Monday Morning Offering: Eleventh Anniversary!

Image: George Mendoza

July brings us to the eleventh anniversary of my Monday Morning Offerings.  When I wrote the first MMO, I had no intention of it being a series but the response to that post was very positive and... so it began.

To celebrate this anniversary I'm re-posting the first Monday Morning Offering and the illustration (below) that accompanied it.  After just a few weeks of MMO's, I adopted the illustration you've become familiar with (above) and I'm grateful to George Mendoza for his gracious permission to use his artwork (Coffee in the Morning) for more than a decade.  George lives with a rare, incurable, degenerative eye disease, fundis flavimaculatus. Effects of the disease caused him to loose all of his central vision and keep only a gray foggy fringe of peripheral vision. Check here for articles about George and his work.

Monday Morning Offering

O God,

it's Monday!

A new week stretches before me:

will you walk with me this week, Lord?

Slow me down before I go too fast

and give me strength to do well

the things I really need to accomplish...

Give me the wisdom to lay aside

the things I do not need,

the cares I need not carry,

the burdens I need not bear...

Amid the worries of this week, Lord,

calm my fears,

lift my spirits,

give me rest

- and keep me in today...

Open my eyes to any way

I might lighten the burdens of others

and give me the grace and courage to offer:

my hand, my arm, my shoulder;

my heart, my support, my comfort;

my smile, my story, my love...

Show me yourself this week, Lord:

open my ears to your voice,

my eyes to your beauty,

my heart to your mercy,

my mind to your counsel,

my weary limbs to your strength,

my mouth to give you praise...

A new week stretches before me, Lord:

help me to live it

a day at a time,

in your time,

in peace...

Amen.

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