Before You Lord
To be here before you, Lord,
that’s all:
to shut the eyes of my body,
to shut the eyes of my soul,
And be still and silent,
to expose myself to you who are here, exposed to me.
To be here before you,
the Eternal Presence,
I am willing to feel nothing, Lord,
to see nothing,
to hear nothing,
Empty of all ideas, of all images,
in the darkness.
Here I am, simply, to meet you without obstacles,
In the silence of faith,
before you, Lord. |
But, Lord, I am not alone.
I am a crowd, Lord,
For people live within me,
I have met them,
they have come in,
they have settled down,
they have worried me,
they have tormented me,
they have devoured me,
and I have allowed it, Lord,
that they might be nourished and refreshed.I bring them to you, too,
as I come before you.
I expose them to you in exposing myself to you.
Here I am, here they are,
before you, Lord!
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life |
| Jesus Carries His Cross
Lord, here is your cross.
Your Cross!
As if it were your Cross!
You had no cross and you came
to get ours,
and all through your life,
and along the road to Calvary,
you took upon you,
one by one,
the sins of the world.
You have to go forward,
and bend
and suffer.
The Cross must be carried.
Lord you walk on silently;
is it true, then,
that there is a time for speaking and a time for silence? |
Is it true that there is
a time for struggling
and another for the silent
bearing of our sins
and the sins of the world?
Lord, I would rather fight the cross;
to bear it is hard.
The more I progress,
and the more I see evil
in the world,
the heavier the Cross is
on my shoulders.
Lord, help me understand
that the most generous deed is nothing
unless it is also silently redemptive.
And since you want me for this long way of the Cross,
at the dawning of each day,
help me to set forth.
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life |
|
Help me to say “Yes”
I am afraid of saying “Yes,” Lord.
Where will you take me?
I am afraid of drawing the longer straw,
I am afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement,
I am afraid of the “yes” that entails other “yeses.”
And yet I am not at peace.
You pursue me, Lord, you besiege me.
I seek out the din for fear of hearing you, but in a moment of silence you slip through.
I turn from the road,
for I have caught sight of you,
but at the end of the path
you are there awaiting me.
Where shall I hide?
I meet you everywhere.
Is it then impossible
to escape you?
But I am afraid to say “Yes,” Lord.
I am afraid of putting my hand in yours,
for you hold on to it.
I am afraid of meeting your eyes, for you can win me.
I am afraid of your demands,
for you are a jealous God.
I am hemmed in, yet I hide.
I am captured, yet I struggle,
and I fight
knowing that I am defeated.
For you are the stronger, Lord,
you own the world
and you take it from me.
When I stretch out my hand
to catch hold of people and things, they vanish before my eyes.
It’s no fun, Lord,
I can’t keep anything for myself.
The flower I pick
fades in my hands.
My laugh freezes on my lips.
The waltz I dance leaves me restless and uneasy.
Everything seems empty,
Everything seems hollow,
You have made a desert around me.
I am hungry and thirsty,
And the whole world
cannot satisfy me. |
And yet I loved you, Lord;
what have I done to you?
I worked for you;
I gave myself for you.
O great and terrible God,
I want more for you
and for the world.
Until now you have planned your actions,
but I have no need of them.
You have asked for my approval, you have asked for my support,
You have wanted to interest me in your work.
But don’t you see, that you were reversing the roles?
I have watched you,
I have seen your good will,
And I want more than you, now.
You will no longer do your own works,
but the will of your Father in heaven.
Say “Yes”.
I need your “yes” as I needed Mary’s “yes” to come to earth,
For it is I who must do your work.
It is I who must live in your family,
It is I who must be in your neighborhood, and not you.
For it is my look that penetrates, and not yours,
My words that carry weight,
and not yours,
My life that transforms,
and not yours.
Give all to me,
abandon all to me.
I need your “yes”
to be united with you
and to come down to earth,
I need your “yes”
to continue saving the world!
O Lord, I am afraid of your demands,
but who can resist you?
That your Kingdom may come
and not mine,
That your will may be done
and not mine,
Help me to say “Yes.”
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life |
|
There are two loves only
There are two loves only, Lord,
Love of myself and love of you and of others,
And each time that I love myself,
it’s a little less love for you and
for others,
It’s a draining away of love,
It’s a loss of love,
For love is made to leave self and fly towards others.
Each time it’s diverted to myself,
it withers, rots and dies.
Love of self, Lord, is a poison that I absorb each day.
Love of self offers me a cigarette and gives none to my neighbour.
Love of self chooses the best part and keeps the best place.
Love of self indulges my senses and supplies them from the table of others.
Love of self speaks about myself and makes me deaf to the words of others.
Love of self chooses, and forces that choice on a friend.
Love of self puts on a false front; it wants me to shine, overshadowing others.
Love of self is self-pitying and overlooks the suffering of others.
Love of self advertises my ideas and despises those of others.
Love of self thinks me virtuous, it calls me a good man.
Love of self induces me to make money, to spend it for my pleasure, to hoard it for my future.
Love of self advises me to give to the poor in order to ease my conscience and live in peace.
Love of self puts my slippers on and ensconces me in an easy chair.
Love of self is satisfied with myself; it gently rocks me to sleep… |
What is more serious, Lord, is that love of self is a stolen love. It was destined for others.
They needed it to live, to thrive,
and I have diverted it.
So the love of self creates human suffering.
So the love of men for themselves creates human misery
I have squandered your love, Lord.
Tonight I ask you to help me to love.
Grant me, Lord, to spread true love in the world.
Grant that by me and by your children it may penetrate a little into all circles, all societies, all economic and political systems, all laws, all contracts, all rulings.
Grant that it may penetrate into offices, factories, apartment buildings, movie houses, dance halls.
Grant that it may penetrate the hearts of all and that I may never forget that the battle for a better world is a battle of love,
in the service of love.
Help me to love, Lord, not to waste my powers of love, to love myself less in order to love others more and more,
that around me,
no one should suffer or die
because I have stolen the love
they needed to live.
*******
You will never succeed in putting enough love into the heart of man and into the world,
For many and the world are hungry for an infinite love,
And God alone can love with a boundless love.
But if you want, I give you my Life,
Draw it within you.
I give you my heart, I give it to my sons.
Love with my heart,
And all together you will feed the world, and you will save it.”
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life |
