Outside Holiness

I loved this prayer by George MacLeod, during the rebuilding of the Iona Abbey in Scotland.  Special thanks to Loretta Sunderland, who shared it in church yesterday:

It is not just the interior of these walls, 

it is our own inner beings you have renewed.

We are Your temple not made with hands.

We are Your body.

If every wall should crumble,

and every church decay, we are your habitation.

Nearer are you than breathing,

closer than hands and feet.

Ours are the eyes with which you, in the mystery,

look out in compassion on the world.

So we bless you for this place,

for your directing of us,

your redeeming of us, and your indwelling.

Take us 'outside the camp', Lord.

Outside holiness,

out to where the soldiers gamble, and the thieves curse,

and the nations clash at the cross-roads of the world...

So shall this building continue to be justified.