What a Beautiful Prayer!!

I found this prayer posted on the this blog:

"O LORD,
In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs
over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments
never appears so inconsiderate as then,
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
I find my heart going after thee with intensity,
and long with vehement thirst to live to thee.
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit
that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
and nothing seems important
but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,
and are of little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts
at what thou art doing for thy church,
and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great name
from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,
and taste heavenly joys;
entering into the eternal world
I can give myself to thee with all my heart,
to be thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in thy hands,
to be entirely at thy disposal,
having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying."

It was posted with photographs (that I left out because they are not mine) on October 21, 2007. (By the way, visit that blog if you love crafts and beautiful photographs, all from a Christian perspective).

I thought the prayer so beautiful that when I saw that the blog owner had listed the name of the book it came from - "The Valley of Vision- A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" - I ordered it from Amazon.com, since, of course, I don't have enough books (if you know me, you'll know I'm buried under books - but a nicer burial I can't think of).

I can't wait to go through these prayers. Now that I think of it, if someone from the past has trod the same path as myself - life - and they have committed some breathtaking prayers to paper - then why re-invent the wheel? I can still pray in my own words AND use these wonderful prayers when my own words fail.

What sublime poetry, what lofty goals, rising above the mundaneness of life. Prayer - it's a journey I'm (ashamed to admit, but happy to go forward) just beginning.