During this week’s Planning Meeting with our Retreat & Conference Center staff, Doris Gallagher, our Guest Services Coordinator, opened with a revised version of the prayer below (shared from https://concordpastor.blogspot.com/2022/08/night-prayer-monday-81.html). She found that the prayer works well for this time of year, at the end of August too, so we’ve added her revised words in parentheses. We went around the room during our meeting and talked about things that we had originally hoped to accomplish this summer and maybe things that we could still squeeze into the last weeks of the summer. How are you spending these last days of summer? Comment and share with us!
The first (end) of August!
Already, Lord?
Way. Too. Soon.
(IMHO)
Once again, summer’s slipping away,
or so it seems as (mid-August) August’s debut
impolitely intrudes
on (a) my favorite time of the year…
Yes, summer’s far from over and done
but I miss what’s passed,
wonder where it’s gone
and if, somehow, carelessly,
I let it slip right by…
So, give me a love for this eighth month, Lord:
open my heart to what’s yet to be, what’s still in store
and waiting to take me, by surprise,
to places, people and possibilities
past all that June and July had offered
or I, in my foolishness missed…
Let this be the month the Lord has made:
August 2023!
Four (A few) weeks unique
in the whole of my life,
in the lives of my friends,
in humankind’s history,
in the mind of God…
Never before has this month come
and never again shall it return:
– August 2023 –
a once-in-my-lifetime gift!
What will you have me make of this month, Lord?
What will you have me try and do?
What will you have me embrace these weeks
and what will you have me set free?
Where will your love lead me these days,
what path will you bid me take?
How will you have me spend this month:
August of 2023?
How might I make this a better month
for the folks whose paths cross mine?
How might I mend, in the weeks ahead,
the mistakes I made in the months just past?
How will you move and act this month
in my heart, in my life, in the world?
Open me up to all of the ways
your Spirit’s about to stir in me, Lord:
in my mind, in my conscience,
in my heart and my soul,
in all of my words and in each of my deeds…
This the month that you’ve made, O Lord,
help me rejoice and be glad in these days
help me spend (the rest of this season) this month in your grace
and come to its end in your peace…
Protect me, Lord, while I’m awake
and watch over me while I sleep
that awake, I might keep watch with you
and asleep rest in your peace…
Amen.