Community

These are tense days.  Here are a couple of recent e-mails from friends.

Dr. Virgil Benoit and I have been friends for many years.  His work life was as a professor of French, and his passion was his French-Canadian heritage. Like me, he’s retired now,   He’s been part of this list for a long time.

Recently he sent a note and a photo of some of his work in retirement, the fruits of a community garden in rural Red lake Falls-Huot Minnesota, near the Old Crossing & Treaty County Park.

Here is the photo, and the accompanying note.

“The Oxbow Foundation has given over 4 tons of garden produce to food shelves in over a forty-mile radius of its gardens. It manages three gardens which have vegetables of the most requested. We also manage a kitchen of a commercial category.

We hope that a more acceptable sense of community will happen, a greater sense than we have today.”

Today, Molly, another long-time friend, sent along the following to her own list.

Hi Friends,

As the stress of this election season continues, I remembered this prayer, introduced with a bit of background about its style.

Circle prayer is sometimes known as ‘Caim’ prayer; this is from Irish Gaelic meaning ‘protection’ .

Circle prayers are notable for three characteristics: 

            –First, they are simple and easy to remember. 

            –Second, they seek God’s blessing upon daily life. 

            –Thirdly they usually invoke the Trinity. 

Caim prayers and popular forms of praying were suppressed after the Norman Conquest –which tried to mandate Latinate prayers. So circle prayers moved to the margins, and stayed the everyday religious language of ordinary people. 

This is a night prayer, by David Adan, in the style of old Celtic Caim prayers:

Circle me Lord
Keep protection near 

And danger afar

Circle me Lord
Keep hope within 

Keep doubt without 

Circle me Lord 

Keep light near

And darkness afar 

Circle me Lord 

Keep peace within 

Keep evil out

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