prayer to create life and absorb pain
prayer for hospitality
Help me welcome each person in my home and on my porch as an honored guest.
Help me to serve, not control, knowing I have been given much and must give much.
Help me to be mother and life-giver to my community, to see the person in front of me, not my own thoughts or fears.
Help me to recognize I am not essential. That a task can be given away as easily as taken up.
Help me take space for myself and give generously to others, pushing myself beyond the boundaries of what I can do when the other’s needs demands it.
Where is my joy? Where am I drawing my joy?
Give me the wisdom to carve out a monastic rhythm of prayer, work, and quiet with God.
Help me to make room for difference rather than squelching it.
Help me always to begin each encounter with the person—my brother and sister—first, not with myself or my fears of what is asked of me.
Help me not to jump to anger, but to walk as a life-giver and light-bearer, to offer all to all, knowing I rest in the hands of God.