Our Father Prayer and Praxis: An Anthology: the Relationship Between the Lord’S Prayer, Spirituality and Social Justice

By J. Lambert St. Rose

A running theme in Father St. Roses collection of poems is a simple but profound expression of the diversity in creation and its oneness in the Godhead. Its a reminder of the need to promote and protect the integrity of all of creation because, in the Godhead, there are no accidentsall of creation has value and purpose. What Father St. Rose has done in this collection is to place before the reader those everyday experiences we take for granted and a chance to see them in their totality, because it is only then that we can appreciate the fuller value of the individual experiences (Everistus Jn Marie).

Meditate upon the lines of the Our Father through a series of poems and be willingly crafted in the hands of God, the master sculptor. A former teacher and ever prolific, the poet usefully dissects the Our Father, delivering it to us in word and deed from a living perspective, often in all-too-familiar contexts (Nahdjla Bailey; teacher, author, and editor).

This book is a phenomenally deep presentation of a vast cohesion of Jesus Christs divine teaching, which should be our lifetime curriculum while on earth in order to help us reach our heavenly destination one day. This book is a work of love! (Loyola Devaux, teacher and editor).

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524644406

J. Lambert St. Rose

Famous for his profound sermons and homilies delivered with sterling clarity, the author has undoubtedly captured the hearts and minds of his listening audiences over the years. Now in his new incarnation as poet and novelist, he is raising eyebrows and stimulating the consciousness of his reading audience to an all-new level. In his anthology, Helen and Her Sister Haiti—a theological reflection on the social, historical, economic, religious, political, and national consciousness with a call to conversion—he has challenged the peoples of St. Lucia and Haiti to take cognizance of their struggles, their victimhood, and their formation as a people in a postindependence era. He further dared them to translate their sojourn into a new religious experience in a manner that will prove they are active participants in the incarnation with Christ Jesus and to experience themselves as dynamic contributors to their ongoing furtherance and development as a people of God. In a recent novel, In Turbulent Waters (a best seller at home), he has unearthed the darkest side of his people’s culture and history and again appealed to their good sense to seek the path to conversion and peace. This anthology—Our Father Prayer and Praxis—is again another daring exposé of the existing disparity between prayer, spirituality, and social justice. A mind boggling discovery that begs the question, why? Why do we not practice what we pray, and why do we always do the opposite of that for which we pray?

Book preview

OUR FATHER

PRAYER AND PRAXIS

Image_001.jpg

An anthology: the relationship between

the Lord’s Prayer, spirituality

and social justice

J. Lambert St. Rose

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2016 J. Lambert St. Rose. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Alice Mila Noel

Sketches: Joseph Eudovic and Jallim Eudovic

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse    10/13/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-4441-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-4439-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-4440-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016916840

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations and citations are from the Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1966 by Darton, Longman, & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Company Inc. London, With permission.

Text and citations from CTS publications are used with permission.

Contents

List Of Icons

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

OUR FATHER

Pater Noster

Our Father

One Father of All

A Rainbow’s Shadow

Abba’s Children

A Bouquet of Flowers

Rites of Passage

Initiated Ones

Christians

Stewards of the Earth

Sacred Vine

The Mystery

The New Man

The Church

You Are A Gift

Man and Woman

Born To Be

On The Wings of the Storm

Shadows

HOLY BE THY NAME

Holy Be Thy Name

His Name Is Holy In Men

Suffering Servant

Infidelity

On The Way To Meribah and Mássah

Faith

Conquer Me!

In God’s Name

Look to the Transcendent One

Valley of Dry Bones

Divine Love

Cry For Help

I Am Still Here

Shepherds

THY KINGDOM COME

Kingdom of Servant-Kings

Your Kingdom Come On Earth

Beatitudes of the Baptized

Compassion and Forgiveness The Way To Peace

The Sea and the Kingdom

In The Interest of Peace Let Truth Live

Non-Violence

Peace for Life

A Spark of Hope

Times Change

I Believe

Channel of Hope

Lawot Sé Tjè

Dear Friends

Silence

Scarlet History

Beatitudes of Peace

GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD

Give Us Our Daily Bread

Bread Incarnate

Bread for the Hungry

Bread, Baked and Broken

Bread at Any Cost

Bread of Wisdom

Bread of Righteousness

Bread Earned By Sweat

Phineas and Europa

Happiness

Make a Difference

Caribbean Paradise

Creation’s Song of Praise

AS WE FORGIVE

As We Forgive

Compassion

Narcissism

Wilting Rose

You Are a Sacrifice

From Darkness to Light

Conspiracy of Emotions

The Mustard Seed

When the River Runs Dry

My Brother’s Tears

Thy Brothers’ Keeper

I Failed You Today

You Are Worth A Sacrifice

The Language of the Cross

There Will Be Rainy Days

DO NOT PUT US TO THE TEST

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Beware of Rhetoric

Never Be A Parasite

Discipline

No Arid Ground

Nature’s Wisdom

Eden’s Valley

Leadership

A Fruitless Glory

Odourless Blossoms

Naked Deception

Wake Up, You Sentinels

By Jacob’s Well

They Are Humans, Not Gods

Carnival

Foolish Virgins

Greed

In The Kingdom of Sloths

Spare Thyself, O Man

The Pilgrimage

Prodigal

Archangel Eudovic

The Death of Death

O Proud Braggart

DELIVER US FROM EVIL

The Exploited

You will Need Courage and Faith

Neo-Barbarians

Martyrs For Lost Causes

Martyrs of Greed

Secularization

Changing Faces of Our Landscape

The Deluge

Live Wisely

The Dilemma of Life

Watch For the Mire

Will The Darkness Be Forever?

Sacrifices to the Gods

Crocodiles Laugh and Fools Cry

Wolves and Leopards

Legal Sin

Light and Darkness

Jezebelism

Be Polished, O Geode

Nefarious Leaders

Peirasmós

Temptations

Immortals

Plight of the Plebs

Death of Conscience

The Eagle’s Nest

Wounded Opossums

The Unspoken Word

Streams of Living Blood

THE KINGDOM THE POWER AND THE GLORY

Father Forgive Them

In Paradise With Me

Woman, This Is Your Son".

Motherhood

My God, My God

I Thirst

It Is Finished

"Father, Into Your Hands

I Commend My Spirit"

The Last Salute

O Caritas Christi Urget Me!

The Village Confectioner

Glossary

Dedicated to:

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His Excellency Kelvin E. Cardinal Felix

The poet’s relationship with Cardinal Felix dates back to his teenage years when the then Fr. Felix was a visiting priest to St. Lucia. This relationship grew further when Fr. Felix conducted a retreat for a group of seminarians at St. Paul’s Minor Seminary on the East Coast of Demerara, Guyana, in the early 1970s. At the Major Seminary of St. John Marie Vianney and the Ugandan Martyrs, in Trinidad, the then Fr. Felix was his sociology lecturer.

In 1981, Fr. Felix was appointed Archbishop of Castries. In 1982, the poet was the first priest ordained at his hands. February 15, 2008 he retired as the Archbishop of Castries and on February 22, 2014, he was created the first Cardinal of the Eastern Caribbean and the Province of Castries.

During his Episcopate, Cardinal Felix played a very conscientious and supportive role as a father to his priests. He both confronted, admonished and congratulated them whenever it was apt to do so. Thus the poet feels totally indebted to him for his growth and development in the priesthood and his pastoral consciousness and priestly ministry. He feels honoured to immortalize Cardinal Felix’s memory and to express his most sincere and heartfelt thanks and appreciation to him in this publication.

LIST OF ICONS

Fraternity

Justice

Peace and Unity

Breadfruit

Sou Sou

La Pechè

Téwé

Ich Mwen

Koudmen

The Struggle

Open Door

Madonna

Papa Joseph

Communion

Glory

Pietà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks and appreciation are in order for my editors: Loyola Devaux, J. Harvey and Nahdjla Carasco Bailey. Deacon David T. Popo, a lifetime friend, who graciously accepted to pen the foreword to this anthology. Also to Msgr. Patrick Anthony: your support and encouragement has gone a long way.

To our two St. Lucian premier sculptors: Vincent Joseph Eudovic and his son Jallim of Eudovic Art Studio for graciously allowing the use of their sculptures to help depict the mood of the poems throughout this anthology. To Shelly Noon for her creative genius in the creation of the art work for the front cover and to Carson Millar and Dr. Gilan Maynard, my photographers and Alice Mila Noel my cover designer and photo finishing.

Drs. Martin Didier, David Brawaithe, of Tapion Hospital, St. Lucia; Drs. Joycelyn Inamo, Thierno Chabi and Dabor Resiere of C.H.U De Fort De France and Cite Hospitaliere Mangot –Vulcin respectively. To my attending nurses of the respective hospitals in St. Lucia and Martinique – words are inadequate to express my most sincere and heartfelt thanks and appreciation for your kindness, your love, thoughtfulness and care over the years. Without your professionalism this anthology would not have seen the light of day.

To the entire St. Rose family, my brothers and sisters, especially Anne Marie Maynard, my niece Lindretta Maynard, and my nephew Romanus St. Rose who have stood with me thick and thin over the years. Special mention of my niece Marie Claude Saint Rose-Tranquille, my nephews Jean Phillip and Jean Mark St. Rose and my sister Cassandra of Martinique who have always gone the extra mile to assist.

Last, but not least: to God be the glory for his love, wisdom and his inspiration have no end.

FOREWORD

As I reflected on Father St. Rose’s theological anthology on the nexus between spirituality and social justice, I began to think that perhaps some of you, especially the younger readers, may be curious as to why the use of poetry by a priest, to help us experience and behold the saving power of God as Our Father. I was quickly reminded that the word Father is used in the New Testament to mean a teacher of spiritual things. The first teachers of Christianity seem to be collectively spoken of as the Fathers (2 Peter 3:4). Father Lambert’s erstwhile and current literary works are consistent with a very long tradition of Catholic writers especially during the patristic period, who wrote in varied literary styles and languages, as apologists, preachers, historians, and commentators on ecclesiastical and social justice issues. Our Church historians remind us that Syria in the fourth century produced one great writer, St. Ephraem, deacon of Edessa (306-73) whose writings were mainly poetry and commentaries in prose.

Father Lambert invites us through the poetic flow of the energetic thought and prophetic words of his own priestly vocation as he pens: "Faithful to our calling, the semantics must never change. Victims, Priests, altar and sacrifice…never Lords! Never Masters! Justice: our calling forever". This anthology also reminds us that we can pray and meditate on God’s mercy and justice, using our God given human senses, with many religious and secular allegorical types: bread, sacred life, dry bones, wings of the storm, ashes to Gods, and mustard seed. As a religious poet, Father Lambert uses other indigenous icons: breadfruit; koudmen; communion; and téwé, all of which have been sculpted by our local cultural and art icons - Joseph Eudovic and his son Jallim. As a religious poet, he employs these images to prayerfully meditate and theologically reflect, on some of our mundane human and cultural experiences such as what we eat, how we work, how we try to be righteous and just with one another and cope with the existential reality of death.

This anthology by Father Lambert is ultimately one of faith, hope, and love. Through his creative poetic writings, I hope and pray that after reading this anthology, you will become appreciative of the use of the poetic skills of Father Lambert and many others in helping us, both believers and non-believers, to deepen our understanding of God’s unending love and mercy. Let us read not just with a speculative interest in theology or poetry, but as pilgrims on earth striving to do God’s will though word and communion. Finally, after reading this anthology, I also pray,