There is within each of us
A quiet clear pool of living water
Fed by the one deep Source
And inseparable from it,
But so often hidden
By a tangle of activity
That we may not know
Of its existence

We can spend the proverbial forty years
Wandering in strange deserts,
Sinking unrewarding wells
And moving on, driven by our thirst,
But when we stop still long enough
To look inside ourselves, really look
Beyond our ideas about water
And what and where it should be,
We discover it was with us all the time,
That quiet clear pool which is ageless,
The meaning of our existence
And the answer to all wanderings.

And as we drink,
We know what Jesus meant when he said
We’d never be thirsty again.

Joy Cowley
Aotearoa Psalms #28
Prayers of a New People

(Organ plays compete verse & chorus as introduction)

O the Spirit she moves on the water
and her breathing is felt far and near,
O the Spirit she gave us a birth and a life.
        Do you see, do you hear?
and she sweeps us all up in the flame of her love,
        She is here!

        La la la …

O the Spirit she’s dark and she’s brooding,
unpredictable, wild without fear,
she can roar with the power of the hurricane wind.
        Do you see, do you hear?
and her silence becomes so profound we forget
        She is here.

        La la la …

O the Spirit, the great liberator,
living energy, given to all
till at last we surrender our life to her –
        and we hear and we see:
being on with creation and life
and the Spirit we are.

Cecily Sheehy
Alleluia Aotearoa #109 (1993)