Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A Prayer- On Being....


 A friend recently sent me a portion of
 a podcast that she had listened to and I share it here.

"On Being" podcast. 
Padraig O Tuama,
 an Irish man talking about how he prays.

“Neither I, nor the poets I love,
 found the keys to the kingdom of prayer
 and we cannot force God
 to stumble over us where we sit.
 But, I know that it’s a good idea
 to sit anyway. 
So every morning I sit,
 I kneel, waiting, 
making friends with the habit of listening,
 hoping that I’m being listened to. 
There, I greet God in my own disorder. 
I say hello to my chaos, my unmade decisions,
 my unmade bed, my desire and my trouble.
 I say hello to distraction and privilege,
 I greet the day and I greet my beloved 
and bewildering Jesus.
 I recognize and greet my burdens,
 my luck, my controlled and uncontrollable story.
 I greet my untold stories, my unfolding story,
 my unloved body, my own love, my own body.
 I greet the things I think will happen 
and I say hello to everything
 I do not know about the day.
 I greet my own small world
 and I hope that I can meet
 the bigger world that day. 
I greet my story and hope that I can forget
 my story during the day, 
and hope that I can hear some stories,
 and greet some surprising stories
 during the long day ahead.
 I greet God,
 and I greet the God 
who is more God than the God I greet.
  Hello to you all,
 I say, as the sun rises 
above the chimneys of North Belfast.
  Hello.”

Somehow- greeting God 
in my own disorder- strikes home.
 Perhaps too often I have a habit
 of making a Big God
 try to fit in my small world.

Lord, enlarge my world of listening,
help me to capture the stories of others,
that I may see YOU in the day to day 
of family, friends and neighbors. Amen.


1 comment:

Thanks for adding your thoughts and comments- they are greatly appreciated.