Signs of Seasonal Change
"Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
Teach me."
A simple prayer song
The leaves with splendid color are falling and now before us are barren branches that remind us of change. I write this devotional on a day when I am giving thanks for an elderly friend who died just last night. Her journey of these past six months has not been easy; accepting diminishing abilities is really tough. On days like this I like to spend time reading prayers and thoughts written by other sojourners who have safely completed their earth bound tasks. Frenchman, Teilhard de Chardin, offers this insightful prayer:
When the signs of age begin to mark my body
(and still more when they touch my mind);
when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without
or is born within me;
when the painful moments come in which I suddenly waken
to the fact that I am ill or growing old;
and above all at the last moments
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive in the hands
of the great unknown forces that have formed me;
in all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is you
(provided only my faith is strong enough)
who is painfully parting the fibers of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance
and bear me away within yourself.
A prayer: Embrace my soul in the season of change, O Holy One.
Ben Keckler 10.29.07
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