Sunday, June 01, 2008




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June's Prayer

June is my birth month. So, the prayer I've selected to be June's benison is particularly personal. It's a prayer I've prayed in the deepest part of my soul ever since I was a child. When I first heard this familiar prayer set to music in John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz's musical, GODSPELL (which is based on the gospel of Matthew); it made my adolescent feet dance and seemed to sway me back and forth in melodic arms of simplicity and sweetness. Today, the prayer - set to song - is one I sing for Emily, my daughter, every night before she goes to sleep. As I sing the lullaby-prayer, I pray it for Emily. I pray it for myself. I pray it for all of my sisters who desire to walk close to Christ in an organic quotidian dance.
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St. Richard of Chinchester's Prayer

Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee

Three things I pray:


To see The more clearly,

To love Thee more dearly,

To follow Thee more nearly,


Day by day.
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As I sing each night, I realize anew what I love most about this prayer. In it, the supplicant does not try to will or gut out the seeing, loving, or following. Instead, she asks the Lord - of Thee I pray - for gifts of clear sight, dear love, near following.

The other day, I was praying for a friend who has been fighting Cancer for five years. It was a glorious time of supplication. She prayed in Korean. I prayed in tongues. The prayer was a litany of vowels, tones, mystery and intimacy. After we finished, my friend confessed that during this chronic illness her heart has been filled with doubt. With tears pooling in the corners of her deep dark almond eyes she said, "My heart is filled with doubt and fear . . . and I want that to change. Do you have unshakable faith, Sally? Or do you experience doubt and fear, too?"

"My heart is often filled with doubt and fear," I mutually confessed as I put my hand over hers. "Almost daily, I find myself saying, Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief. It is only in times when God offers the gift of faith - which comes unexpectedly like a mother bird bringing a grub for nest-bound, wide-beaked, waiting chicklets - that I live fortified and steadfast in faith. It is somehow simultaneously freeing and frustrating to wait for this gift," I said. "Maybe, the more we wait, though, the better we'll get at it." She smiled at me and sighed. We hugged; and while I walked away from her toward my car, the melody of Day by Day found me.

This summer, as I walk with this friend, mourn the loss of another, and grieve the death of a long-awaited, hard-worked-for personal dream; I find myself asking God for the gifts of faith and insight, compassion that will compel me to love, strength and desire and humility to welcome divine intimacy. Please join me in praying that these gifts will come, day by day.