Night Prayer

This is a post more for me than you. I know it is not night for most of you, but it is here, and it is indeed night after a long day. It was a day of saying goodbye to Matt's father, headed back to the US, and a day of greeting, holding a friend's long-awaited baby. A day with blessed glimpses of sun after a week of cold and gray. A day of sorting, settling, sweeping, returning to routine. A day of tears, both mine and Finn's, and of hugs and laughter and quiet conversation. All day, this prayer has been in my heart. And so I share it with you, as we enter a Lenten season, with prayers that this Lent will be a time of stillness, of quiet, and of expectancy. May it be so for us.

Lord,
it is night.
The night is for stillness.
   Let us be still in the presence of God.
It is night after a long day.
   What has been done has been done;
   what has not been done has not been done;
   let it be.
The night is dark.
   Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives
   rest in you.
The night is quiet.
   Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
   all dear to us,
   and all who have no peace.
The night heralds the dawn.
   Let us look expectantly to a new day,
   new joys,
   new possibilities.
In your name we pray,
Amen.

(from the New Zealand Book of Prayer)