Anne Lamott , in her book Traveling Mercies , says that when people pray their two most common prayers are "Help me, help me, help me," and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The first is a prayer of humility in which we acknowledge that we simply cannot handle life all by ourselves. When all is going well, we are able to live with the illusion that we are in control and the master of our fate, the captain of our souls. Then one word can shatter all of that: cancer, leaving, fired, divorce, terminal -

The second prayer, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," is also a prayer of humility. By it we acknowledge that so much that is good and right in our lives is not of our own making. We did not decide where or when or to whom we would be born. Imagine for just a moment where all these blessings we take for granted would be if we had been born in Sub-Saharan Africa, or if our mother had been a crack addict, or we had been born blind or deaf. So much of whom we are and what we have and how we live is the result of circumstances over which we have no control.

When life is good we go blithely along missing so much beauty, so many small joys. Perhaps we all would do well to begin each day with the first prayer and end it with the second.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice