39 lines
1.6 KiB
TeX
39 lines
1.6 KiB
TeX
\chapter*{Foreword}
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\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Foreword}
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\noindent I didn't set out to write a hundred and one prayers.
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I set out to write the ones I needed and couldn't find ---
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short enough to pray before the day got away,
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plain enough to skip the churchier language.
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\medskip
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\noindent It didn't take long to notice a pattern:
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that every prayer
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rhymed with something a psalmist had already said three thousand years ago.
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Weariness, wonder, gratitude, grief --- none of it is new.
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\medskip
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\noindent This book borrows their voice.
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Each prayer opens with a verse from the Psalms and stays close to it,
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but with present-day concerns --- a hospital wristband, a gurney, plastic bins after a storm.
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A prayer too general, ``Lord, help me in my trouble,'' rarely moves anyone;
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it asks for nothing you can picture.
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But one too specific runs a different risk: what if your trouble doesn't look like mine?
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\medskip
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\noindent So hold these loosely. Think of each one less as a script
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and more as an aperture --- a way of opening your imagination onto something
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you already recognize. Let your words take over where mine leave off.
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\medskip
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\noindent Scripture quotations are drawn from the \textit{World English Bible},
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a public domain translation, with one adjustment:
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I've used the traditional ``the LORD'' in place of the divine name ``Yahweh,''
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since it's what most of us are used to.
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\medskip
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\noindent Wherever you are today --- weary, waiting, grateful, undone ---
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my prayer is that you'll find something here that meets you there.
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\bigskip
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\noindent \textit{George Marin} |