A Prayer

Every morning after mass all the MC volunteers gather at the Mother House for a breakfast of bread and bananas.  We hang out, meet the new people, and say goodbye to friends who are leaving.  Before we all head out to our respective ministries we spend a few minutes praying and singing.  Yesterday my team had to leave early so we missed the prayers and songs.  Later in the day I was feeling exhausted and void of motivation for the first time in a month.  As I sat on a crowded bus and stared blankly out the window, sweat dripping off my nose, I suddenly remembered that I had missed the morning prayer.  It struck me that I had come to rely on that prayer throughout my day and that without it I felt a little lost.  So today I want to share one of the beautiful prayers we recite every morning:

“Dear Lord, the Great Healer, I kneel before you since every perfect gift must come from you.  I pray give skills to my hands, clear vision to my mind, kindness and meekness to my heart.  Give me singleness of purpose, strength to lift up a part of the burden of my suffering fellow men, and a true realization of the privilege that is mine.  Take from my heart all guile and worldliness that with the simple faith of a child, I may
rely on you. Amen.”

Saying that to God in unison with my fellow workers sets the right mood for the whole day.  As Mother Teresa said, "There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible."

A good friend on his last day