As my prayer life becomes more desperate, uncertainty slithering out of last year and into the next, it looks like it may be another year of challenge and faith-testing for me. What about you? 

When all is stripped away of earthy means:

• Plans
• Expectations
• Dreams
• Hopes
• Comforts
• Striving
• Individualism

What am I left with? What are you left with?

Despite poor prognoses and uncertainties, I’m confronted and comforted by what is real, yet unseen:

God eternal, Three-in-One,
Heaven and earth, the seen and unseen:
God’s creativity and power,
Christ’s love and mercy,
Spirit’s counsel and comfort.

They created everything seen.
Perfection in love,
Now broken and longing,
Groaning for renewal.

The sun, moon and stars—
Sustaining life by day, guiding by night.
Nature’s raging oceans,
And gentle, whispering brooks,
Threaten and beckon.

Songbirds in springtime,
A mother whale’s mournful melodies,
Destructive storms,
And gentle summer breezes,
Devastate and delight.

Life and death
Subsisting in one breath.

Reality often challenges the constancy of heaven.
Two truths colliding, faith meeting sight.
The known and unknown,
Clashing in harmonious discord.

When life strikes its brutal blow,
And hearts are left open and gushing,
Eternity speaks to brevity
Declaring truth to the darkness,
Whispering hope in the unknowable.

In the valley of shadows,
Light must be present
For shadows to exist.
The Light of Divine presence
Reveals Truth as constant,
Even in the darkest valley.

For shadows cannot destroy,
But they can evoke fear.

The only place to turn, then
When shadows threaten,
And life is uncertain, unbearable,
Is to the realities of Eternal Light.

Father, Son and Spirit,
The Three-in-Oneness,
Embodiment of all goodness, beauty and truth.

I must draw near.
Remain near:
Cling, Climb and Cluster,
Like branches with a solitary occupation—
Fruit-bearing.

I abide in the center
Of my Triune Lovers.
Surrendering to Love,
Resting in Divinity,
Renewing my humanity.

Until the storm subsides,
The sun nourishes,
The fruit blossoms,
And I am at peace,
In stillness and rest.

If you’re in a place of loneliness, struggle, or darkness, take heart with me. Call out, cry out, scream if you will. Speak your heart’s deepest fears, regrets, and anxieties.

Pray, hope, rest from striving, and be at peace, wrapped in Triune Love. Then wait with me. 

I’ve been praying the prayer known as St Francis of Assisi’s prayer every day since the New Year rolled in. Join me this week, and let’s see how the Lord holds us, comforts us, and helps us, guiding and directing our steps this year. 

May the Father, Son and Holy One engulf you in their Three-in-Oneness as you take your next step, no matter how small, painful or scary, into the unknown, being fully known.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.