My Prayer

by Louisa May Alcott

　　

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My Prayer was written by Ms. Alcott in the waning years of her life, in October, 1886. "Courage and patience for my fate, suffer patiently and wait." It was featured in Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals (1889).

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Courage and patience, these I ask, Dear Lord, in this my latest strait; For hard I find my ten years' task, Learning to suffer and to wait. Life seems so rich and grand a thing, So full of work for heart and brain, It is a cross that I can bring No help, no offering, but pain. The hard-earned harvest of these years I long to generously share; The lessons learned with bitter tears To teach again with tender care; To smooth the rough and thorny way Where other feet begin to tread; To feed some hungry soul each day With sympathy's sustaining bread. So beautiful such pleasures show, I long to make them mine; To love and labor and to know The joy such living makes divine. But if I may not, I will only ask Courage and patience for my fate, And learn, dear Lord, thy latest task,– To suffer patiently and wait.

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