Disturb Us

A friend shot me this prayer:

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

attributed - sir francis drake -1577

Thank God for friends in my corner!

A Prayer

Dear Jesus,

help us to spread your fragrance

everywhere we go.

Flood our souls with your spirit and life.

Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly

that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.

Shine through us and be so in us

that every soul we come in contact with

may feel your presence in our soul.

Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.

Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,

so to shine as to be light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.

None of it will be ours.

It will be you shining on others through us.

Let us thus praise you in the way you love best

by shining on those around us.

Let us preach you without preaching,

not by words, but by our example;

by the catching force -the sympathetic influence of what we do,

the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Amen.

prayer of mother teresa

Puritan New Year Prayer

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in thy service to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from thee, but may rely on thy Spirit to supply every thought, speak every word, direct every step, prosper every work, build up every mote of faith, and give me a desireto show forth thy praise, testify thy love, advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year, with thee, O Father, as my harbor, (with) thee, O Son, at my helm, (with) thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt, my lamp burning, my ear open to thy calls, my heart full of love, my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me, thy comforts to cheer me, thy wisdom to teach, thy right hand to guide, thy counsel to instruct, thy law to judge, thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear be my awe, thy triumphs my joy.

(From The Valley of Vision, p.112)