Dear God, I deny myself nothing. I want more than my share of prestige, of security, of affection. All my instincts bend toward self.

Lord, let me look outward. Let me direct my energies toward fulfilling your instructions, toward bringing your light out into the world.

You give me the gift of energy. Let me use it for the benefit of those around me. Let me find joy in providing for others the very things I crave for myself. Let me increase others’ feelings of security, of respect, of being loved.

Let this be my living prayer to you.

(Letter #974)

Dear God, so much depends on the story I tell myself about the circumstances you deliver to me. What one day I may perceive as a calamity, on another day I may recognize as a gift. One day I may be bitter from boredom, another I may be grateful for quiet respite.

Lord, it is in my power to be grateful for your gifts, then, in almost any circumstance. Let me therefore have a grateful attitude today. Let me be so grateful for your beneficence that I am moved to pass on that spirit to others. Let me spread joy. Your will, surely, is that I reflect your love upon my fellows.

Lord, let me feel your freedom and love. Let me walk erect through this day, beaming.

(Letter #973)

Dear God, I am so brittle. Let one aspect of my routine get disrupted, and I regard it as a crisis. Yet you have constructed me such that I benefit from constant variation and my duties, my challenges, my exertions. Faced with novel difficulties, I am both more prone to call to you for help, and more prone to thrive. Yet I view such episodes with terror.

Lord, let me eagerly anticipate your new directions. The more buffeting the winds, the more chaotic the challenges – the more let me accept and grow.

God, let me not shrink in fear from what you place before me, as if effort were a punishment and change were a torture. Your every gift is magnificent if I will but see it so.

(Letter #972)

Dear God, I pray to you alone, in solitude. In secret. Yet you speak to me through others, all throughout the day. Your voice comes not just from my friends and fellows. I find your hand and words in everything.

How, then, can I extend my prayer throughout the day? How can I meet you where you are, and not selfishly demand that you visit me in my private rooms?

Lord, let this quiet time when I speak to you set the tone for my thinking today. Let me think love now, alone, and act and speak love when I am out among the world.

Lord, my sweet Lord, come down and visit me, set my feet right and open my heart to hear your words flow out of the mouths of the world. Guide my doings. Thy will be done.

(Letter #971)