Ask me. I know it.

Studying in an Anglican run school I remember saying this prayer every week.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
To give, and not to count the cost,
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will.

We also said many other prayers and there was something comforting in the sound of  prayer being recited by a hundred innocent voices. I must confess though, that most of the time the prayers were said “thoughtlessly” without any attention to what the words actually were. But now after all these years I suddenly realised that most of the prayers are answered……….especially this one by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

When I look back and reflect on the hours of labour I’ve spent on work that has yielded no monetary reward, very little recognition but immeasurable satisfaction of knowing that a job was well done, I realise that this is one of my  prayers that the Lord has truly answered.