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Since the beginning of time has God's voice
Moved upon the waters, spoken for all
To hear and understand.
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Entrance Prayer
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Be quiet now,
And enter softly into the Temple,
Rapt in the inner ecstasy of soul
To reach and touch the majesty of God
Laid bare here for all to see and behold,
A beauty pure, bold magic to confound
The eye of the believer in quiet truth
That such is Nature. Rest here, O people
Who are impure in spirit, that here, here
In the holiest of holy places,
The taint of imperfection may be washed
From the living soul, wearied from the fret
And chase of sullied goals and human gods,
For here you may drink from the vital force
Which flows now abundantly, springs of life
That bubble forth from out the very heart
Of God.
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The Purification
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In the beginning was there such,
When light was separated from darkness
And the land set apart from the water
And given into the keeping of man
To tend and cultivate in sacred Trust
For a holy harvest.
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Reading: Genesis
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A peaceful lake
Lies lazily beneath the evening sky.
The sun has set. A mist obscures the hills
That brood above the waters of liquid gold,
While across the water the land lies brown
And warm in the last glow of fading light.
On the bank close by, like a joyful throng
Of children eager to drink to the full
A life brimming over with wild content,
A murmur of monkeys leaps from the trees
And sways and chatters in the soft branches,
Jumping and frolicking on the green sward,
Where a lone deer treads out his cautious path,
Then vanishes, soundless, into the dark
Primeval forest.
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Contemplation
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Day flows into night
With a smoothness of water into wine,
Heady stuff for one so unaccustomed
To the soft-sweet draughts of a vintage brew,
Crushed from day-labour in Nature's vineyard.
Take, Friend, this our offering, not the work
Of human hands but the contemplation
Of the human heart, bread and wine to feed
The hungry and thirsty soul. Take this gift
Which lies here before us, and make of it
The life-principle to consume, Oh us
Dear, dear Friend who spread for us this fair feast,
Oh us who stand in awe, who cry aloud
In the silence of the soul, O Holy,
Holy, Holy is He who could create
A dream of such delight.
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Offertory Prayer
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The moon is full
On this night, stained at the start with the blood
Of the dying day, yet grows in splendour,
A conquering Queen to take her throne on high,
Crowned with a myriad stars, shining forth
As bright, when it cools, as new-forged silver.
By what strange alchemy is Nature changed
From the pastel colours of daylight hours
To the bright-mint-gleam of purest silver
That shines like the flash of a million gems
Upon a wave top, space-black like velvet
Behind a jewel of Oh! rare proportion?
The water laps against the bank, a sharp
But gentle ring which sounds into the night
To salute heaven's host, now held on high
For all to see and, with uplifted hearts,
Give meet adoration. The very night
Is embossed in silver. The mist has gone.
The mountain lies stark in its brute beauty,
Silent sentinel, a bold black coal-black
Bastion of the permanence of the truth
That truth is beauty.
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The Consecration
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But lo! a mystery
Beckons, to add magic upon magic.
In an awesome vision: the earth's shadow
Stretches across space to eclipse the moon
In slow communion. It is the climax,
The time of grace for which the worshipper
Was summoned to enter this great Temple
And eat and drink before the throne of God.
The light dims as the shadow draws a veil
Across the holy place and, for three hours,
For three long hours, must we stand helpless here,
As the powers of darkness wrestle with the light.
Night wins, then stands as victor while the moon
Glows brown in the blood of defeat. Yet here,
Even here, is the majesty complete
For, though the world be plunged into darkness,
The heavens are dressed in a new brilliance,
The moon radiates her supreme glory,
Soft, gentle, an orb floating midway in the sky,
Proclaiming her profound truth: that in life
Is mystery, in death is mastery.
For death brings new life as light shrugs off dark,
And the veil is torn so that grace may flow
And joy abound.
It is done.
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Communion
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We depart
Silent as we entered, but wiser now,
For we have supped and have drunk to the full
Enchantment which flows from the springs of life,
And we go forth, refreshed, to praise, to serve,
And proclaim, to all around, the Wonder.
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The Blessing
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