2022-11-04 A Prayer: Translated and Praying

O Lord, where there is a burden on our heart remind us of our own gratitude when others remember us in prayer. Grant that we might motor along, in that calm and circle of peace we have for a short season. Use us. Instill great desire to be useful and to let You sort out the details. We are happy with Originality, with News, with In-touchedness, with what must be Your Spirit. We long for more gentle thoughts towards others, who are hard-pressed, who are burdened with things we, for a season, are not burdened by. We have astonishing faith that You work in the words as they negotiate with our higher reasoning, our discernment, our wonder and concern: “Is this at all useful? Am I even a bit tuned in? What, after all, have I to give?”.

In a dream, in waking, in a fit of inspiration, a rhyme or comment appears, apparitions of output flash before our eyes, and in a second they are gone. Yet You both assure us those lost thoughts are everything (if we must be frightful to have lost them), and more than that, the next thoughts are even more everything, at least, as far as being our own possession and duty. So we no longer fear to be poor stewards; some relics, remnants, of that possessive Original Sin doth challenge us with as it were a Pauline thorn in our side. And like Paul we are liberated if only we can be liberated on the basis of being first of all human and sinner. This was his boast.

For we forget, those basic dwelling places of penitence, those thoughts seconded by disparate cross-currents. And likewise we yearn to convey some Image and Holy Relationship. We long to say “Neat!”, “How pat!”, “How functional!”, “It all fits together!”. We also flutter in our hearts, peace yet not forgetful of the overwhelming at times sense of war. Those moments when we feel down for the count, when our conscious mind is subdued, is quieted, is patiently listening because to speak would be to take too much upon ourselves, in that moment when we are Aware and Present, above all, not full of foolish pride. Thank You for all experience, and for the courage to be what You wish us to be, tired of our old selves but not even remotely tired of going there, to share, to be part of the faithful gathered.

Intellectual courage must give way to availability and the end of pride. So our salons and places of dialog, give way to a silence in season, a pause that hears, a sense of patient longing, the gentle pleading, the ability to make much of simply being an Informed, Intelligent, Spiritual being. For thus we became. We asked You to overtake our life. We petitioned, and You answered with a further notion, that of an entire architecture of salvation, including the gift of Your Presence, in Spirit form. So today we give thanks and give over to Spiritual Reality, so post-forgiven as to delight and be gleeful in the putterings around the house, the busyness at work, the downtime kept sacred, the notion of being leagues ahead of who we once were, yes, and in this new guise patient to understand, with dot and iota, with gesture and patience, the battle is ours through You. Keep us, and be there as we need You this day.

We pray all this in Your Name, Amen.