Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Come in! Enter my small life!

"Lord! Give me courage and love to open the door and constrain You to enter, whatever the disguise You come in, even before I fully recognize my guest.
Come in! Enter my small life!
Lay Your sacred hands on all the common things and small interests of that life and bless and change them. Transfigure my small resources, make them sacred. And in them give me Your very self."

-Evelyn Underhill


I love this prayer and have been praying it all week. It was sent to me in a card by my beautiful friend Katerina, and the words she wrote are just as wonderful:

"...When you feel hindered by your own resources, remember that our Lord is a God of small things. God will allow constraint of God´s own self to enter and make useful and holy the small amounts of love that you invite God to use and bless. What humble divinity we serve! What to us is all impatience and frustration and guilt, to God is an occasion for grace, for abundance (remember the loaves and fish?) and for Christ to show through you."

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Human Needs Global Resources Covenant, 2009

As fellow travelers on this journey, we commit to this covenant before God. Lord, in Your mercy, hear these our prayers:

When confronted with scarcity, need, and inadequacy, may we be nourished by the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. Abundance overflows from Your table, sustaining all who come in faith. Father, help us.

When monotony blurs our vision and dulls our senses, may we encounter others as Christ did, through intentional presence in daily life, submitting as clay to be formed into vessels filled with the Spirit. Christ, guide us.

When wounded by the fractured condition of Your people, may we be united by Your Lordship in faith, hope, and love; seeing, as through the facets of a diamond, the beautiful spectrum of Your light reflected onto Your holy Church joined in praise. Spirit, empower us.

When all Creation groans, afflicted by injustice and driven to despair, may the promise of redemption root us in the hope of Your Kingdom: "Behold, I am making all things new!"

Holy Trinity, send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve You with gladness and singleness of heart.

Amen.