Kate Braestrup serves as a chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and works with search-and-rescue teams in the Maine woods. She is the author of two memoirs, including the New York Times bestseller Here If You Need Me. In this enlightening work, Braestrup tries to make sense of prayer which at its best and at our best "helps us live consciously, honorably, and compassionately." She also connects praying with gratitude, mindfulness, and empathy.
Food and eating play a special role in many religions, so it is only natural that these activities would have a surplus of prayers. Here is a meal grace created by the author:
We are thankful for the foodAnd for the hands that prepared it
And for our family and friends.
Amen.
It is a portable grace that can be used at a fast food place or restaurant. Braestrup sneaks in a few fine bedtime prayers but admits that she prefers that her devotions acknowledge fear but emphasize compassion. She shares a blessing prayer for her children that is quite excellent:
May love and strength be in your handsMay love and courage be in your heart
May love and wisdom be in your mind
May God go with you and work through you
Today and in all your days.
Amen
Braestrup joins many other spiritual teachers in her advocacy of laughter as a prelude to prayer and, in some cases, as prayer itself. Anyone who has been through a serious illness or setback knows what a privilege it is to be held in the heart of another who wants to lend support, and the author considers finding the right words, avoiding the wrong words, singing your prayers, speechless prayers, and praying with your body, in mixed company, and with enemies. The seedbed for all these prayers is faith:
"Faith is, rather, knowing that there is a goodness and rightness in the world that is of God: a righteous, grand, and holy love that I will never wholly grasp but in which I am invited to participate through the giving and receiving of human love.
"Faith is the confidence that no matter what happens, love is always available — as action, as memory, as a gift from others, as a capacity in myself."
