Gather me to be with you...

An Advent Blessing which I received today from a friend and pass on to you...

May you be Wrapped in Hope

Graced with Peace

Filled with Joy and 

Embraced in Love

under our front evergreen seems like a good spot for small animals to shelter

  

O GOD, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;

quiet my fretfulness;

curb my aimlessness;

receive my compulsiveness;

let me be easy for a moment.

O LORD, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;

from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip,

that I may be open to receiving,

to learn something refreshingly different.

O GOD, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

Forgive me for claiming so much for myself that I leave no room for gratitude;

for confusing exercises in self-importance with acceptance of self-worth;

for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden;

for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them and receiving your blessing through their gifts.

O GOD, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

 

Keep me in touch with myself,

with my needs,

my anxieties,

my angers,

my pains,

my corruptions,

that I may claim them as my own rather than blame them on someone else.

O LORD, deepen my wounds into wisdom;

shape my weakness into compassion;

gentle my envy into enjoyment,

my fear into trust,

my guilt into honesty,

my accusing finger into tickling ones.

O GOD, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

by Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace

by the front door - somehow inviting