Have you ever read a quote a prayer that makes you, compels you, to read it again? And maybe again, slower the next time? Every time I have turned to this prayer within a slim volume of daily prayers I sometimes use for devotions, I am struck by its truth. I find myself turning to it often this season, and so I know that I need to pay attention to this wisdom.
In the busyness of this day
grant me a stillnes of seeing, O God.
In the conflicting voices of my heart
grant me a calmness of hearing.
Let my seeing and hearing
my words and my actions
be rooted in a silent certainty of your presence.
Let my passions for life
and the longings for justice that stir within me
br grounded in the experience of your stillness.
Let my life be rooted in the ground of your peace, O God,
let me be rooted in the depths of your peace.
– Saturday Closing Prayer, from J. Philip Newell’s “Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayer.”