Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims1 sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. 2 Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

New Beginnings

Prayer for the New Year

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Give us the kindness to hear with compassion,
     to offer support,
     loving comfort, and care.

Give us the courage to do what is needed,
     the wisdom to choose
     what is right and fair.

Give us the vision to see what is possible.

Give us the faith
     that will help pave the way
     for a present that is hopeful,
     a future that is peaceful—

Give us a heart to bring joy to each day.

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Philippians 3:13-14 
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Dear Lord,
In this new year, we pray
that You will guide us each new day
in paths that are pleasing to You.
Lord, the new year gives us another chance
to rededicate our lives to You,
to study Your Word
so that we know right from wrong
and to act in accordance with Your commands.
Thank You for the sense of
direction, purpose and peace we get
from aligning our lives with Your Holy will.
We pray for the strength and the will to obey You
each and every day of the new year,
and when we fail, we pray for Your mercy,
Your compassion, Your grace and Your love.
Help us in the New Year to be your faithful servants.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Merton - Pray for your own Discovery

"Finding God"  means much more than just abandoning all things that are not God, and emptying oneself of images and desires.

If you succeed in emptying your mind of every thought and every desire you may indeed withdraw into the center of yourself and concentrate everything within you upon the imaginary point where your life springs out of God; yet you will not really find God.   No natural exercise can bring you into vital contact with him.    Unless he utters Himself in you, speaks his own name in the center of your soul, you will no more know him than a stone knows the ground upon which it rests in its inertia....

Our discovery of God is, in a way, God's discovery of us.   We cannot go to heaven to find Him because we have no way of knowing where heaven is or what it is.   He comes down from heaven and finds us...We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.

St. Anselm - a Prayer

O Lord my God,
teach my heart this day where and how to see You
where and how to find You.

You have made me and remade me,
and You have bestowed on me
all the good things I possess
and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
for which I was made.

Teach me to seek You,
for I cannot seek you
unless you teach me,
nor find you
unless You show Yourself to me.

Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving You
Let me love you when I find You.

Prayer is to make us Ready

• The purpose of prayer is not to inform our Lord what you desire, for He knows all your needs. It is to render you able and ready to receive the grace which our Lord will freely give you. This grace cannot be experienced until you have been refined and purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer. For although prayer is not the cause for which our Lord gives grace, it is nevertheless the means by which grace, freely given, comes to the soul.


o Book I, ch. 24 (p. 28)

(The Ladder of Perfection, Walter Hilton, English Carthusian) (1494)