Give us this day, Lord, our daily miracle.

Even if we are incapable of noticing it because our mind is focused on great deeds and conquests. Even if we are too preoccupied with day-to-day life to know that our path was changed by it.

And when we are sad, help us to keep our eyes open to the life around us: a flower opening, stars in the sky, the distant singing of a bird or a child’s voice nearby.

Help us to understand that there are certain things so important that we have to discover them without anyone’s help, and that we should not feel alone and helpless, because You are there with us, ready to intervene if our feet go perilously close to the abyss.

Help us to continue onward despite the fear and to accept the inexplicable despite our need to explain and know everything.

Help us to understand that love’s strength lies in its contradictions, and that love lasts because it changes and not because it stays the same and never faces any challenges.

Help us to know that when our legs are tired, we can keep walking thanks to the strength in our hearts and that when our hearts are tired, we can still carry on thanks to the strength of our faith.

Help us to be humble when we receive and joyful when we give.

Help us to never be imprisoned by the things we think we know because we know so little about fate and may this lead us to behave impeccably, making use of the four cardinal virtues: boldness, elegance, love and friendship.

Give us this day, Lord, our daily miracle.

Just as there are many paths to the top of a mountain, so there are many paths to achieving our goal. Help us to recognize the only one that is worth following, the one on which love is to be found.

Help us to awaken the love sleeping within us before we awaken love in other people. Only then will we be able to attract affection, enthusiasm and respect.

Help us to distinguish between battles that are ours, battles into which we are propelled against our will, and battles that we cannot avoid because fate has placed them in our path.

May our eyes open so that we can see that no two days are ever the same. Each one brings with it a different miracle, which allows us to go on breathing, dreaming and walking in the sun.

May our ears also open to hear the very apposite words that suddenly emerge from the mouth of one of our fellows, even though we haven’t asked for his advice and he has no idea what is going on in our soul at that moment.

And when we open our mouth, may we speak not just the language of men, but the language of angels too, saying: “miracles do not go against the laws of nature; we only think that because we do not know nature’s laws.”

Therefore, Lord, give us this day our daily miracle and forgive us if we are not always capable of recognizing it.

Culled from the book Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho.

Mariam Shittu