Monday Morning Offering - 92

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

This Monday morning, Lord,
I offer you the prayer that rolls around in my gut,
searching for words, groaning to be expressed,
not yet coming to speech...

I offer you the prayer that haunts my heart,
seeking a place to call home, searching out a corner
where longings and desires long unfulfilled
look for the respite of a soul's restful harbor
where hope might be refreshed...

I offer you the prayer that's on the tip of my tongue
but for which any words of mine seem inadequate,
unworthy, not up to the burden
of bearing a soul's cry from its secret depths
to the heights of your glory...

I offer you the prayers I deem selfish or foolish;
the prayers I think too small to matter
or too large to be answered...

I offer you the prayers I've neglected,
the ones I find difficult to speak
even when the words are at hand
and I need to use them...

I offer you the prayers
your Spirit longs to speak within me:
thoughts, intuitions, words planted long ago,
still waiting to bud, to bloom, to blurt from my heart,
breaking the silence that doubt and fear impose...

I offer you the prayers that lie within me,
living to be whispered, spoken, cried
and shouted from my heart to yours...

Teach me, Lord, to know
that trusting you have heard my prayer with love
is greater than your answering my prayer
as I would have it answered...

Teach my heart to speak to your heart, Lord
and teach my heart to hear
what your heart speaks to mine...

Teach me to trust that when I have no words to pray
it is still a prayer to say,
"Lord, I have no words to pray..."
Teach me to pray that way
and to ask for your help...

Teach me to trust that simply to sit in your presence
in silence,
without a word to say,
is to sit in your presence in prayer...

Make me mindful that I am not alone in this, Lord,
that all who cross my path this day
wait for prayer within to take shape
until a heart's wordless prayer
becomes the prayer of one's lips...

Lord, teach me to pray
when my prayers have words
and when they don't...

Amen.


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