Tag Archives: love

Prayer on the Feast of St. Nicholas

Lord of miracles,

Open my eyes that I might see
the beauty and goodness of your world,
and open my eyes to the ways we have marred its beauty.
Open my eyes to the beauty and goodness of all your people,
and open my eyes to all the ways we exploit, wound, and kill each other.
Open my eyes to my own sinfulness,
that I may repent and live your life of compassion
and forgiveness a bit more deeply.
Open my eyes to the needs of the people around me.
Open my eyes to all the ways you come to me today.
Open my eyes to all the signs of love and kindness
others give to me today.
Open my eyes to all the signs of your coming in this Advent season.
Open my eyes to all the ways
I can be a sign of your coming in my work today.
Open my life, Lord, to this wonderful, graced world,
and the signs of your coming kingdom.
Open my eyes always, Lord, to your presence around me and in me.

Amen.

~Reposted from livingwithchrist.us.
(A prayer for today from an Orthodox Hymn to Saint Nicholas.)

In the End, Happiness

“Being happy means entering wholeheartedly into everything – no matter what type of challenge it presents, no matter what the possible difficulties involved – entering into it body, soul, mind, and spirit.  We have to enter into it in such a way that we’re no longer separated from what we’re doing.  We forget ourselves at the same time that we give ourselves completely.  And when we do enter into life totally and completely, then, if we stop and reflect for just a moment, we’ll notice that somehow we’re beginning to experience happiness.  This is what we’re made for.”

~ The Monks of New Skete (In the Spirit of Happiness, 311)

Christ, Our Infinite Now

She cuddles beneath purple fleece,
knees pulled up and restless, melancholy
as Milne’s Donkey, that stuffed lovey
dangling by an ear from her thumb-sucking hand.

There are days I ride the waves of this energy,
and days I’m frustrated and mystified,
but this day I’m struck; my perspective tilted,
and I see her as she is:

the great work of hands I don’t often notice,
sculpted perfection refined and refining,
more unique than ice crystals falling
through our atmosphere.

She is blessed, mysterious, achingly,
deeply passionate, intensely loving
and intensely loved.  She’s working on it,
saving it up, storing all that energy for

the great love-work she’ll do in the future –
the great love-work she’ll do in the Infinite Now.