A Pilgrim's Prayer

If some things do not happen as they are scheduled,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If I should get tired and inclined to become short tempered

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If my meal in a foreign country may not be to my particular liking,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If any delays should occur and I should become anxious,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If some other pilgrim is making noise so that I cannot hear the guide,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

When I ask that person to be a bit more quiet If someone takes a better seat or more choice place,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If I find myself last in line or waiting, Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If the person in front of me buys the last item which I really wanted

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If I should get a chance to help another person, who always seems to be annoying me,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

If someone is always the "last one on the bus" and I am always on time,

Lord may I remember that I am a pilgrim not a Tourist!

But Lord especially let me remember that what I find objectionable in another is really what you oft times find objectionable in me

And let me remember this and forgive the other,

As you are continually forgiving me!

      Amen

The Tourist's Prayer

our trafalgar travel Director Cat Griffith shared this prayer to us and i love it. 

The Tourist's Prayer

Heavenly Father, look down on us your humble, obedient tourist servants who are doomed to travel this earth, taking photographs, sending postcards and buying souvenirs. We beseech you, O Lord, to see that our plane is not hijacked, our luggage is not lost and our overweight baggage goes unnoticed. Give us this day divine guidance in our selection of hotels. We pray that the telephones work, and that the operators speak our language. 

Lead us to good, inexpensive restaurants where the wine is included in the price of the meal. Give us the wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand. Make the natives love us for what we are and not for what we can contribute to their worldly goods. Grant us the strength to visit the museums, cathedrals, palaces, and if we skip an historic monument to take a nap after lunch, have mercy on us for our flesh is weak. 

Dear God, protect our wives from "bargains" they don't need or can't afford. Lead them not into temptation for they know not what they do. 

Almighty Father, keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and comparing them to us. Save them from making fools of themselves in night-clubs. Above all, please do not forgive them their trespasses for they know exactly what they do. 

And when our voyage is over, grant us the favour of finding someone who will look at our holiday snaps and listen to our stories, so our lives as tourists will not have been in vain. 

Amen.

Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess

Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.

Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so. Amen