When I used to be really hardcore Catholic, I had prayers I knew by heart that I said every day and night and it was such a comfort. It was what I missed the most when I walked away from a religious institution that had no place in my heart or mind and held nothing I could continue to believe in. So now I'm a lapsed Catholic. That's just one of the funniest things I've ever heard. I'm really not Catholic, lapsed or otherwise, no matter how the church hierarchy wants to characterize me, presumably so they can count me among the dwindling faithful that may soon return to the fold. To the Vatican: Not Happening.
In the last six months or so, I've been having an urge to bring prayer back into my life. My Spirituality is something I try to nurture but as for prayer, it had been a while and every time I tried to pray, I went back to the same prayers I used to say. No matter how many beautiful prayers I tried to say as my own prayers, written by holy men and women the world over, there was no connection and so, of course, no prayer. I was also stymied when I tried to just talk to God like I used to...so I decided I'd just take the prayers I knew so well and re-write them to mesh with my present beliefs and definitions of the sacred, while still giving me that comfort of having said something by heart (there's a reason we use the term "by heart").
I'll share this one with you tonight. This prayer was originally written by Kate Barclay Wilkinson (1859-1928). You can read the original with a google search or in the collection of prayers entitled "Laughter, Silence and Shouting."
Dedication
May the mind of love itself
Live in me from day to day
Only love and its sweet power
Inspiring all I do or say.
May a world of hope dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour
So that all may see I triumph
When I surrender to that power
May the peace of my Creator
Rule my life in everything
That I may be calm to comfort
The sick and sorrowing
May the truth of my heart fill me
As the waters fill the sea
Truth exalting, ego forgotten
This is victory.
May I run the race before me
Strong and brave to face the foe
Looking only unto real true love
As I onward go.
I wish for you peace and a calm rest and that you wake filled with love.
