Sacred writings are filled with tributes to beauty. Use this one from Rumi during a period of meditation in the morning and during breaks throughout the day. Notice any increased awareness that accompanies the repetition of the mantra.
Breathing in: Every moment . . .
Breathing out: a new beauty.
A Blessing for Beauty
What is beauty?
The boy traces the lines on his grandmother’s face and asks, what are these?
My beauty lines, you laughingly answer.
What is beauty?
May beauty be your path.
May you step into her welcoming arms and follow her seductive call to see her in all whom you meet and in all that you experience.
Sometimes she is grand, flamboyant, over the top, and hard to miss.
Other times she is subtle, elusive, camouflaged, a chameleon.
May you search for her in every face, including your own.
May you seek her in all hearts, including your own.
May she be your constant companion.
What is beauty?
May you see her in the ugly, brown, dead leaf discarded on the ground.
May you find her in the glorious vibrant sunset burning across the horizon of a midnight blue sky.
May she call to you standing at the stop light with a cardboard sign asking for help.
May you recognize her in the image of a woman adorned with Mardi Gras beads dancing with abandon to a Dixieland jazz band.
What is beauty?
— Kaki Grubbs, Spiritual Literacy Certificates Program, 2024 Cohort
Other Prayers
Opening Prayer
In the morning light, O God,
may I glimpse again your image deep within me
the threads of eternal glory
woven into the fabric of every man and woman.
Again may I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul
fashioned in your likeness
deeper than knowing
more enduring than time.
And in glimpsing these threads of light
amidst the weakness and distortions of my life
let me be recalled
to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.
Let me be recalled
to the strength and beauty of your image in every living soul.
— John Philip Newell in Celtic Christian Spirituality: Essential Writings--Annotated & Explained by Mary C. Earle
