In yesterday’s post I shared something about prayer.  I think it appropriate to do the same today.

The Poco a Poco friars are taking the summer off as a way of marking the year of Jubilee, so I’ve been listening to some of their older podcasts.  This week I’ve been listening to their series from May 2022 on the spirituality of the recovery movement.  Early in the first episode, one of the friars quotes the Serenity Prayer credited to Reinhold Niebuhr.  Most of us know the opening lines of the prayer . . . most of us assume that’s all there is to the prayer.  Turns out that there was an addition made to the prayer (many sources say it’s not from Niebuhr) that I think are really interesting.  Here’s the “whole” thing (referred to as Niebuhr’s “poem”):

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely
happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen

If nothing else, it’s a really nice addition, memorable in its own way, especially the “reasonably happy . . . supremely happy” bit at the end.  There’s something very real, down-to-earth about the whole thing (which is one reason why I think the recovery movement has a lot to offer the Church . . . or to help the Church see what it already has).