A Liturgy Before Beginning a Book

Anna recently asked me to send her this liturgy again called "A Liturgy Before Beginning a Book" from Every Moment Holy. We had pulled it out when she was in the midst of her college search and when she left for college, and it fit so perfectly in those situations. She once again found it to be so helpful in naming some of her hopes for her time in Ushuaia in the coming months. 

As you read this, may this prompt you to pray for Anna's adventure and also for those who have new chapters ahead of them (Cazden with his own college decisions ahead of him!) and anything else that comes to mind.... 

A Liturgy Before Beginning a Book 

Author of Life and Author of My Life, 

As I begin the reading of this book, 

give me a sensitivity to listen, 

not just to the story told, 

but to the responses of my own heart 

to what I encounter in these pages. 

What does it draw out of me? 

What joy? 

What longing? 

What fears? 

What temptation? 

What hope? 

What mirth? 

What love of beauty? 

What awe? 

What wonder? 

What doubt? 

What faith? 

What resolve? 

What unfinished grief? 

What untended wound? 

Give me ears to hear, O Spirit of God, 

what notes the reading of this story would strike

and what melody it would draw forth

from the tuned strings of my own soul. 

Waste no moment in my brief years, O Lord. 

Let all things, and this book as well, 

be as tools in your hands, 

to shape me and make me more truly your own, 

more fitly a child of the hope

of the restoration of all things in Christ

whose fullness dwells within them. 

So let the honest responses to this reading 

grant new insight into the story

your grace is already telling my own life

that I might be a more willing co-laborer

in that process. 

-Amen