Clarity in Religious Practice-Romano Guardini

O God, you bear all creation over the abyss of nothingness and infuse it with your power, so that it moves and lives. You have given a spark of clarity to all things, for only from you, the Father of light, do they receive their truth and their worth.

All things are moved by your breath and filled with your mystery. Each thing guides the spirit of man beyond itself to a being higher than itself, and allows man's heart to sense a power that does not come from his own resources.

Thus, pictures and concepts of the divine originate everywhere among peoples and individuals. Frequently they hold a deep meaning that moves the heart and promises goodness, but they also may hold evil and confusion that lead to error.

And so I beseech you to open my heart to the mystery that everywhere declares itself; but guard it also from the seduction to which it may give rise. Make my conscience secure, that at all times it may call the good good and the evil evil. Enlighten my mind so that it may distinguish that which leads to you, the true Holy One, and that which leads away from you into error and deceit.

Amen.

(From Prayers from Theology by Romano Guardini)