Jane's prayer

Jane Leonaitis, who was with us in worship this year, passed away recently. She was a person of compassion, of joy, and of prayer. She wrote frankly and honestly, and with love. She wrote a prayer, heartfelt and unwithholding, that was read at the celebration of her life, March 27, 2010.

Here is Jane's prayer. What would your prayer be?

Thank you for giving me a prayer voice, Lord, but I feel wordless in your presence. Help me to overcome my Christian insecurity.

I recognize that you are a fathomless mystery, God, and yet that you are a reality and not an illusion. I know that my concept of you matters. Help me to spend more time in reflection, without getting too off-track.

We live in a sea of many belief systems. Help me to swim in the current that is right for me, and to accept that other currents are right for other people.

I am firm in the belief that you are the God of all people. Give me global consciousness and compassion. Help me to appreciate the good that is in those who are different from me.

The world's problems are so big (nuclear - economic - overpopulation . . . . ). Show me how to make sense of that without damaging my optimism.

Help me to believe rightly. Lord, I do not see you as judge and punisher. Help me to recognize what is true and to know if there is something I should be doing about it. What do you want me to be doing?

Help me, Lord, to have a sense of your reality in my life. Fill me with a recognition of your love, and let me enjoy the surprise of finding you where I least expect you.

Lord, help me to clear my mind of the things I don't have answers for. Give me patience, knowing that we will never have all the answers.

Give me strength of purpose, especially in the inevitable hard times of my life.

Give me confidence to enjoy the sweetness of life.

Use me as your imperfect instrument in nurturing others, Lord.

Give me tolerance of my own imperfections, and understanding that you are not finished with me yet. Let me apply similar understanding to others and their imperfections.

I see you as our God who listens, who loves, who is beyond us but also with us, who permits as well as causes things to happen in our lives, who is patient, who is all-knowing and totally good.

I pray that I will think more on these things and apply them in my life. Amen.


--Based on notes of May, 2003, considered and rephrased Feb. 2009. jl

a prayer by Jane R. Leonaitis (March 28, 1927 - March 3, 2010)

Copyright (c) 2010, Jane R. Leonaitis estate. Used with permission.

For the Gospel Grapevine (May 2010) parish newsletter of St Alban's Church, Edmonds, Washington.



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