"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify Thy holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen." Each new day began with this prayer at Windsor House Academy, the private school I founded in the early seventies, in Kempton Park, South Africa. The Lord's prayer then followed; said alternately, on succeeding days, in English and Afrikaans, because it was a bi-lingual (not 'dual-medium') school.
We used the Book of Common Prayer version for the opening prayer - retaining the words 'Hid', 'Thee', 'Thy', and so on, but, to this day, although the prayer has been updated - and those teenagers have grown into men and women, many with children of their own - I see those young faces before me, and, as I recite it in church, I send up prayers for them, and bless them in my heart.
I feel very sure that they can all do with prayer - especially those left behind in the country of my birth, which is in such turmoil - but I am assuredly the one most in need of having the 'thoughts of my heart' cleansed by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit!
I think that is was for this reason that I was led to start this blog. No matter how hard I try to shake them off, I allow far too many things to 'get' to me, and I guess it serves as a form of catharsis to let off steam in a blog. - Is that why so many people become bloggers?
