Sunday Night Prayer

This prayer has been attributed both to Mary Stewart, as in Mary, Queen of Scots, and also to Mary Stewart, a woman living in Colorado in 1904. Honestly, I don't know how the two Mary Stewarts could ever be confused, one with the other (chalk it up to the Internet), but I haven't been able to verify the true source of the prayer, which I first came across several years ago. My favorite part is the last line; at my house, you can often hear me calling it out from my post in the kitchen during Sibling Moments.


Keep us, O God, from pettiness.
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
May we put away all pretense and meet each other, face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous.
Let us take time for all things; make us grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put in action our better impulses, straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize it is the little things of life that create difficulties; that in the big things of life we are as one.
And, O Lord, let us not forget to be kind!


P.S. I am voting for the Mary Stewart, a woman living in Colorado in 1904, attribution. Something tells me the word choice and phraseology don't bear the stamp of a 16th century Latin prayer (which is probably how Mary, Queen of Scots would have prayed, since she was Catholic).