UPON SEEING A BEAUTIFUL PERSON

Lord, I praise You for divine beauty

reflected in the form of this person.

Now train my heart so that my response

to their beauty would not be twisted

downward into envy or desire,

but would instead be directed upward

in worship of You, their Creator —

as was your intention for all such beauty

before the breaking of the world.

UPON EXPERIENCING CHEERING LAUGHTER

I praise You, O God, for these

inexplicable gifts of mirth

and merriment and laughter,

delighting in such foretaste

of the wellsprings of eternal joy

that ever bubble and flow

with Your glad Trinity.

UPON TASTING A PLEASURABLE FOOD

For the infinite variety of your creative expression,

I praise You, O God. You have made

even the necessary act of eating

a nurturing comfort and

a perpetual delight.