Closing Sunday School Prayer of my Childhood

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart,

be acceptable in Thy sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalms 19:14

Ithaka by Cavafy- Read at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's funeral

Ithaka

By Constantine P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon--don't be afraid of them:

you'll never find the things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon, you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you're seeing for the first-time:

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind--

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind,

Arriving there is what you're destined for,

But don't hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

So you're old by the time you reach the island,

Wealthy with all you've gained along the way,

Not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you,

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

You'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Play Ball

Never let your fear of striking out

keep you from playing the game.

What is essential?

Our lives are frittered away by detail...

simplify, simplify!

Henry David Thoreau

Blessings

One single grateful thought raised to heaven

is the most perfect prayer.

G.E. Lessing

Words to live by

Live simply

Read broadly

Think deeply

Pray constantly

Speak slowly

Desire little

Give much

And once in awhile...

Belch!

God Shed His Grace On Thee

O Beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife.

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life.
America the Beautiful lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates

Epitaph

We tell our freedom backward by the land.

We tell our past by the gravestones and the apple trees.

Archibald MacLeish- "Land of the Free"

Children of the Heavenly Father

Though He giveth or He taketh,

God His children ne'er forsaketh.

His the loving purpose solely,

To preserve them pure and holy.

Hymn- Children of the Heavenly Father

Speechless

Do not the most moving moments of our lives

find us without words?