Let Us Pray II...

I’ve very much enjoyed the discussion about the St. Francis Prayer and the Serenity Prayer. Famous prayers are very interesting to me…I’m always intrigued with trying to understand what makes them catch on with people…why they strike a chord with the public…what makes us relate to them...what makes them become classic or iconic.

When I was growing up, every meal always began with “God is great, God is good; Let us thank Him for our food; By His hands we must be fed; Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen.” I actually think that that simple little prayer is quite profound, but every night before I went to bed I also had to say this dreary little verse:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
And if I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

That’s really a horrible thought to send a kid off to bed with…the preparation for early death, with the idea that you might not make it until morning! Sweet dreams. If you add to that “Don’t let the bedbugs bite”, it really makes going to bed the scariest part of the day.

But there is also a version of this prayer that is more positive in outlook:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
When in the morning light I wake,
Teach me the path of love to take."

And another recent version:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Guard me Jesus through the night,
And wake me with the morning light."


Those versions of the prayer I can live with. Here are two more famous prayers for your consideration and discussion.


Prayer of Mother Teresa

Dear Jesus, Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go, flood our souls with your Spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be your shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching not by words, but by our example by the catching force the sympathetic influence of what we do the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.



Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

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Speaking of prayer, be in agreement with us about the details of the Israel trip. Jimmy Carter's visit there has, for some reason, forced the meeting to have a two or three week delay. If it's a two-week delay it would fall on the week of the church anniversary and Judah's graduation, which of course would mean that we would have to cancel. If it's a three week delay it would be fine (except that it might fall on Mom's 70th birthday, which I think we could work out...we'll see). There's another one scheduled for the fall, but I'd really like to go ASAP. The bottom line is that it needs to have the same flow that the Korea trip had. The Lord will perfect that which concerns us.

God is great...God is good!