In our morning prayers this week, alongside following the Lectionary, we’re reading from Prayers from the Ark, written by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold in the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Louis do Temple in France during and after WWII. I came across her writings some years ago in Lithuanian, my native language, and was absolutely delighted to find it, in its English translation, in our own library, feeling a deep gratitude to whoever placed it there in 1968! The Prayers portray various animals (or ourselves?..) and their common preoccupations. As we are somewhat ‘cat-oriented’ here at IBTS, here’s The Prayer of the Cat:
Lord,
I am the cat.
It is not, exactly, that I have something to ask of You!
No–
I ask nothing of anyone–
but,
if You have by some chance, in some celestial barn,
a little white mouse,
or a saucer of milk,
I know someone who would relish them.
Wouldn’t You like someday
to put a curse on the whole race of dogs?
If so I should say,
Amen.
– Lina