"Love has conquered death."


I want and need to believe it.
death is only a doorway, to an opening
that is a mystery, the great mystery.

I pray to live the mystery, to let it be.

I pray to know your soul in my daily life,
here in the quiet morning,
to feel your presence.

I pray for your soul.
your loving soul.

In my heart of hearts, I find you there.
the noise on the outside keeps you far from me.
In my soul I know that you and I can never be separated,
it's only my thoughts that can keep you from me.

It is only when I find that still place within that
I can be with you,
without separation.

It is a prayer to wander into that still place
as often as I can, or never to leave it,
to always keep that still space alive,
no matter what is going on outside or in
my noisy thoughts.

I pray for soul to soul communication,
that I may not block it,

that I keep the channel open,
that I hear your soul's whisper no matter where I am, or where I go,
that I am with you always.

Love conquers death.

Amen

"But because being here means so much, and because all
that’s here, vanishing so quickly seems to need us
and strangely concerns us. Us, to the first to vanish.
Once each, only once. Once and no more. And us too,
once, even if only once,
to have been on earth just once — that’s irrevocable.
And so we keep on going and try to realize it,
try to hold it in our simple hands, in
our overcrowded eyes, and in our speechless heart.
Try to become it. To give it to whom? We’d rather
keep all of it forever… Ah, but what can we take across
into that other realm? Not the power to see we’ve learned
so slowly here, and nothing that’s happened here.
Nothing. And so, the pain; above all, the hard
work of living; the long experience of love –
those purely unspeakable things."  Rilke


What have you taken into "that other realm?"
love, take all of it, my love for you and everyone's love for you.
take it as a letter to God, a letter to the sky, that you were here
and we loved you.  As you loved us.

I pray for you to have that love in your soul for eternity.

I pray for your soul, for peace, for joy in your soul, for your light to be present in my life forever.

This world is not the same without your physical presence.

I pray for my soul, to do its work here on earth, to the best of my ability.

"Journey into this day knowing that whatever should happen we can never be separated from the Love of God, that when we are low He raises up, and when we are on the mountain top He rejoices with us."



May you be with me in this lowland,
and when I rise to the mountaintop may you rejoice with me.

 I pray to know that I can never be separated from your love, where you go, I follow.
where your love is, mine is there.

   Just let me know it, and believe it.

"The whole purpose of monastic life is to teach men to live by love."  Thomas Merton

Living by love,  I felt you lived the life of a monk, you let yourself be taught by life.
I saw it in your face, in your eyes, in your deeds.

I pray to walk that way,
allow myself to be taught to live by love.

I pray for your light to shine above me, within me, around me, all the days of my life.

"Without general mindfulness one cannot be generous,  kindly or compassionate.       
What is mindfulness ? And, how is it established?  Mindfulness is the awareness of what one is doing while one is doing it, and of nothing else."  Bhikkhu Khantipalo


I pray to be mindful, to follow your example, you who were mindful always.

I pray to walk the path of being aware of what I am doing while I am doing it.

I pray for your soul, your light being, you sweetness and love to be at peace
and to be with me always.