04 February 2010

St Gregory's Prayer for a Safe Journey


Today I depart, God willing, for Memphis, where Owen White (the Ochlophobist) will join me and my friend, James Kelley, to head up to the Climacus Conference in Louisville that I mentioned here. As I do not have time for a proper post—and may not for several days—I shall simply offer St Gregory the Theologian’s Poem 1.1.37, Alia de prospero itinere precatio, ‘Another Prayer for a Safe Journey’:

Not a step is lifted without you,
Christ the Lord, who to your own human kind
are all good things, and, in everything, have fashioned a right way.
Trusting in you, I too keep to this path; but escort me
uninjured, and ferry all the things my heart has sought,
and, Lord, lead me back again to my humble home
where, night and day, I may supplicate you freely.

From St Gregory the Theologian, On God & Man: The Theological Poetry of St Gregory of Nazianzus, tr. Peter Gilbert (Crestwood, NY: SVS, 2001), p. 87.

2 comments:

  1. God bless you in your travels!

    I'll be especially interested on your reflections on Prof. Guroian's talk.

    In Christ's Peace,

    Fr Mark

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  2. Thanks, Father. I'll see what I can do!

    ReplyDelete