Pieta

God, my Father,
Create in me a heart that hungers for your will alone
--- a heart to accept your will, to do your will,
to be whatever you want me to be,
to do whatever you want me to do.

When you chose to create this world,
you knew the blueprint
and the design of my life:
the moment of my conception,
the day and hour when I would be born.

You saw from all eternity the color of my eyes
and you heard the sound of my voice.
You knew what gifts I would have
and those that I would be without.
You knew also the moment and the circumstance of my dying.

These choices are all a part of your will for me.
I will try lovingly to build an edifice of love and praise
with these materials which you have given me.
What I am is your gift to me.
What I become will be my gift to you.

As to the future, I ask for the grace to sign a blank check
and trustfully put it in your hands,
for you to fill in all the amounts:
the length of my life,
the amount of success and the amount of failure,
the experiences of pleasure and pain.

I would tremble to do this except for one thing:
I know you love me.
And, of course, you know much better than I
what will truly and lastingly make me happy.

In response to your will,
I want my life to be an act of love.
Wherever there is a choice, help me to ask only this:
What is the loving thing to do, to say, to be?
To make the decision that love must,
I seek and need your enlightenment.

Touch my eyes
with your gentle and healing hands
that I might find my way
along the winding course of love.
Strengthen my will and direct my feet
to follow that course always.

And whenever there is something special
your love has designed for me to do in my life,
let me be found ready and waiting.
Help me to become
a sensitive instrument of your grace.

I believe that you have
a providential master plan for this world,
and I want to be a part of it.
I want to make my contributions
to your Kingdom,
the contribution you have entrusted
only to me.
I want you to use me to help love this world
into the fullness of life.

Finally, my Lord and my God,
let me be faithful
in my commitment and dedication to your will,
faithful until the end.
Let "faithfulness" be the summary of my days
and of my nights.
Let the inscription
on my tombstone read:
PIETA.

Taken from the book PRESENCE, Prayers for Busy People