Awed by the Wonder

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Lord, sometimes when I gaze
  at the sky,
time, which in these later years,
has come to move so quickly,
seems all of a sudden,
to stand perfectly still.
And for just a moment
I rest at the edge
of endless possibilities,
and I am awed by the wonder
of all that has come forth
as gift from your hands.

How majestic the mountains,
how lush the carpets of green!
How powerful the moving waters,
how graceful the billowy clouds!
How vast the varieties of
    living creatures,
how splendid their mingling
    and mix!

And as part of all this glory,
here I stand with my brothers
    and sisters,
richly blessed
to know something about you,
privileged to discover
that we come from your love
to share in the spirit
that makes things to be.

How great are you
beyond all I can imagine!
How graced are we
whom you have made your own!

Adapted from Psalm Prayers for Seniors,
by Merging Traffic blog author Dennis Ference,
© 2000 Liguori Publications. Available from Liguori,
Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Darkness and Trust

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Sometimes, Lord,
in the dark of the night,
I am brought especially low
by the hurts and losses
and the burdens of these days.

I wonder where you are,
and I wonder how it can be
that your children
should suffer
and know such distress.

My mind is rattled
by thoughts and worries
that question your love
and puzzle over promises
on which I depend,

Then, in the whispers
of the past, I remember
how you broke the silence
to light the dark,
to guide me through danger,
and to calm my fear.

And as the morning dawns,
I choose to go on,
trusting in you and praising
   your name,
placing my future under your care,
setting my life firmly in
   your hands.

Adapted from Psalm Prayers for Seniors,
by Merging Traffic blog author Dennis Ference,
© 2000 Liguori Publications. Available from Liguori,
Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

The Sacred World

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The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.
–Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, ed., Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth (The Golden Sufi Center: 2013), 1.