October 20, 2026
The Old Words Are Not Tame
An ancient prayer from Eastern Church Vespers for morning, evening, grace.
A strange mercy of the Christian tradition is that it refuses to flatter us. It gives us words when our own words have become too polished to be honest.
If the line feels severe, stay with it. Severity in the saints is often just mercy without cosmetics.
Source boundary: this post reflects on A Table Grace, attributed in the corpus to the Christian prayer tradition. No outside sources used.