GOD KNOWS YOU AND HEARS YOUR PRAYERS

Father in Heaven! Great is your infinite kingdom. You bear the weight of the stars and govern the forces of the world through immense spaces; numberless as the sands are those who have life and being through you. And yet, you hear the cry of all the creatures, and the cry of all people without confusing their mixed voices and without distinguishing one from another in such a way as to play favorites. You hear not only the voice of one who is responsible for many others and prays to you in their name, as if his high function could bring him nearer to you; you hear not only the voice of one who prays for dear ones, as if he could thereby attract your attention, he who is privileged in having the dear ones; no, you hear also the most miserable, the most abandoned, and most solitary person – in the desert, in the multitude. And if the forgotten one has separated himself from all others; and if in the crowd he has become unknown – having ceased to be a person except as a number on a list – you know him. You have not forgotten him. You remember his name; you know him where he is, retired, hidden in the desert, unperceived in the crowd, in the multitude. And if in the shadows of dread, in the prey of terrible thoughts, he was abandoned by others, abandoned almost by the language others speak, still you would not have forgotten him. You would understand his language. You know also how quickly to find a way which leads to him, quick as sound, prompt as light; and if you should wait it is not slowness, but wisdom; and if you do wait, it is not slowness but because you only know the speed of your help; if you do wait, it is not stingy parsimony, but paternal economy which keep the best things reserved for the child, in a secure place, for a favorable moment. Lord our Father! We cry to you in the day of distress and we give thanks to you in the day of joy. Oh how wonderful to give thanks when we understand so easily that you are the giver of good and perfect gifts, when even the earthly heart is at once ready to understand and when earthly prudence speedily consents. More blessed though it is to give thanks when life becomes a darkened story; more blessed though to give thanks when the heart is oppressed and the soul darkened, when reason is a traitor in its ambiguity and memory is mistaken in its forgetting, when egoism recoils in fright, when human wisdom resists, if not in rebellion then in discouragement – more blessed then to thank God, for the one who thus is thankful truly loves God. We dare to say to you, you all knowing God: Lord, you know all things, you know I love you.

(The Prayers of Kierkegaard, Perry D. LeFevre, 15)