This is one of my favorite prayers from Every Moment Holy, and it means even more to me these days.
Many are the things that must be daily done.
Meet me therefore, O Lord, in the doing of the small, repetitive tasks,
In the cleaning and ordering and
maintenance and stewardship of things—
of dishes, of floors, of carpets
and toilets and tubs,
of scrubbing and sweeping
and dusting and laundering—
That by such stewardship I might bring
a greater order to my own life,
and to the lives of any I am given to serve,
so that in those ordered spaces
bright things might flourish:
fellowship and companionship,
creativity and conversation,
learning and laughter
and enjoyment and health.
As I steward the small, daily tasks,
may I remember these good ends,
and so discover in my labors
the promise of the eternal hopes
that underlie them.
High King of Heaven,
you showed yourself among us
as the servant of all,
speaking stories of a kingdom to come,
a kingdom in which those who
spend themselves for love,
even in the humblest of services,
will not be forgotten,
but whose every service lovingly rendered
will be seen from that far vantage
as the planting of a precious seed
blooming into eternity.
And so I offer this small service to you, O Lord,
for you make no distinction between
those acts that bring a person
the wide praise of their peers
and those unmarked acts
that are accomplished in a quiet obedience
without accolade.
You see instead the heart, the love,
and the faithful stewardship
of all labors, great and small.
And so, in your loving presence,
I undertake this task.
O God, grant that my heart
might be ordered aright,
knowing that all good service
faithfully rendered
is first a service rendered unto you.
Receive then this my service,
that even in the midst of labors that
hold no happiness in themselves,
I might have increasing joy.
Amen.
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