Dear God, let me move with ease today. Let me not struggle and scurry. So often I am like a frightened rabbit, running from place to place, heart pounding.

My feeling: what if they catch me? But I never wonder: who are “they,” and what indeed would happen if I were “caught?”

O, Lord, I am safer than I realize. So let me walk slowly and peacefully today. Let my furtive heartbeats slow. Let me live a life that has greater faith – a life in which I realize that I am your child under your care.

(Letter #1354)

Dear God, let me glide into every circumstance today.

So much troubles me. Raise me above the ground, let me move unspotted by my troubles.

I awaken wondering how I ever will be equal to the tasks I face. Fear grips me. I will fail. I will be found out. I will be shunned. Lord, take it all away, leave me naked and glowing.

Grant me knowledge of your will for me, and the power to carry it out.

(Letter #1353)

Dear God, my words, even those of prayer, can be so hollow. I speak by rote, I pray as from a script. Lord, let me draw near to you in inner silence. Let no words come between my need and your answer. Let my thoughts carry my prayers straight into you. Let me hear your answer in my core, directly.

What I learn in this quiet time cannot be spoken. I try and it is mercury, slipping away. Useless words.

Lord, let me grasp what I know. My desire to speak it is prideful at root – let me know you in silence.

(Letter #1352)

Dear God, let me be at home here, in the present moment. I spend so much time away from here, in the future, worrying over and planning for tomorrow, or in the past, fretting about and reliving yesterday.

Too rarely am I here. Lord, let me be here.

If I see this present moment rightly, I am safe and secure no matter what tomorrow may bring nor what yesterday may have delivered. Indeed: nothing can happen now, for the consequences will always be in a following moment.

So let me breathe today, dear Lord. Let my breath be prayer.

(Letter #1351)

Dear God, judgment of others weighs me down. My thoughts can be so bitter and wrathful. I smile and laugh with others, yet too often I scorn inwardly.

Lord, take control of my thinking, set my inner life into order. Correct the thoughts that reel around inside me, that block me from experiencing and giving love. Let me do your will today, in action, word, and thought.

(Letter #1350)

Dear God, I have so far to go to improve, yet you love me as I am. This amount of grace is staggering. I am so flawed, how could I be loved so?

Lord, let me try to deserve the grace you show me. Take away my selfishness, my judgmental nature, my arrogance. Make me more giving, kind, and humble.

Let me be more willing to improve. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1349)

Dear God, so much keeps me from living close to you. Chains that imprison me: pride, sloth, envy, lust, wrath, greed, gluttony. They bind me ever more tightly to a life of continual self-regard. I see everything through this lens of self.

Lord, free me of this bondage. Let me see through new lenses. Take away these chains, let them drop away. Let me see all the ways I myself am holding onto them. These shackles are not welded to my frame. I grasp them willingly.

I need but let go. Let me do so – let the self, wrapped in its fear, drift away.

(Letter #1348)