Lord, come in!

For about 30 years now, my dear sweet sister Annie has given me as a Christmas present the current Printery House Desk Calendar. It sits on my prayer altar, where I can jot down special dates and prayer intentions. I always enjoy both the artwork and quotes and have saved more than a few pages. The fact that Annie has her own copy makes it all the more special as we share together the quotes and related thoughts throughout the year. Today's quote is from a favorite writer of mine, the English Anglo-Catholic mystic, Evelyn Underhill:

Lord, come in! Enter my small life! Give me your very self.

Evelyn published 39 books, and because I was curious about which one contained this quote, I searched the Web. I didn't find the source, but I came across her entire prayer:

Lord! Give me courage and love to open the door and constrain you to enter, whatever the disguise you come in, even before I fully recognise my guest.

Come in! Enter my small life!

Lay your sacred hands on all the common things and small interests of that life and bless and change them. Transfigure my small resources, make them sacred. And in them give me your very self.

Amen.

I wonder if Evelyn wrote this prayer later in her life. Earlier in her life, she wrote on mysticism (those books include Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness and Practical Mysticism), but later she wrote about the spiritual life as lived by ordinary people. It is the writing of her latter years that speak most to me in my own very ordinary life.

In addition to writing, Evelyn devoted herself to to visiting the poor and to the direction of souls. Two good biographies of her can be found on the Web here and here.

Christ wants not nibblers of the possible but grabbers of the impossible. ~Evelyn Underhill