EVENING PRAYER
Prayer is not a list of demands addressed by human beings to
their type of God Almighty. It should be, rather must be, a ‘Thank You Letter’
for giving you innumerable things in the world In which you live. It is HE who has given you life and personal talents that you regularly employ to pass your
days and nights in this beautiful world.
It is natural that you
commit errors, lapses and blunders. There may be even serious moral aberrations
crimes and sins. Your duty in such cases
is to seek God’s forgiveness, for He is always merciful to those who repent and
promise not to repeat their errant behaviour.
According English poet laureate Lord Alfred Tennyson
(1809-92), many things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. “ What
are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain,
if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer for themselves and those who call
them friends.
Given below is an
Evening Prayer by the American poet Gabriel H. Charles (1856-1932). Throughout
the poem, his attitude is that of sincere penitent. So he prays :
If I have wounded any
soul today,
If I have caused one foot
to go astray,
If I have walked in my
own willful way---
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have uttered idle
words or vain,
If I have turned aside
from want or pain,
Lest I myself should
suffer through the strain----
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have craved for joys
that are not mine,
If I have let my wayward
heart repine,
Dwelling on things of
earth, not things divine----
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have been perverse,
or hard, or cold,
If I have longed for shelter
in Thy Fold,
When Thou hast given me
some part to hold----
Good Lord, forgive!
Forgive the sins I have
confessed to Thee,
Forgive the secret sins I
do not see.
That which I know not,
Father, teach Thou me-
Help me to live.
22 December 2019 G.
R. KANWAL
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