08 February 2006

A Prayer for Time

I was only looking for a research topic for my church history paper. While searching for academic inspiration, I also ran across this prayer by Michel Quoist in a delightful volume called 2000 Years of Prayer.

And so all men run after time, Lord.
They pass through life running -
hurried, jostled, overburdened, frantic, and they never get there.
They haven't time.
In spite of all their efforts they're still short of time,
of a great deal of time.
Lord, you must have made a mistake in your calculations.

There is a big mistake somewhere.
The hours are too short,
The days are too short,
Our lives are too short.

You who are beyond time, Lord, you smile to see us fighting it.
And you know what you are doing.
You make no mistakes in your distribution of time to men.
You give to each one time to do what you want him to do.

But we must not lose time
waste time,
kill time,
For time is a gift that you give us,
But a perishable gift,
A gift that does not keep.

Lord, I have time,
I have plenty of time,
All the time that you give me,
The years of my life,
The days of my years,
The hours of my days,
They are all mine.
Mine to fill, quietly, calmly,
But to fill completely, up to the brim,
To offer them to you, that of their insipid water
You may make a rich wine
such as you made once in Cana of Galilee.

I am not asking you tonight, Lord,
for time to do this and then that,
But your grace to do conscientiously,
in the time that you give me, what you want me to do.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Amen to that.