Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Grant me the wisdom (Fr. James Martin)

 God, grant me the serenity 
to accept the people I cannot change, 
which is pretty much everyone, 
since I’m clearly not you, God. 
At least not the last time I checked.
  
And while you’re at it God, 
please give me the courage 
to change what I need to change about myself, 
which is frankly a lot, since, once again, 
I’m not you, which means I’m not perfect. 
It’s better for me to focus on changing myself 
than to worry about changing other people, 
who, as you’ll not doubt remember me saying, 
I can’t change anyway. 

Finally, give me the wisdom to just shut up 
whenever I think that I’m clearly smarter 
than everyone else in the room, 
that no one knows what they’re talking about except me, 
or that I alone have all the answers. 

Basically, God, 
grant me the wisdom 
to remember that I’m 
not you. 

Amen. 
--Fr. James Martin, 
A New Serenity Prayer

Image source:  Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV of France (1701), https://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/12/index.html

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