A Prayer for Coming Home

 

A Poem for Ash Wednesday

O True and Ever-Living God

I repent of all my false and empty gods

I look again into the closets of my life

      my mind, my heart

      to see what rules me.

Whom do I serve?

What are the possessions,

      the people, the opinions,

      the events,

      that control my life?

 

O Welcoming One

I see you standing at the door

      of my heart

      waiting for me

You gaze at my strange gods

      with an eye of compassion.

 

I am ashamed to invite you

      into my cluttered house

      yet my heart aches

      to be at home with you

 

My hand is reaching for the door

I hear myself saying, Come on in

I have more room than I thought I had

Come on in, and be the only God in my life.

May this moment of homecoming last forever.

 

Macrina Wiederkehr, Seasons of Your Heart (HarperCollinsPublishers, 1991)