Return, O Israel, to Adonai your God, For you have fallen because of your sin.
Take words with you and return to Adonai.
Say to God: “Forgive all guilt and accept what is good; Instead of bulls we will pay [The offering of] our lips. Assyria shall not save us, no more will we ride on steeds; Nor ever again will we call our handiwork our god, Since in You alone orphans find pity!”
[And God will say to you] I will heal their affliction, Generously will I take them back in love...
Who is a God like You, forgiving iniquity and remitting transgression;
Who has not maintained Divine wrath forever against the remnant of Your people,
because You love graciousness!
Adonai will take us back in love...
Unison Benediction by May Sarton (Collected Poems 1930-1993)
Return to the most human,
nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,
the bewildered heart,
the angry mind:
and from the ultimate duress,
pierced with the breath of anguish,
speak of love.
Return, return to the deep sources,
nothing less will teach the still hands a new way to serve,
to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness
and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.
Return to the most human,
nothing less will teach the angry spirit,
the bewildered heart;
the torn mind,
to accept the whole of its duress,
and pieced with anguish...
at last, act for love.