Psalm 55: Complaint about a Friend's Treachery

Give ear to my prayer, O God;

do not hide yourself from my supplication.

Attend to me, and answer me;

I am troubled in my complaint.

I am distraught by the noise of the enemy,

because of the clamour of the wicked.

For they bring trouble upon me,

And in anger they cherish enmity against me.

My heart is in anguish within me,

the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

And I say, 'O that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest;

truly, I would flee far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness;

I would hurry to find a shelter for myself

from the raging wind and tempest.'

Confuse, O lord, confound their speech;

for I see violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they go around it on its walls,

and iniquity and trouble are within it;

ruin is in its midst;

oppression and fraud

do not depart from its marketplace.

It is not enemies who taunt me--

I could bear that;

it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me--

I could hide from them.

But it is you, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend,

with whom I kept pleasant company;

we walked in the house of God with the trong.

Let death come upon them;

let them go down alive to Sheol;

for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

But I call upon God,

and the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan,

and he will hear my voice.

He will redeem me unharmed

from the battle that I wage,

for many are arrayed against me.

God, who is enthroned from of old,

will hear, and will humble them--

because they do not change,

and do not fear God.

My companion laid hands on a friend

and violated a covenant with me

with speech smoother than butter,

but with a heart set on war;

with words that were softer than oil,

but in fact were drawn swords.

Cast your burden on the Lord,

and he will sustain you;

he will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

But you, O God, will cast them down

into the lowest pit;

the bloodthirsty and treacherous

shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in you.

Chapter VI: The old man tells Walter of himself. The Wood Beyond the World, by William Morris.

But when they had done their meat and drink the master and the shipmen went about the watering of the ship, and the others strayed off along the meadow, so that presently Walter was left alone with the carle, & fell to speech with him and said: Father, meseemeth thou shouldest have some strange tale to tell, & as yet we have asked thee of nought save meat for our bellies: now if I ask thee concerning thy life, and how thou camest hither, & abided here, wilt thou tell me aught?

The old man smiled on him and said: Son, my tale were long to tell; and mayhappen concerning much therof my memory should fail me; and withal there is grief therein, which I were loth to awaken: nevertheless if thou ask, I will answer as I may, & in any case will tell thee nought save the truth.

Said Walter: Well then, hast thou been long here? * Yea, said the carle, since I was a young man, and a salwarth knight. * Said Walter: This house, didst thou build it, and raise these garths, and plant orchard and vineyard, and gather together the neat & the sheep, or did some other do all this for thee? * Said the carle: I did none of all this; there was one here before me, and I entered into his inheritance, as though this were a lordly manor, with a fair castle thereon, and all wellstocked and plenished. * Said Walter: didst thou find thy foregoer alive here? * Yea, said the elder, yet he lived but for a little while after I came to him.

He was silent a while, and then he said: I slew him: even so would he have it, though I bade him a better lot. * Said Walter: Didst thou come hither of thine own will? * Mayhappen, said the carle; who knoweth? Now have I no will to do either this or that. It is wont that maketh me do, or refrain. * Said Walter: Tell me this; why didst thou slay the man? did he any scathe to thee? * Said the elder: When I slew him, I deemed that he was doing me all scathe: but now I know that it was not so. Thus it was; I would needs go where he had been before, and he stood in the path against me; and I overthrew him, and went on the way I would. * What came thereof? said Walter. * Evil came of it, said the carle.

Then was Walter silent a while, and the old man spake nothing; and there came a smile on his face that was both sly and somewhat sad. Walter looked on him and said: Was it from hence that thou wouldst go that road? * Yea, said the carle. * Said Walter: And now wilt thou tell me what that road was; whither it went and whereto it led, that thou must needs wend it, though thy first stride were over a dead man? * I will not tell thee, said the carle. * Then they held their peace, both of them, and thereafter got on to other talk of no import.

What God wants most of all for each one of you...

"What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy."

-Pope Benedict XVI

Cor ad cor loquitur.

Coat of Arms of Cardinal John Henry Newman

"Heart speaks to heart."

Galadriel's Lament; from the Fellowship of the Ring

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,

yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!

Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier

mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva

Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar

nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni

ómaryo airetári-lírinen.

Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?

An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo

ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë

ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë

ar sindanóriello caita mornië

i falmalinnar imbë met,

ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.

Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!

Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!

Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië!

Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,

long years numberless as the wings of trees!

The long years have passed like swift draughts

of the sweet mead in lofty halls

beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda

wherein the stars tremble

in the voice of her song, holy and queenly.

Who now shall refill the cup for me?

For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars,

from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds

and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;

and out of a grey country darkness lies

on the foaming waves between us,

and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.

Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar!

Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar!

Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!