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Written by Richard Rohr, a contemporary author.  This is an excerpt from his book “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.”

I believe that God gives us our soul, our deepest identity, our True Self, our unique blueprint, at our own “immaculate conception.” Our unique little bit of heaven is installed by the Manufacturer within the product, at the beginning! We are given a span of years to discover it, to choose it, and to live our own destiny to the full. If we do not, our True Self will never be offered again, in our own unique form … Our soul’s discovery is utterly crucial, momentous, and of pressing importance for each of us and for the world. We do not “make” or “create” our souls; we just “grow” them up. We are the clumsy stewards of our own souls. We are charged to awaken, and much of the work of spirituality is learning how to stay out of the way of this rather natural growing and awakening. We need to unlearn a lot, it seems, to get back to that foundational life that  is “hidden in God.” Yes, transformation is often more about unlearning than learning, which is why the religious traditions call it “conversion” or “repentance”…All we can give back, and all God wants from any of us is to humbly and proudly return the product that we have been given—which is ourselves…This finished product is more valuable to God than it seemingly is to us…Holding our inner blueprint, which is a good description of our soul, and returning it humbly to the world and to God by love and service is indeed of ultimate concern…We are here to give back fully and freely what was first given to us—but now writ personally—by us!

Prayer:

Today’s prayer is from the Gelasian Sacramentary, a book of Christian liturgy, which is the oldest western liturgical book that has survived.  The book is linked to Pope Gelasius I. It was compiled near Paris around 750.

Lord, listen

kindle our souls by your Spirit,

that being filled with your divine gifts,

we may shine like blazing lamps

in the presence of your Son Christ at his coming; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.