The Wild Lily Institute
O Beautiful Wound
This book is meant to be prayed in our prayer closets.
This book is meant to be a homily delivered in faith.
This book is meant to cut to the heart of our prayer lives.
This book is meant to cleanse our deepest wound.
This book is meant to cloak our dearest friend.
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Emily Isaacson, O Beautiful Wound
About the Book
This little book, in the spirit of Contemplative Prayer, is offered in the tradition of ages past. The poems, songs, stories, and contemplations of its pages echo the quiet libraries of cloisters, the chants of monks in stone-walled seminaries, and the hidden manuscripts that carried prayer through the centuries. Like a bridge from the illuminated psalters of the Middle Ages to the present worship anthems of our day, its intent is not merely to instruct but to flood the soul with light, beauty, and remembrance of Christ’s holy Passion. At its heart lies the wound, recalling both the sufferings of Calvary and the sacred art of beholding, where human frailty meets divine mercy. Contemplation of His wounds becomes a school of the heart, teaching humility, deepening compassion, and renewing courage. May these words be read slowly, in silence or by candlelight, turning the soul’s gaze toward Christ Himself: the crucified and risen Lord, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beautiful Wound through which all healing flows.
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Potter's Press: 97 pages
Now Available . . .
Endorsements
Isaacson is never far from her roots, turning abruptly into a side alley, disclosing a Lament, a treasure she bears in her body. Pain and dying that brings life; the suffering servant whose death saves us.
Writing is wrestling, mentally and emotionally, taxing the body and mind. In O Beautiful Wound, Isaacson takes her place alongside fellow battle weary warriors facing each new day. She does so with a resilience found in Jesus.
—Carl Sukkau, former Shared Living Manager at Communitas
Abbotsford, BC
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O Beautiful Wound by Emily Isaacson is a wonderful resource for prayer.
—Theresa Phillips
Victoria, BC
O Beautiful Wound
O beautiful parting, a fragrant wand
of hyssop, a flowering tree in sun;
I am separated from your person,
yet I observe your tenderness in bloom.
What momentary pang I felt, in wind,
at the knowledge of my petals falling,
at the humming of earth and the stalling
of moon between cloud, innocent linden
branch brushing my hair as you do, mornings.
This crushed rose is a wound upon my heart:
from its perfume I spring anew as lambs
leap upon verdant pastures on their wings
and by your wooden crook, leading to start—
moment prayers like vigil in your hands.
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Emily Isaacson