A Prayer for All to Pray

The other day an old 1916 prayer book that I'd forgotten about fell off of my shelf and landed on my desk, scaring me half to death. It's one that was given to me by a friend who'd picked it up in an antique book store some time ago.  It's one of those wonderful mysterious treasures that has hidden within its pages many holy cards and prayers belonging to its last owner.   

I haven't looked at this frayed old prayer book for quite a long time, but now that I do so, I have to wonder if whoever owned it struggled with the same things as I. But whoever it was, I'm grateful it fell into my lap, for it was still sitting on my desk this evening and somehow I knew that if I opened it up, God would speak.  Indeed, He has, and from the printing on a faded piece of elaborately decorated parchment, I share these words with you:

LEARNING CHRIST *

Teach me, Oh Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life; in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those upon whom I relied. 

Let me put myself aside, to think of the happiness of others, to hide my little pains and heartaches, so that I may be the only one to suffer from them. 

Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path.

Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden nor embitter me; that it may make me patient, not irritable; that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow, haughty and overbearing. 

May no one be less good for having come within my influence; no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble for having been a fellow-traveler in our journey toward Eternal Life. 

As I go my rounds from one distraction to another, let me whisper, from time to time, a word of love to Thee. May my life to lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity. 

Amen. Alleluia.

*copyright the E.M. Lohmann Co.