Monday Morning Offering - 130

Image: George Mendoza


Good morning, good God!

So many beautiful faces at yesterday's Faith Festival,  Lord!
Most were familiar, some were new
and a few were surprises -
"So glad you came, you're back, you're here!"

As we sang the Lord's Prayer I looked around
and found your face, Lord,
refracted, as through a prism:
each facet revealing some aspect of your beauty,
no two faces alike, each one unique
yet one with all the others...

I sat across the table from a child whose face beamed
with fascination over everything we said and did
and prayed and sang...

Her small face had room for so many expressions
and she offered them freely to all who looked her way,
smiling and laughing and then suddenly focused
on someone or something that caught her eye...

And I watched her mother watching her
and her father watching her older sister,
parents reflecting the inquiring delight on their daughters faces,
their eyes taking in the wonder of their children
learning to pray in the company of the people of God...

And that was just the table where I sat, Lord!
Yet another 150 faces 'round the hall shone
with some glimmer of your glory
and in every face I met your eyes and you met mine...

With the generous grace of your Spirit
you helped me see so clearly, Lord,
what is always before me, always around me:
the reign of your presence visiting in the families,
the lives, the hearts of the people of my parish...

I offer you my praise and thanks, Lord,
for the gift of such a vision
as beautiful as it was simple,
as simple as it was extraordinary...

I doubt a day goes by without such visions falling freely from your hand
as snowflakes, each of a kind, kissing my cheek
and blanketing the path of my week's walk from day to day...

Open my eyes more often, Lord, to your face
in the faces of all I meet and know...

Open my heart to see in those around me
how present you are in every moment of every day...

For moments graced with a glimpse of the divine
caught in the eyes, the smiles, the tears of others,
make me truly grateful, Lord...

Open my arms to welcome you in all whose paths cross mine
and if in any way I can make their journey safer, more peaceful,
help me make the time to do just that...

And so I pray this morning, Lord,
and all this day into the coming night
and every day this week...

(Click here for an archive of Monday Morning Offerings)


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