PRAYERS and MEDITATIONS

Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays,
and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons;
it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky;
and the earth, and all things that are in it:
tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread,
and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

I saw a stranger yesterday.
I put food in the eating place -
Drink in the drinking place -
And in the blessed name of the Triune
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones,
And the lark said in her song:
Often, often, often goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.
— Irish prayer

I wlll light my fire today in the presence of the holy, heavenly angels,
In the presence of Gabriel most beautiful of form,
In the presence of Uriel of all beauty,
Without hatred, without envy, without jealousy,
Without fear, without dread of anything under the sun,
And with the Holy Son of God as my refuge.
Lord, kindle in my innermost heart the ember of love for my enemies,
For my relatives, for my friends,
For the wise, for the foolish, for the wretched.
— Irish prayer