Before You Lord

In this season of Lent, as we draw, moment by moment, closer to Holy Week and Easter, can I offer anything more beautiful and real than this prayer by Michel Quoist?
God bless,
Sr. Janet
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To be here before you, Lord,
that’s all:
to shut the eyes of my body,
to shut the eyes of my soul,
and be still and silent,
to expose myself to you who are here, exposed to me.

To be here before you,
the Eternal Presence,
I am willing to feel nothing, Lord,
to see nothing,
to hear nothing,
empty of all ideas, of all images,
in the darkness.

Here I am, simply,
to meet you without obstacles,
in the silence of faith,
before you, Lord.

But, Lord, I am not alone.
I am a crowd, Lord,
for people live within me.
I have met them,
they have come in,
they have settled down,
they have worried me,
they have tormented me,
they have devoured me,
and I have allowed it, Lord,
that they might be nourished and refreshed.

I bring them to you, too,
as I come before you.
I expose them to you in exposing myself to you.

Here I am, here they are,
before you, Lord!

Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life