For my children, Lord, I intercede,
And
begin with words of thanks:
You
have entrusted to my care
Three
such radiant masterpieces
That
I stand astonished at Your grace.
The
lines and forms of their young lives
Are
work of the Master’s hand alone;
But You have seen fit to give to me,
And
to my wife, and to themselves,
The
painstaking work of creation-love:
To
bring out the color and the zeal
That
lies behind Your artistry.
Let
me be, O Lord, a faithful student
Of
your thrice-holy Fatherhood,
Of
love that waters and brings forth
Fragrant
fields of Virtue’s bloom.
Let
not my stubborn self-absorption,
Nor
the limits of my patience,
Nor
the weariness of long-worked days
Ever
make them doubt my love for them,
And
Your love through mine.
Lord,
give my children courage
To
bless their broken world,
To
become deep wells of character
In
an age that oft prefers
The
flashy to sublime.
May
they hold the ancient way
In
reverence and with grace,
Unbowed
to idols of this world,
The
dazzled, licentious freedom
Of
the rampant, untamed self.
But
when sin does engulf them, Lord,
May
they rise above the flood,
Up-borne
on the abiding strength
Of
Your unconquered clemency.
May
their trespass be, at end of day,
A
step on the journey that makes them whole
And
brings more glory unto Thee.
When
pain invades their lives
And
suffering o’erwhelms,
May
they find a bright-lit way
In
the darkened vale of Your cross,
Which
drank down every drop of pain
And
shattered the cup of suffering
Against
the adamantine wall
Of
all-surpassing grace.
Make
of my children, O Master,
All
that You made them to be,
And
may they find within Your love
The
place appointed for their lives:
The
setting for their radiance,
Through
all eternity.