Some weeks ago a companion and I drove to the shore.\u00a0 As is my custom, I sought to start out with a travel blessing.\u00a0 Asking God\u2019s protection on travelers is a traditional Catholic practice that has deep roots in the scriptural witness; it is also, as I discovered many years ago, a profoundly meaningful practice for our own lives.\u00a0 The prayer\u2019s importance had been brought home to me, once again, last summer, in an especially painful way, as a colleague of mine was killed by a drunk driver while on her way home from work.<\/p>\n
For myself, I had copied many years ago one of the prayers from the \u201cOrder for the Blessing of Travelers\u201d in the Book of Blessings<\/em>, adapting the wording to the fact that I prayed this prayer in my car, usually without a priest, deacon or lay minister present.\u00a0 My prayer reads: When I handed the prayer card I keep on the dashboard of my car to my companion to read before heading to the shore, he stumbled over the prayer\u2019s ending, with its quick transition from the particular journey at hand to the end of life\u2019s journey and our \u201ceternal haven.\u201d\u00a0 My companion suggested that a comma was needed between the two lines, with their separate destinations.\u00a0 Not being one to stifle people\u2019s prayer wishes I handed him a pencil for him to introduce a comma in the prayer, between our immediate \u201cdestination\u201d for the day and our coming to the \u201ceternal haven of salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n Days later, when I picked up the prayer card before setting out in my car again, the newly introduced comma began to trouble me.\u00a0 I realized that this comma interfered — not only with proper grammar (a minor concern when it comes to authentic prayer) — but also with the deep truth that our life\u2019s journeys ultimately are one<\/strong>.\u00a0 It seems to me to be one of the true gifts of liturgical prayer to insist on reminding us of that, again and again.\u00a0 Would we, in our own prayers, routinely conclude with a gesture toward the end of our lives? \u00a0And yet we cannot ever know when a prayer might be our last, or when an immediate destination might will become our final one.\u00a0 Witness the example of my colleague who was killed by a drunk driver on her way home for dinner.\u00a0 I have learned to appreciate the many liturgical prayers that, with their strong eschatological endings, encourage us to be mindful of the fusion of horizons that is a part of our journey.\u00a0 The journey, after all, is always deeply one.<\/p>\n One example of this is the Church\u2019s night prayer, Compline (i.e., that which completes the day).\u00a0 Written deep into this prayer is the fusion of two horizons, namely the coming of the night and the coming of our own ending.\u00a0 As we confront the closure of a particular day and our falling asleep, the prayer opens to our last falling asleep from which we will not awaken in this earthly life.\u00a0 Simeon\u2019s song, \u201cLord, now you let your servant go in peace,\u201d is one moment in this liturgical fusion of horizons.\u00a0 There are others throughout Compline.\u00a0 Some of the traditional Compline hymns expressly hold the night and the hour of our death together.\u00a0 A contemporary rendition of the Compline hymn Te lucis ante terminum<\/em> puts it thus: \u201cWe praise you, Father, for your gift of dusk and nightfall over earth, foreshadowing the mystery of death that leads to endless day.\u201d\u00a0 The concluding prayer also fuses these two horizons:\u00a0 \u201cMay the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.\u201d<\/p>\n I have now removed the comma my companion penciled into my text for the blessing of travelers.\u00a0 I will claim that my life\u2019s journey is one.\u00a0 But every time I now pray this blessing before setting out in my car I remember the troublesome comma, and its lure to think life\u2019s journey can ever be safe, or safely apportioned.\u00a0 That is not possible.\u00a0 Our only safety for all our journeys to lead us ever more deeply into God\u2019s own life and presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asking God\u2019s protection on travelers is a traditional Catholic practice that has deep roots in the scriptural witness; it is also, as I discovered many years ago, a profoundly meaningful practice for our own lives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[53,615],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-spirituality","tag-blessings","tag-compline"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAll-powerful and merciful God,
\n<\/em>you led the children of Israel on dry land,
\n<\/em>parting the waters of the sea;
\n<\/em>you guided the Magi to your Son by a star.
\n<\/em>Help us and give us a safe journey.
\n<\/em>Under your protection let us reach our destination
\n<\/em>and come at last to the eternal haven of salvation.
\n<\/em>We ask this through Christ our Lord.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n