Field of sunflowers (Spain) by Diego Delso [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
Let this be my only consolation – that wherever I am,
You my Lord are loved and praised.
The trees indeed love You without knowing You.
Without being aware of Your presence,
the tiger lilies and cornflowers proclaim that they love You.
The beautiful dark clouds ride slowly across the sky
musing on You like children who do not know
what they are dreaming of as they play.
In the midst if them all, I know You and I know of Your Presence.
In them and in me I know of the love that they do not know
and, what is greater, I am abashed by the presence of Your love in me.
O kind and terrible love which You have given me
and which could never be in my heart if You did not love me!
In the midst of these beings that have never offended You,
I am loved by You, most of all as one who has offended You.
I am seen by You under the sky
and my offenses have been forgotten by You.
Thomas Merton, 1915 – 1968, American Catholic writer and Trappist monk
______________________
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
prayer & verse 
