Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.                                        Romans 6

Shock-wave tense

And brain-freezing,

I immerse my body

In the ice-bath sea.

Fighting the cold,

With teeth-clenched fists,

I oppose the roar

of waves,

And tumble,

Helpless, helpless, helpless

into the deep.

Kicking from the Davy Jones locker,

I rise to the gasp,

But the wave-bear roars once more,

And sends me back,

To the chaos deep.

All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. ‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him…But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail…O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind…

                                                           Jeremiah 20

Baptized into the Christ,

Yet ego still strong;

Live, screams Ego,

Fight and prevail!

My favourite thoughts scoff,

As the waves beat me sore.

Sand grazed, and jag-rock-bleeding,

I hear the cackle,

Of the one called Survival:

Never give up, Never give up…

Never…give…up……..

But the Lord is with me

Like a dread warrior…

~ breathe ~

Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops… ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword… whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’              Matthew 10

Take up your cross, my friend,

Die to your self,

and live in me.

Immersed in the Baptism,

The sword of the Christ,

Cuts twice,

Double edged,

Cling, and die,

Die,

and Live

~ breathe ~

The secret light is breaking through,

The Whisper breathes like Love.

Stop fighting, she says,

My love, and let go.

It is no numbness,

That masks the cold,

As I rise in submission,

To the living wave,

And yield to her life,

Body-surfing free.

And together we ride,

The Christ in me,

In on the tide,

From the One, shore-kissing Sea………………

~ by Fr Tim Ardouin on June 20, 2023.

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