(From Aoradh daily meditations- the first part is here.)

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

I am sometimes invincible

And forget my need for you

Even in the shallow certainty of success

Stay with me father

.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

And when I surely succumb

To the gravity of my human condition

Let the darkness be holy

Let the black become royal purple

And the shadows

Become your open arms

.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

This means that you are never

An accidental father

You have no bastards

No unwanted drains

On your holy resources

.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Because there is a masterpiece you made

In me

Framed in this shabby shape

Are your majestic brushstrokes

.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Unborn I was known

Unconceived I was expected

There was a space empty

Waiting for the shape of me

.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;

And you became incandescent

With hope

.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Weigh me on scales

Skewed towards grace

For my heart is heavy

With the unshed weight of my world

.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Open me gently

To the new-

To the possibility

Of something deeper

And more beautiful