Offering the Day

I came across this beautiful Salesian prayer by St. Francis de Sales that I had forgotten. It seems like a perfect way to begin this day - and indeed, any day:

"My God. I offer you this day.
I offer you now,
all that good that I shall do
and I promise to accept,
for love of you,
all the difficulty that I shall meet.
Help me to conduct myself
during this day
in a manner pleasing to you.
Amen."

Let me add these beautiful quotes I found on cards I purchased when I did my spontaneous trip down to Charlottesville this week. They too, are perfect reminders, offerings, and blessings, for every day:

"Let us be grateful for those
who give us happiness;
They are the charming gardeners
who make our souls bloom."
~ Marcel Proust

"Kind hearts are the gardens.
Kind thoughts are the roots.
Kind words are the flowers.
Kind deeds are the fruits.
Take care of your garden
And keep out the weeds,
Fill it with sunshine,
Kind words and kind deeds."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"It's a simple procedure to calculate
the number of seeds in an apple.
But who among us can ever say
how many apples are in a seed?"
~ Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

And so, as the inside of the card containing this last quote urges:

"The seeds of greatness are within you.
Each one ready to grow in
countless and wonderful ways."

I add these final thoughts as you embark on your day, or perhaps end it. It does not matter. The invitation is there to begin tomorrow differently:

Today, and every day,
offer your day to God.
Give thanks for everything given
and received, even the challenges--
for they too, have their hidden blessings.

Give thanks for all the souls
that have come into your own
and have helped you become more fully
all that you are meant to be.

Tend the garden of your life.
Sow it with good deeds
and water it with constant repetition.
Become all that you are meant to be--
nothing more
and nothing less,
than an irrepeatable and unique manifestation
of the Presence of God to others.

And as a dear soul friend of mine is so fond of say, "Be well!" For as Julian of Norwich still reminds us today, echoing from the 14th century - "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well!"

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