Let Me Be Attentive to Myself
Based on St. Basil’s Homily on Deut. 15:9
O gracious Lord,
We human beings are easily led toward sins of the mind.
Help us to be attentive to ourselves,
lest at any time there comes a lawless hidden word in our hearts.
Let me be attentive to myself, dear God,
and neither to what is mine nor what is around me.
Keep me from attention to the flesh,
from pursuit of its good in every manner,
and from admiration of wealth and reputation and power.
Let me be attentive to myself,
neither remaining in mortal things as if they were eternal,
nor despising eternal things as if they were passing.
Keep me in understanding,
that I may know how to apportion your gifts
to the nourishment and covering of my flesh
and to the education, training, and correction of my soul.
Let me be attentive to myself,
lest I turn away to the left or right
and fail in following the royal road.
Keep me in my duties
to lead back the stray,
bind up the broken,
and heal the sick.
Let me be attentive to myself,
sober, able to deliberate, protective of present things,
and cautious toward things to come.
Keep me from the laziness that gives up what is present,
and the presuming enjoyment of things that are not yet.
Let me be attentive to myself,
not frightened, nor being idle,
but vigilant in keeping the gaze of my soul on what is mine.
Keep my eye undistracted,
that I not spend time scrutinizing the weakness that belongs to another.
For if I am attentive to myself,
I may trace a small ordered world of Your Fashioning
and see the great wisdom of my Creator.
Therefore, let us be attentive to ourselves,
that we may be attentive to You
to whom belong glory and dominion unto the ages.
Amen.
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