There was this chain letter sent a few minutes ago to a mailing list I subscribe to (and after googling around, it seems to be an old one, no more originality on this Net of ours!), it contained a nice prayer apparently by St. Therese of Lisieux. As with most chain letters it asks you to make a wish and send it to N people (where N is 11 in this case, a number I find significant) in the next M minutes (where M is 5 here).

Normally I’d ignore this, however, I tend to tune in to signs around, for good or for bad. I had never heard of this Saint until I read the Witch of Portobello (as mentioned in yesterday’s post), and the prayer provides solace for my state (and I assume many others’ state). Since I am not a fan of forwarding stuff, I thought I’ll just reproduce the prayer here. So make a wish and read on:

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

I have not confirmed if the prayer is actually by St. Therese, so caveat emptor, but with that, another thing of interest: Today I was watching some videos on youtube of J. Krishnamurti where one essential thing he said was that the message is far more significant than the messenger. I believe in this fully, I have heard words of wisdom from people I would never have considered “spiritual” – it shows truly that the Creative Intelligence pervades everything and everyone, unconditionally.

My personal view is that the prayer, like many, was universal enough – I am neither Christian nor Catholic but still relate to it.

— Kamal

Errata:

Changed title from “A Prayer by St. Therese” to “A Prayer”, see Maureen’s (first) comment.