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Thursday, April 18, 2013

The alphabet prayer



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The alphabet prayer

A Hasidic tale:


Late one evening a poor farmer on his way back from the market found himself without his prayer book.

The wheel of his cart had come off right in the middle of the woods and it distressed him that this day should pass without his having said his prayers.

So this is the prayer he made:

“I have done something very foolish, Lord.

I came away from home this morn­ing without my prayer book and my memory is such that I cannot recite a single prayer without it.

So this is what I am going to do:

I shall recite the alphabet five times very slowly and you, to whom all prayers are known, can put the letters together to form the prayers I can’t remember.”


And the Lord said to his angels,

“Of all the prayers I have heard today,

this one was undoubtedly the best

because it came from a heart that was simple and sincere.”


The prayer of the frog. Volume – I

Anthony de Mello