Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Abide with me



A co-worker of mine lost a daughter yesterday in a car accident. Please pray for the repose of this young lady's soul and also for the devastated family that remains in the vale of tears.

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, O abide with me.

2. Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3. 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, Lord, abide with me.

4. I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

5. Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847 Wrote this poem as he lay dying of TB.

5 comments:

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

I will remember your friend's child in my prayers. Being an Air Force veteran, the following poem has always been a favorite of mine:

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

The soul entrusted to God does not die. It returns to Love, its' Creator.

TH2 said...

She and her family will be included in my next rosary intentions.

Never came across that poem before. Thank you for posting it.

kam said...

My drive home after work Rosary will be for her and her family. Beautiful poems all around.

Cathy_of_Alex said...

Prayers here!

epsilon said...

May she rest in Peace! I will pray also. My daughter's friend in France has lost her boyfriend in Haiti. She was due to go out there to work for the UN soon. Now she is supporting the Red Cross funding drive. My daughter's group of friends are devastated by their friend's loss. May he rest in the Peace of Christ and all those who died in Haiti.