The World in Tune

We can read these prayers, as Père de Caussade taught us to do all our spiritual reading, slowly, savoring each phrase or sentence, following all the lines of thought it suggests, waiting till each line is exhausted before going on to the next. Or we can memorize them, to recall in the times when books are not available, in wakeful periods in the night, While waiting for a train, or as a means of centering down in Meeting when distractions scatter our thoughts. A phrase may accompany us through the day, flashing through our routine tasks, arising to soften a human contact that might turn thorny, steadying us in time of anxiety or stress, or expressing a sudden joy.

The prayers which follow have come from various sources, some old, some recent, and with them are some of the lines of thought that they have suggested to one familiar with the lower rungs of the ladder.