The value of a worthy woman is far beyond pearls. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. She rises while it is still night, and distributes food to her household. She picks out a field to purchage; out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She is girt about with strength and sturdy are her arms. She enjoys the success ( Read more... )

She was beautiful in appearance,
and had a very lovely face;
she had inherited gold and silver
and cattle and fields, and
she maintained her estate
well and made it flourish.
No one spoke ill of her.

--Book of Judith

For each of us, too, our daily lives are the seedbed for the moments when we are tested.Being tested does not have to mean huge ( Read more... )

Let us begin. Let us sing ( Read more... )

On the hillside outside the city, the Vestals encountered a humble man names Albinus, who was escaping in a cart with his family, along with other civilians, from a war. Even in danger, Albinus remembered what was due the goddess, and felt the impiety of riding with his family while priestesses walked, carrying their sacred objects. Leaving his ( Read more... )

Fresh as dew, our Perperia,
goddess of the plants and herbs,
washes all the land with rain:

Vines burst out in heavy blossom,
tree boughs groan with blushing fruit,
fields grow lush with ripening grain.

--Macedonian folksong

Even in winter the dark sky carries the bright stars above our protective atmosphere, and the moon sways the deep ocean's ( Read more... )

The forest is beyond my strength.
My rose is hidden far from me.
If the wood were less in length
My rose would be less far from me.

If I could have my precious rose,
I'd live in love forever.
If I knew what Shekinah knows
My exile would be shorter.

--Song of Rabbi Isaac of Laig

Like the rose-windows that shone in medieval cathedrals, the rose ( Read more... )

It is pleasant, it is finally pleasant,
this world, this great world.

It is pleasant, it is finally pleasant,
this great world when the caribou come.

It is pleasant, it is finally pleasant,
this great world when it is summer at last.

--Eskimo summer song

No matter how difficult matters may seem, we can always find solace in awareness of the ( Read more... )

I left her at the garden gateway,
my jewel, my fairy lover,
eyes like stars, lips like berries,
voice like a gentle harp.
I left her in the cattle-meadow,
my brown-haired fairy lover,
eyes like stars, cheeks like roses.
When I kissed her, I tasted pears.

--Irish song to the Leanan Sidhe, the fairy lover

The Irish believe that spirits inhabit the ( Read more... )

May earth, goddess of all creation,
mother of all that is and will be,
may she give us a great land.

May earth, with her mountains and plains,
her slopes and her peaks, may she open
herself to our needs.

May earth, with her rivers and waters,
may she give us enough to drink.
May she pour herself upon us.--Hindu hymn to goddess of earth, Atharva ( Read more... )

Mother, you carried me ( Read more... )