The Inner History of a Day by John O’Donohue

For the New Year - Thanksgiving

 No one knew the name of this day;

Born quietly from deepest night,

It hid its face in light,

Demanded nothing for itself,

Opened out to offer each of us

A field of brightness that traveled ahead,

Providing in time, ground to hold our footsteps

And the light of thought to show the way.

The mind of the day draws no attention;

It dwells within the silence with elegance

To create a space for all our words,

Drawing us to listen inward and outward.

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And wisdom of the soul become one.

I offer this prayer of thanksgiving to the eternal Grace of the Day and Night and the Life enfolded in her arms.

Yielding to Grace, I offer a heart full of prayer for those who are struggling with grief, with pain, with worry. I offer a heart of compassion to those who are enduring the very difficult fear of change, of illness, of the unknown. I ask for resolution, for reconciliation, for acceptance and forgiveness…may all our fears, resentments, and hurtful biases be embraced and dispelled through the humility of an innocent love that leads to peace of mind and a quiet heart. Let us all know the depths of our own tenderness, and allow each other to feel the reassurance flowing through a Love far greater than any one of us can enlist alone. 

On this new graced Day, I remember, "Wherever two or more are gathered, there I am also"…speaks of the perfect love that casts out fear, the perfect order of compassionate unity amid the chaos, the perfect peace that passes understanding.  

May we lay all that stands in the path of such Grace willingly aside and open the vessel of our being to love, compassion and peace. All this, I invoke with a quiet mind and an open heart, resting in the assurance that all will be well and every manner of thing will be well.

New Year, New Day blessings to all, Peggy @ Ecumenicus