At a recent meeting of the S.V.P. we used this prayer as a meditation. It was found in Anthony Cornwell’s daily missal after his death. We thought it highlighted the many shortcomings and difficulties that we all encounter in our everyday lives.
Would it help you in 2014?.
| O God, help me not to waste my time.
Don’t let me always be in a hurry and a fuss, but help me to go quietly and without haste, filling every minute with the work which is given me to do. Help me not to waste my strength. Give me a sense of proportion that I may not get all hot and bothered about the things which are of no importance and so make myself too tired and exhausted to do the things which really matter. Help me not to waste my money. Don’t let me be mean and miserly, but help me to spend wisely, to give generously, and to try to use everything I have, remembering that it belongs not to me but to you. Above all help me not to waste my life. Help me to use the talents you have given me, to seize the opportunities you are sending me, so that some day you may be able to say to me: Well done! You are the Lord and master of all good life; hear this my prayer and help me to live well: through Jesus Christ my Lord. AMEN (prayer ascribed to William Barclay) |