Monk Prayer

There is nothing I can give you which you have
not but there is much, very much, that while
I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts
find rest in today.
Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future, which is not hidden
in the present instant.
Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
behind it, yet within certain reach, is joy.
There is a radiance and glory in the darkness
could we but see; and to see, we have but
to look.
I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver but we, judging
its gifts by their covering, cast them away as
as ugly, or heavy or hard.
Remove the covering and you will find beneath
it a living splendour, woven of love, by
wisdom, with power.
Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angels
hand that brings it to you.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty,
believe me, that angels hand is there, and the
wonder of an over-shadowing presence.
Our joys are too. Be not content with them
as joys; they too conceal divine gifts.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as
the world sends greetings, but with profound
esteem and with the prayer that for you, now
and forever, the day breaks and the shadows
flee away.