Swallows – Wisdom Chant

We trust in you O Holy Spirit to keep us in the Way,
As fully as young swallows trust to the air of autumn,
And set out for Natal.

Listen

In Chapter 11 of “Intimacy with God” Thomas Keating writes of migrating swallows as a model for the trust we must place in God as we embark upon the Spiritual Journey, an image he attributes to the English spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill. Since the coming and going of the swallows is very much a part of life where I live it struck a few chords with me so I created this chant to encourage people towards that sense of trust.

This piece is intended as a stilling chant. If you find that the way it hangs in the air at the end negates this effect then you can loop back to the beginning one last time and end on the words “We trust in You.”