A Mother’s Prayer
A Mother’s Prayer
How soft and beautiful are your little hands.
How innocently they snuggle up against my breast.
Some day…
Some far-off day these little hands must leave behind
the warmth, the toys of fun-filled childhood days
to find their place in the world…
to take up the work of mankind.
Oh how I long to know these hands will find their place!
That someday they will make their imprint on the world.
That they will be hands used not to hurt, nor to take from others, nor cause dishonor.
But instead will be virtuous hands–hands to heal, or to defend, to build, to create, to pray, to worship, to love.
Hands, that though they may become scarred and worn from work
will have lost none of the tenderness and innocence I see in them now.
It may be that these hands will never become famous, but I pray that the world will be better because of their touch.
David A. Tomko,
Butler, Pennsylvania,
a friend of Maryknoll
From “A Maryknoll Book of Prayer“
