keep the faith

here is a beautiful prayer sent to me via email by my aunt, sr. tita pamplona...

"Lord, this is the last day of an old year. I stand before you like a piling under a wharf that has gathered unsightly barnacles and debris. Lord, today, clean out my life and make me fit to walk into a new year, clean and unencumbered. Scrape from my heart the burdensome barnacles of all my botches and bungling. Strip from my life all the unbecoming garments of pride, arrogance and ego. As a gardener, O Lord, pull from my life today all that is unbecoming; all the weeks and months of worry; the roots of resistance; the burgeoning briers of bullheadedness and the vines of vexation.

Before the New Year arrives, disinfect the dirtiness of my deeds, destroy the detestable, destructive debris of my life, clear from my agenda all that is mundane, mediocre and moldy. Peel from my spirit, O Lord, all the layers of lewdness, lusting and lying. Scrub away, O God, all that is sullied, stained, septic and soiled.

Repaint today, O Lord, my faded walls; restore just now my voice; unstop my tongue to speak your praise; wash away the haze that I may see you lifted up. Remove from my life this day, Lord all that is small, rebellious, obstinate and unsurrendered to you.

Sweep out of my life all that is unimportant, unnecessary, unnatural and all that is ugly. Clear my mind of all thinking that is negative and unproductive. Breathe into me the fresh breath of your Spirit and rib me with the steel of your courage to face the New Year with a dogged determination to stand at the center of your will all the way through. Give me eyes to see beyond the physical, ears to hear beyond the audible, hands to touch hurting people, feet to speed to those in need, eyes to see those opportunities Lord that you see. Lord, I pull the shade on an old year and raise the shade to a new one. Grant me wisdom to walk with you and NOT LOOK BACK EVER.

Amen."