Retreat Sequence: Retreat, The Visitation, Hagar, The Anointing

Retreat
Stand still
Move on
Stand still
Move on
Be at peace
Move on
Be at peace
Move on
Know Everything
Move on
Know Nothing
Move on
Love yourself
Move on
Love this world
Move on
Live well
Live well.

The Visitation
The overshadowing
What can it be
Not a vanquishing, not a conquest
Something like a consummation
Something like

Perhaps a completion
No more favored one
No more most high
No more questions
In the complete emptiness of shadows

Engulfed in darkness
No place for knowing, speaking, doubting
Eliminating the difference between
Spirit of the Most High
And humble daughter.

Hagar
I turned from you in your helplessness
Child
Cast you in the bushes
child
Left you to die--I dared not look
child
Starve alone; feel not the touch
Child
Of the cold and dry arms of your mother
Child
I can no longer feed you
Child

Turn, Hagar, Turn
To the voice of your child
Let his cry strike the rock of your heart
Break it open let deep waters flow
Break it open, Hagar; let the water come
Name your troubles
Child
Break the dam of your heart
And wash them away.

The Anointing
Who would contain your joy,
Lady,
Who would tell you no,
Would put you in your place,
Define and limit you,
Lady
With the perfume in your hand
The beautiful jar full of nard
You were unstoppable
As you kneaded life into a stale story
Of obedience to God

Obedient to love
You broke down the door
Of everyone's expectations
You didn't knock
You didn't kneel
No
You looked God in the eye
And pronounced him good.
And you did not count the cost.

(This is very much a work in progress. It helps me to see it on the screen to see the change I should make.)