Mighty are thy deeds,
great are your works oh Lord who sunrise till sundown labour ceaselessly
gathering a people to yourself. You are indeed good Oh Lord and all you have
created deserves to give you praise. Man; a little piece of your creation
desires to sing you praise from the depth of his heart to the highest of
mountains. Bearing in himself his mortality carry in him the witness of his own
sins yet you stir in him to take pleasure in praising you since you have for
yourself made us and our hearts would remain restless were they not to rest in
thee.
Grant me to know and
understand, you whose wisdom is immeasurable. Why does man; the epitome of your
good creation, turn against the light of your graceful face and try to follow
what he thinks as his own? Work of your hands and breath of your breath ought
to labour doing that which pleases you. Oh merciful Lord, you are more
democratic than the most democratic of our nations. So unrestrictive that you
would not though in a position to restrict our will. You continue to call us to
yourself but don’t restrict our willing away when we choose.
You are greater than
the great and lesser lights; your face illuminates the world and brightens all
it falls on. Yet Oh Lord we turn our backs to your light and face away enjoying
the beauty of the creation you illuminate forgetting to praise you their source
and keeping ourselves from the grace of thy light. What folly is in us that
thou witnesses that you resist the proud; we pride ourselves in enjoying what
you have rightfully created as thou we owned it and give no regard to you?
You open your palm and
all that you have created is fed, in you the troubled get their rest. You never
turn back those who come back to you nor hide your face to the prodigals tired
of soiling with the pigs. All you ask for is that we seek you and praise your
holy name, yet where other than in we are we to seek you? You are already in us
for from your breath we breathe and in you we exist. Were it not for you in us,
our being would not be sweet source of our delight and life of our life.
Surely man deceives himself
in his wisdom; of which your folly is wiser thou you are not foolish, in trying
to look for you in external creatures that stem from you not knowing you are in
his own being. Grant that I should live in you, who never leave me, so that thy
staff will guide me and your ear inclined hear my praise. For you and by you
may I not leave the protection of your wings nor roam from the joy of knowing
you. May I experience the pleasure of sucking from you the divine infancy food
of which my cup overflows than experience the heat of forging my blind path
away from your lighted face. May my restless heart find delightful rest in you.
RITH@.
