Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 8/1

(The beginning of August is always a kind of turning point in my year.  Each year on this day, I post some variation of the following prayer...)

The first of August - already? 

 

Really?

Way.  Too.  Soon.   

(IMHO)

Summer is slipping away, Lord,

    or so it seems to me

and August's debut uncomfortably intrudes 
   on my favorite time of the year...

 

I know there's more summer yet to come,

    but what has passed is what I miss

- and I wonder where it went

    and how I let it go...

Still, this is the day that you've made, Lord:

   August 1, 2023...

This day's unique 

   in the whole of my life,

   in the lives of my friends,

   in humankind's history

   and, indeed, unique 

      in your mind, Lord...

This day has never dawned before
   and will never come again:
August 1, 2023,
   a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

So, what would you have me make of this day, Lord?
    What would you have me do - or not do?

    What would you have me embrace
       - and what would you have me set free? 

    Where would you have me go 
       and from where do you think I should keep my distance? 

 

How would you have me spend this day:

   August 1, 2021?

How might I make this a better day
   for all the folks whose paths cross mine?

How might I mend, on the day at hand,

   the mistakes I made a day, a month, a year ago?

 

What might I do today, Lord,
   to prepare for a peaceful tomorrow? 

And what are your plans, Lord,
   for the 1st of August in '23?
How will you move and act today
   in  my heart, in my life, in the world?

 
Open me up to all the ways  

   your Spirit will touch me today:
      in my mind, in my heart, conscience, 

      in my conscience, in my soul
      and in all of my words and deeds.

 

Open me, Lord, to all the ways

   you'll move in my life today...

This is the day that you've made, O Lord,

   August 1, 2023:

      help me rejoice and be glad in the day at hand
      help me spend this day in your grace
      - and come to its end in your peace...

Amen.

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