A prayer for Lent

It is my Lent to break my Lent,

To eat when I would fast,

To know when slender strength is spent,

Take shelter from the blast

When I would run with wind and rain,

To sleep when I would watch.

It is my Lent to smile at pain

But not ignore its touch.

It is my Lent to listen well

When I would be alone,

To talk when I would rather dwell

In silence, turn from none

Who call on me, to try to see

That what is truly meant

Is not my choice. If Christ’s I’d be

It’s thus I’ll keep my Lent.

-Madeleine L’Engle  

Morning prayer

Christ our healer

Christ our teacher

Our inspiration and purpose.

Christ our defender

Christ our redeemer

Our liberation and precious.

Bless both day and night.

Bless our travelling and arriving.

Bless our service and our sleeping.

Christ, our all in all,

into your presence I come, Lord;

a few moments of quietness,

closeness

in a busy world

that demands my attention.

Breathe on me now,

that I might know your power

to see this day though 

- Morning prayer from Faith and Worship

 Image courtesy of Photokanok / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Poem of the day...

Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

 

  Image "Yellow Cosmos Flower And Blue Sky" courtesy of Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net