GOD IS EVERYWHERE 

Inspiring Writings That
Reveal His Nearness And Love
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(Selected by Unity Librarian, Harold Whaley)
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. GOD IS EVERYWHERE 

Can we hear God in a robin's song? 
    In the laughter of a child at play? 
Can we see Him in the silver symmetry 
    of a snowflake or in a sunset? 
Perhaps He dwells within our souls 
    or in the love we share with friends. 
Or, as some claim, He might be heard 
    in the thundering chords 
    of the organ on Sunday 
    or in the patter of raindrops in April. 
But God cannot be found in one place, 
    one day, one person. 
God is truly in all people, all places, 
    all creatures - all creation. 
We feel His presence wherever we go, 
    in whatever we do... 
    because God is everywhere.

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from I AM THERE

Do you need Me? 
I am there. 
You cannot sec Me, yet I am the light you see by. 
You cannot hear Me, Yet I speak through your voice. 
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands. 
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways. 
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.  
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries. 
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know 
Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.  
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer. 
When you need Me, I am there. 
Even if you deny Me, I am there. 
Even when you feel most alone, I am there. 
Even in your fears, I am there. Even in your pain, I am there. 
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.  
I am in you, and you are in Me. . . . 

                     James Dillet Freeman

 

 
 

"How do you know," a Bedouin asked, 
"that there is a God?" 
In the same way," he replied,  
"that I know, on looking at the sand, 
when a man or beast 
has crossed the desert -- 
by His footprints 
in the world around me." 

Henry Parry Liddon 

 
 
 
 
 

. WHEATFIELD  

There never was a sight more lovely  
Than a field of growing wheat.  
Its beauty never ceases, never wanes;  
My soul absorbs its peace.  
A wheat field is the place  
Where I most nearly see the wind;  
Very low the whole field bows,  
Then rises proud and tall again.  
A wheat field is a sea of quiet waves  
Flowing freely, though rooted to the earth.  
And then when harvest-time has come  
And man walks forth to claim its promised good,  
He cuts the grain and gathers it in sheaves,  
He does but change its beauty --  
Here now stand rows of warm-brown altars!  
The field becomes a holy place  
At sight of which my heart cries out  
To thank the Giver of all good. 

  Myrtle Olga Moll    

 
 

 
 
 

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LOVE ALL GOD'S CREATION  

Love all God's creation, both the whole and every  
grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light.  
Love the animals, love the plants, love each  
separate thing If you love each thing you will perceive  
the mystery of God in all; and when once you perceive  
this, you will from that time on grow every day  
to a fuller understanding of it until you come at last  
to love the whole world with a love that will then  
be all-embracing and universal.  

                   Feodor Dostoevski 

 
 
 
 

. God is an utterable sigh, planted  in the depths of the soul.  

   Jean Paul Richtcr 

 
 
 
 
 

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?   
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four,   
..and each moment then,   
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my   
..own face in the glass,   
I find letters dropped in the street, and every one   
..is signed by God's name,   
And 1 leave them where they are, for I know that   
..wheresoe'er I go   
Others will punctually come forever and forever.   

                       Walt Whitman 

 
 
 
 
 

I sought to hear the voice of God  
And climbed the topmost steeple,  
But God declared: "Go down again --  
I dwell among the people."  

             John Henry Newman 

 
 
 
 

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VESTIGIA  

I took a day to search for God,  
And found Him not. But as I trod  
By rocky ledge, through woods untamed.  
I saw His footprint in the sod.  

Then suddenly, all unaware,  
Far off in the deep shadows, where  
A solitary hermit thrush  
Sang through the holy twilight hush  
I heard His voice upon the air.  

And even as I marvelled how  
God gives us Heaven here and now,  
In a stir of wind that hardly shook  
The poplar leaves beside the brook -  
His hand was light upon my brow.  

At last with evening as I turned  
Homeward, and thought what I had learned  
And all that there was still to probe -  
I caught the glory of His robe  
Where the last fires of sunset burned.  

Back to the world with quickening start  
I looked and longed for any part  
In making saving Beauty be.  
And from that kindling ecstasy  
I knew God dwelt within my heart.  

Bliss Carman 

 
 
 

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A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF GOD 
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They say that God lives very high!
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God. And why? 
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And if you dig down in the mines
You never see Him in the gold, 
Though from Him all that's glory shines. 
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God is so good, He wears a fold 
Of heaven and earth across His face  
Like secrets kept, for love, untold. 
But still I feel that His embrace 

Slides down by thrills, through all things made,  
Through sight and sound of every place: 
As if my tender mother laid 
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On my shut lids, her kisses' pressure,  
Half waking me at night; and said, 
Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?"  

              Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

 
 
 

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The finger of God touches your life
when you make a friend.

                Mary Dawson Hughes 

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...
from BEAUTY  
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The waves roll and smash themselves into nothing 
..as they crawl upon the beach. 
You stand there and look out.  
The sea and sky seem to fuse into one  
  at the farthest point; wherever that may be.  
The bright sun reflecting across the glassy water  
..splitting the blue inro two converging masses.   
The loud but pleasing thunder as the waves collide 
..among the smooth time-worn rodes.  
The foam bubbling over like a giant sea monster  
..emerging from beneath the surface 
..and spreading out to swish bctween your toes.  
And think of the one who created all this. 
How magnificent He must be; beyond our comprehension. 

                              Glen Bayley 

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The sea is God's thoughts spread out.   

                    Charles Morgan 

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from GOD IS: I AM  

God is light: the light of brilliant noontide and the
wonder of the stars in a clear night sky, the gleam   
of the flickering candle and the flash of the lightning, 
the sole source of color, the light of Truth, the light
of wisdom and understanding, and physical, mental,
and spiritual illumination of all sorts and times and
places. Light is God.
..
God is love: the affection of friend for friend, the  
tenderness of mother for child, the adoration of the
lover for his love, the faithful devotion of a dog to his
master, the deep and abiding love of the long and
happily married husband and wife. These are all but
faint suggestions of the power and the limitlessness of
the love of God for each human spirit. Love is God. 

                        Gordon Parker 

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THE CITY
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Outside my window, there are no mountain streams or fields of flowers.
In these places, I know God dwells in all His majesty. But I am of the city.
Beneath my window, buses wheeze to a halt and trucks rumble by, 
delivering their goods. During the night, instead of the music of crickets, I
hear the clang and clatter of steel against steel as wheels of a freight train
roar over tracks two blocks away. The morning song of birds mingles with 
the din of people going to work, and even the sunrise is blocked from view 
by concrete giants, twenty stories high. The sounds I hear would be harsh 
to some. And asphalt and neon might appear barren. But just as the seed
finds a home in God's soil, so my home is in the city. I have grown up 
thrilling to its heartbeat, ever confident that its rhythm, too, is the work of
God. 

                               Tina Hacker   

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God cannot be found on a microscopic slide,
                   but in the hearts of men. 

                            Edgar Magnin 

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APRIL AFTERNOON 
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The hills of spring proclaim
God alive and near -
And I lift my heart 
In paeans of praise to Him 
For returning orioles
And nodding daffodils! 
God speaks - 
The earth resounds 
With the cadence of freshets 
And wind rejoicing in new green trees. 
It is evident there is only Life. 
To be vibrantly awake 
To this renascent beauty, 
Knowing there are forever new beginnings,  
Is ample cause for celebrating 
The overwhelming joy of being 
On this astounding April afternoon! 

                       Harold Whaley 

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SIGNATURE 
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Everywhere I find the signature, the autograph 
of God, and He will never deny His own handwriting.
God hath set His tabernacle in the dewdrop as surely
as in the sun. No man can any more create the smallest
flower than he could create the greatest world. 

   Joseph Parker 

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A church is God between four walls. 

                    Victor Hugo 

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RELIGION IN THE CURRICULUM 
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We teach it in arithmetic by accuracy. 
We teach it in language by learning to say  
..what we mean -- yea, yea or nay, nay. 
We teach it in history by humanity. 
We teach it in geography by breadth of mind. 
We teach it in handicraft by thoroughness.
We teach it in astronomy by reverence. 
We teach it by good manners to one another
..and by truthfulness in all things. 

                       L. P. Jacks 

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LETTER FROM CAMP
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Dear Mom and Dad 
and Bill and Glad: 
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Caught a fish.
Camp's a wow! 
Sleeping out is grand.
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Swimming's fun. 
Hiking's fine. 
Food is full of sand. 
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Fire at night. 
Moon is bright. 
I'm all right.
God's at hand. 
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Have to run.
Your son ... Brad. 
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MIRACLE 
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We muse on miracles who look 
But lightly on a rose! 
Who gives it fragrance or the glint 
Of glory that it shows! 
Who holds it here between the sky 
And earth's rain-softened sod!  
The miracle of one pale rose 
Is proof enough of God! 

            Edith Daley 

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I do not bclieve in God, for that implies
..........................an effort of the will --
.........................I see God everywhere! 

                              Jean Favre 

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I HAVE HEARD THE SONG
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I have not seen the robin, but I know he is there because
I heard him singing through my window from the treetop outside.
I have not seen God. But I have looked at my child's eyes, and 
..have been overwhelmed by the miracle of unfolding life.
I have watched the trees bedeck themselves with new garbs 
..of green in the spring, and have been stirred by the miracle of 
..continual rebirth.
I have looked at the stars, and have been overcome by the miracle 
..of the grandeur and majesty of the universe.
I know that God exists, because I have heard the song of His 
..presence from all the treetops of creation. 

                            Ben Zion Bokser 

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Some people talk about finding God --
               ........as if He could get lost.
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  ........Author Unknown 
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GOD'S COUNTRY 
Who shares his life's pure pleasures,
And walks the honest road, 
Who trades with heaping measures,
And lifts his brother's load,
Who turns the wrong down bluntly,
And lends the right a hand, 
He dwells in God's own country,  
He tills the Holy Land. 

             Louis F. Benson 

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It is only by forgetting yourself
that you draw near to God.

         Hcnry David Thoreau 

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.There is a God within us, and we glow
                    when He stirs us.

                          Ovid 

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from SO LONG AS THERE ARE HOMES  
So long as there are homes where fires burn 
And there is bread; 
So long as there are homes where lamps are lit 
And prayers are said; 
Although people falter through the dark - 
And nations grope - 
With God himself back of these little homes - 
We have sure hope.

Grace Noll Crowell

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THE JEWISH MOTHER 

Jewish custom bids the Jewish mother, after her
preparations for the Sabbath have been completed on
Friday evening, kindle the Sabbath lamp. That is 
symbolic of the Jewish woman's influence on her own home,
and through it upon larger circles. She is the inspirer 
of a pure family life whose hallowing influences are 
incalculable; she is the center of all spiritual endeavors,
the confidante and fosterer of every undertaking. To
her the Talmudic sentence applies: "It is woman alone 
through whom God's blessings are vouchsafed to a house." 

                  Henrietta Szold

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But if the great sun move not of himself, but is as 
an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, 
but by some invisible power; how then can this one 
small heart beat, this one small brain think thoughts;
unless God does that beating, does that thinking,
does that living, and not I! 

                                   Herman Melville 

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I sought my soul,
But my soul I could not see.
I sought my God, 
But my God eluded me.
I sought my brother,
And I found all three. 

                  William Blake 

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GOD OUR FRIEND 
In this vast universe 
There is but one supreme truth - 
That God is our friend! 
By that truth meaning is given 
To the remote stars, the numberless centuries, 
The long and heroic struggle of mankind . . . 
O my Soul, dare to trust this truth! 
Dare to rest in God's kindly arms, 
Dare to look confidently into His face, 
Then launch thyself into life unafraid!
Knowing thou art within thy Father's house,
That thou art surrounded by His love,
Thou wilt become master of fear, 
Lord of life, conqueror even of death! 

                  Joshua Loth Liebman 

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I SAW GOD WASH THE WORLD 
I saw God wash the world last night 
With his sweet showers on high, 
And then, when morning came, I saw 
Him hang it out to dry. 
..
He washed each tiny blade of grass 
And every trembling tree; 
He flung his showers against the hill, 
And swept the billowing sea. 
...
The white rose is a cleaner white. 
The red rose is more red, 
Since God washed every fragrant face 
And put them all to bed. 
..
There's not a bird, there's not a bec 
That wings along the way 
But is a cleaner bird and bee 
Than it was yesterday. 
...
I saw God wash the world last night.
Ah, would he had washed me 
As clean of all my dust and dirt
As that old white birch tree. 

                William L. Stidger 

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WATCHING CLOUDS 
Whenever I see clouds forming pictures in the sky, 
I wonder if God is experimenting--seeing what new 
works He would like to invent and trying out different
shapes and sizes. I wonder if this is how our world began.
Perhaps God practised first with clouds perfecting and 
polishing His ideas until He was ready to begin the Creation. 

                            Blanche Harris 

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I can see how it might be possible
for a man to look down upon the earth.
and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive
how he could look up into the heavens
and say there is no God. 

                      Abraham Lincoln 

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GOD'S MUSIC 
God's music is in our ears everywhere in His beautiful 
world. We hear it in hurrying streams, sighing winds, 
singing hirds, falling waters, and lapping waves. But 
deeper still we hear it in our hearts when we stop to listen.
It comes in martial strains calling us to work and to the 
service of our fellow men. It comes in softer melody 
calling us to rest and contemplation. Again it comes in 
triumphant strains from another world when the gates 
openand loved ones enter in . . . .
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There is music in a mother's love, a child's trust, a happy 
home, a brave man's battle for a better world, an unselfish
act, a kindly deed. There is "a mighty music echoing, far 
and near." 

                             Helen R. Emmons 

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God is at the organ;
..........I can hear
......A mighty music echoing, 
..........Far and near. 

             Egbert Sandford 

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A boy was taken by his father on a camping trip in the
Adirondacks. They hired a guide, left the beaten trails,
and spent a week in the heart of the woods. The boy 
was greatly impressed by the ability of the guide to 
see all sorts of things, invisible to the ordinary eye.
One day, after the guide had been pointing out some of 
the hidden secrets of nature, the lad asked with an 
awed voice, "Mister, can you see God?"
...The old man replied, "My boy, it's getting so I can 
hardly see anything else when I'm out in the woods." 

                             Walter Dudley Cavert 

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When I heard 
.......the church bells ring
I thought I heard 
.......the voice of God. 

    Albert Schweitzer 

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HE WHO OWNS A GARDEN 
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He who owns a garden, 
However small it be, 
Whose hands have planted in it 
Flower or bush or tree, 
He who watches patiently 
The growth from nurtured sod,
Who thrills at newly opened bloom 
Is very close to God. 

          Katherine Edelman 

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Nature is the art of God. 

Dante 

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When you have shut your doors,
and darkened your room,
remember never to say that you are alone;
for God is within and your genius is within,
and what need have they of light to see
what you are doing?

                            Epictetus 

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THE OPEN DOOR 
You, my son, 
Have shown me God. 
..
Your kiss upon my cheek
 

Has made me feel the gentle touch 
Of Him who leads us on.
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The memory of your smile, when young, 
Reveals His face,
As mellowing years come on apace.
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And when you went before, 
You left the gates of heaven ajar 
That I might glimpse, 
Approaching from afar, 
The glories of His grace. 
..
Hold, son, my hand, 
Guide me along the path, 
That, coming, 
I may stumble not, 
Nor roam, 
Nor fail to show the way 
Which leads us home. 
 

                   Grace Coolidge 

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CLOSE TO GOD 
Here on these hills no sense of loneliness
Touches my soul. When the long days are fine,
And I can see for miles on miles the line 
Of far-off mountains where their summits press 
Against the arching azure of the skies. 
Or when rain blots all objects out from me  
But the dim outline of the nearest tree, 
And little sounds so strangely magnifies, 
I am content. Peace on my soul descends. 
No unfilled longings rise in me to choke 
My will. I smell the fragrance of damp sod  
Whose pungency with forest odors blends; 
And from my shoulders, like an outworn cloak, 
My troubles fall, so close to me seems God. 

                  P. L. Montgomcry 

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GOD'S MOST PRECIOUS GIFT 
God's gift to us? 
What could it be? 
The sky, the ocean, 
the symmetry of a rose in bloom? 
No, not these. . . 
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The smile upon a child's face, 
a happy home, 
a corner in the garden 
where we can pause 
and reflect 
on life's designs?  
No, not these. . . 
..
God's gift to us 
is a mighty task-- 
to finish His world. 
..
We have songs yet to sing, 
cities to build, 
highways to construct. 
We have scientific facts to discover, 
the atom to tame, 
and the secrets of nature 
to explore. 
..
God's most precious gift to us 
is opportunity. 
In finishing His world-- 
we come close to Him. 

        George Webster Douglas 

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ALL GOODNESS 
God is a light 
...that is never darkened, 
An unwearied life 
...that cannot die, 
A fountain always flowing, 
...a garden of life, 
A seminary of wisdom, 
...a radical beginning
...of all goodness. 

         Francis Quarles 

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The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil. . . .

                        Gerard Manley Hopkins 

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THE GREATEST FORCE 
When God wants a great work done in the world or a great
wrong rightcd, He goes about it in a very unusual way. 
...
He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth 
His thunderbolts. Instead, He has a helpless baby born, 
perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. 
...
And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart,
and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits.
...
The greatest forces in the world are not the
earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces
in the world are babies. 

                             E. T. Sullivan 

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Who has not found the heaven below 
Will fail of it above. 
God's residence is next to mine -- 
His furniture is love. 

Emily Dickinson

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GOD IS EVERYWHERE 
In a song on the air
The rose in bloom 
A prayer in a quiet room. 
In the rain and thunder
In the sunshine from the sky
He is in the sea, 
In the heart of You and Me. 
In the touch of Your hand
In a smile 
In the face of each child. 
He is in each sharing deed
And gentle word. 
He is in the darkest night
And in the echo on a windy hill. 

       Katherine Ann Dunleavey 

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PRAYER FOR PROTECTION
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The light of God surrounds me;
The love of God enfolds me;
The power of God protects me;
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am, God is!
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Silent Unity