"To Be One With You..."
A Prayer for Union with Divine Love
Divine Mystery,
I yearn to be one with you,
For you are infinite, limitless, lavish love,
And to be one with you is to be one with love:
One with compassion and care,
One with kindness and hospitality,
One with patience and perseverance,
One with fidelity and loyalty,
One with discretion and discernment,
One with desire and delight,
One with eros and agápē.
To be one with you is to be:
A beacon of light,
A source of hope,
A fountain of joy,
An ocean of wisdom,
A rock of stability,
A fire of felicity,
A breath of life.
By myself, I easily make a mess of love,
I am too stingy, and I hoard your blessings,
Or I lack boundaries, and create needless suffering.
For this reason, I need your insight and your grace:
Like a baby needs milk,
An adolescent needs guidance,
An adult needs purpose,
An elder needs peace.
Divine Mystery,
I yearn to be one with you,
For you are the Love who loves.
Open my heart to receive your love
Consciously and fully, that I may so love you,
And together, generously, may we love all.
Amen.
Note from Carl: I’m posting this prayer on June 11, 2025: the anniversary of my baptism in 1961. As fraught as my relationship with the institutional church may be, I still find meaning in this sacrament of initiation into the heart of divine love. I hope this prayer may convey a sense of how I understand my baptismal calling, and I hope it may be a blessing for you, too.
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