St Paul's "Desiderata"

To our graduates:

I'm showing my age here. Back when I was in high school, there was a little "prose poem" that was all the rage, called the Desiderata. The word is Latin for "desired things", and for a while in the late 60s and early 70s, you couldn't walk into a gift shop, poster store, or - most likely - a mainline church without seeing the words on a poster.

The poem's origins were shrouded in mystery at the time, adding to its popularity. That seemed to be a recurring theme, about annually there for a while, where the popular culture would get all involved in trying to decipher ambiguous or mysterious song lyrics. Ask your elders sometime about the whole "Paul is dead" thing, or about Don McLean's American Pie song.

Anyway, the poem Desiderata was actually penned by Max Ehrmann, an attorney from Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1927. In his diary, Mr Ehrmann wrote: I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift -- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods. And then he began with the now famous line, "Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence . . ." In 1969, the Rev Frederick Kates, the Rector of St Paul's Church in Baltimore, used the Desiderata in a series of devotionals for his congregation. As the devotional materials were passed around and the Desiderata gained in popularity, people believed that the poem was found in the church because of the devotional's heading of "Old St Paul's Church AD 1692".

Wikipedia reports: "As of 1977, the rector of St. Paul's Church was not amused by the confusion. Having dealt with the confusion "40 times a week for 15 years," he was sick of it." It seems that "Exasperation 101" was a required course in Episcopal seminaries even back then.

So even if Old St Paul's Church was merely a clearinghouse for the poem and not its source, the church's namesake nevertheless wrote of similar "desired things" in the twelfth chapter of the book of Romans. I offer you St Paul of Tarsus' "humble gift": some "chaste prose" that definitely catches some "noble moods":

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not think you are superior.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
On the contrary:
If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

- Romans 12:9-21 (Today's New International Version)

And so, dear graduates, "go placidly amid the noise and haste" and know that "whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." In other words, the Lord reigns and he loves you. My prayer for you is that you make it your heart's desire to love and serve Him all your days.