Evening Prayer – 13 November 2021

The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow

Today was a day of sorting through a lifetime of papers

Today was a day walking with my sweetheart, her brother, and a dear family friend

Thank you for accompanying us, dear Lord

Thank you for the Spirit’s presence

Tonight in Florence and Carrollton we pray

We pray for your strength, your grace, your presence as we walk through The Valley of the Shadows

I am also thankful for your presence in the wonder of your creation

As Thomas Merton said in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash–at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

Thank you, gracious God for your invitation to join you in the Cosmic Dance ♥️

Now as my eyelids grow heavy

I lift this humble prayer to you

Dona Nobis Pacem

Grant Us Peace

A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…