Family - a prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

A prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this peace in which we dwell.
for the love that unites us,
for the peace given us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies
that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.

Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors,
if it may not, give us the strength to endure that which is to come;  
that we may be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation,
temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune
and down to the gates of death,
loyal and loving to one another.

As the clay to the potter,
as the windmill to the wind,
as children of their parent,
we beseech of you this help and mercy
for Christ's sake.   Amen

Thank you, Patty, for sharing this.