TWO PRAYERS FOR TODAY

 

(anticipating Spring here at Ava - last year's daffodils)

PRAYERS FOR TODAY   --  to pray,  or to reflect upon

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light,  not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;  it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

(by    Marianne Williamson    in    A Return to Love,  published by HarperCollins,  1992). 

 

Empower me

to be a bold participant,

rather than a timid saint in waiting,

in the difficult ordinariness of now;

to exercise the authority of honesty;

rather than to defer to power,

or deceive to get it;

to influence someone for justice,

rather than impress anyone for gain;

and, by grace, to find treasures

of joy, of friendship, of peace

hidden in the fields of the daily you give me to plow.

(by  Ted Loder    in   Wresting the Light   published by   Lura Media   1991)