Reflection | Tuesday in the Fifth Week in Lent | Online Worship

Reflection | Tuesday in the Fifth Week in Lent

Posted by The Rev. Bo Reynolds on March 31, 2020

For today's reflection, I'd like to note the saint appointed for our kalendar, John Donne, English priest and metaphysical poet.

Here's my favorite of his Holy Sonnets, Batter My Heart, three-person'd God, and a (very dramatic) musical setting of it from John Adams' 'Doctor Atomic'.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

About the Author

The Rev. Bo Reynolds

Fr. Bo Reynolds hails from Sacramento, California but spent his adolescent years in Rochester, New York. He attended the University of Rochester, where he participated in Air Force ROTC, graduating in 2012 with a BA in Political Science. Bo began the process of discernment for Holy Orders later that year in the Diocese of Western New York. The year before he attended seminary, Bo moved to New Haven, Connecticut to be part of the Episcopal Service Corps, where he worked as an after school coordinator and community liaison at Wexler Grant Community School. He began his seminary studies in the fall of 2014 at Union Theological Seminary, graduating in May of 2017. Bo is grateful to be part of the St Luke’s community and anticipates the work and opportunities ahead.