nonetheless crushed, convey hope.
The place evil is perpetrated, convey repentance.
The place warfare nonetheless devastates, convey peace.
However most of all, wherever a single voice
cries out within the darkness, convey us to 1 one other,
within the identify of the love you bear
in your coronary heart for all folks, all nations and all creation.
We pray in silence now for these folks and locations we all know to be in want of your therapeutic love ……….

A Prayer of Brother Lawrence:  O God, right here we’re all dedicated to you, make us in line with your coronary heart; In Christ make us one, that the world might imagine; mould us in line with your coronary heart.

The hymn most related to Remembrance Sunday, set to the haunting tune St Anne is ‘O God our assist in ages previous’ by Isaac Watts (who died in Nov 1748. Just like the psalm it’s based mostly on – Psalm 90 – the phrases are reassuring and uplifting.  I like singing it to the extra upbeat tune College which is typically sung to ‘The God of affection my shepherd is’

HYMN o God our assist in ages previous https://youtu.be/xMBv6onCT5M?characteristic=shared (phrases under) 

O God, our assist in ages previous,
our hope for years to return,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our everlasting house:

Beneath the shadow of thy throne,
thy saints have dwelt safe;
ample is thine arm alone,
and our defence is bound.

Earlier than the hills so as stood,
or earth acquired her body,
from eternal thou artwork God,
to infinite years the identical.

A thousand ages in thy sight
are like a night gone;
brief because the watch that ends the night time
earlier than the rising solar.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all its sons away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies on the opening day.

O God, our assist in ages previous,
our hope for years to return,
be thou our information whereas troubles final,
and our everlasting house! (Isaac Watts)

Blessing: [by Pope John Paul II]  Allow us to bear in mind the previous with gratitude, reside the current with enthusiasm, and look ahead to the longer term with confidence. 

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