Prayer for Concentration

Bob Hostetler

God help my thoughts! They stray from
me, setting off on the wildest journeys.

When I am in church, they run off like
naughty children, quarreling, making
trouble.

When I read the Bible, they fly to a distant
city, filled with beautiful women.

My thoughts can cross an ocean with
a single leap; they can fly from earth to
heaven, and back again, in a single
second.

They come to me for a fleeting moment, and
then away they flee.

No chains, no locks can hold them back; no
threats of punishment can restrain them,
no hiss of a lash can frighten them.

They slip from my grasp like tails of eels;
they sweep hither and thither like
swallows in flight.

Dear, chaste, Christ, who can see into every
heart and read every mind, take hold of
my thoughts. Bring my thoughts back to
me, and clasp me to yourself.

(Thanks to Holly Davis, via Cindy Boyll, who recommended this anonymous Celtic prayer to me).