Creative Prayers

O God,

you are the unsearchable   

 abyss of peace,

the ineffable sea of love,

and the fountain of blessings.

Water us with

plentiful streams

from the riches of your grace;

and from the most sweet 

springs of your kindness,

make us children 

of quietness and heirs of peace.

~Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) Egypt

There is just something about finding a prayer that you can live and breathe until it lives and breathes within you.  I found this prayer in a lovely book, The Bridge of Stars: 365 Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations from Around the World compiled by Marcus Braybrooke. 

It was written by Clement of Alexandria who was an early Greek theologian and philosopher.  I've been praying this prayer for awhile and even shared it for morning prayers in the form of a book mark at a retreat recently, adding a photo at the bottom to illustrate the early morning meditation I'd been feeling with the prayer.  This morning as I sat with my journal and the book mark I had created, it chose to jump into my journal so I glued it in and as I wondered how to journal with it ... suddenly, I found myself drawn to the colors of the image.  I pulled out some oil pastels and allowed the colors to lead me even deeper into prayer.  It's not about the beauty of the image, it is about the beauty of the soul and I experienced that through this prayer.  I'm in a place of threshold, of waiting, a place of unknowing in my life right now.  Clement's prayer of words and my prayer of colors on the page became a prayer of threshold and a symbol of hope this morning.  I smile, I laugh, I love ...    

Where are you right now?  As you close your eyes, what colors illustrate the way you feel?  What is God saying to you about where you are and how you feel?