Gracious God,
healer,
comforter,
encourager,
life-giver,
light-bringer divine;

I am standing here
in awe,
and innocence,
amazement,
and terror
before Your
extraordinary,
inexpressible,
incomprehensible
Majesty;

never before have You seemed
so real
and yet so impossible,
so near
and yet so distant;
eternity so certain,
and this very instant
a passing fantasy.

Words fail,
mere noise
devoid of meaning;
truth wells up
from deep within,
lifting my heart
into the celestial province,
filling my mind
with a divine understanding,
an unbounded
unencumbered knowing
of all that is
and has been
and ever shall be;

reality revealed:
a gift
given
with strings attached;
a challenge,
a struggle,
a call to faith,
a summons to prayer —

Eternal One,
merciful and compassionate,
speak Your word
of comfort
and courage;
give me strength
enough
for this day
and for every other;

bless my waking
and my sleeping,
my sitting down
and my arising;
wrap me tenderly
in Your love.

Amen